Don't Be a Snob

Last Sunday on my way home, I stopped at the Common Market Food Coop, as do many farmers traveling the 270/70 corridor to and from the MD/DC/VA markets. My day had already been miserable thanks to the weather. I wouldn’t have even stopped if it had not been for a few items needed for a get-together later in the week. As I stood in the check-out line behind a fellow farmer whom I knew from attending another market in previous years, she looked into my cart and said, “Hmmm, ice cream and chips…that’s healthy.”Already physically and emotionally drained, I ignored her snide remark and the urge to argue my choices. The chips were certified organic and I knew the farmers who produced the milk and fruit for the gelato. If I’m going to eat ice cream, my choice will add to my fellow producers’ prosperity as well as align with my values.Having been floating the topic of food bullying for Dishing the Dirt this week, this encounter cemented my choice.Bullying, snobbery, and judgement—we’ve both dished it out and received at one time or another. I’ll admit to being guilty of all three myself, however, I’m choosing more to follow my heart instead of the crowd as the years go by. There can be no productivity, forward motion or resolution with the attitude of my way or the highway.As humans, we started out with “Yay! We’ve got food,” and over 200,000 years progressed to Portlandiaesque consumerism where our chickens have names, wear sweaters and live better than 20% of the world’s population.In March, I broached the subject of divisiveness from the perspective of culture, but the issue is becoming far more pervasive, enveloping our food choices, creating an us versus them culture based upon our chosen diets. You want to be vegan or vegetarian? That’s your choice, but that does not make my choice to raise, eat and sell meat inherently wrong.In a 2018 Food Literacy study conducted by Michigan State University, 87% of the respondents admit to their buying decisions being influenced by food labels and marketing speak.  While I am a firm believer in production transparency, fearmongering has become a routine tactic.The biggest offender in my opinion—labeling and advertising products as Non-GMO or gluten-free when there is no GMO version or gluten to begin with! While consumers may fall for such bullying tactics designed to sway their purchases, producers struggle with the decisions in regard to their production practices.Nowhere has this become more evident to me than on multi-generational farms. Recognizing consumer demand for more environmentally conscious products, the latest generation of farmers struggle in succession from their parents’ and grandparents’ way of farming. It’s tough to watch as a customer asks a young dairy farmer if their cows are entirely grass-fed and then haughtily walk away at the word “no”.  They don’t want to hear how after five generations, the farm is transitioning to organic or grows all their own feeds.  They, as non-farmers, do not understand the impossibility of switching a grain-dependent herd over to solely grass in a single season. To implement such changes can take years, breeding for traits that favor grass-based production.Even more disturbing is the trend to vilify farmers for their agricultural practices. While being interviewed recently, the host referred to conventional farmers as “devils”. I had to interrupt to clarify that while there are farming practices that are not congruent with our personal values, they are still farmers. In the wake of the horrific flooding in the Midwest and Plain earlier this spring, the images of drowned livestock, pastures with several feet of water, ice, sand and silt, barns and farmhouses underwater had me in tears each time they flashed online. I wasn’t asking if they used antibiotics or chemicals or regenerative practices. Mother Nature didn’t distinguish between a good or bad farmer based upon the ways they chose to farm. For me, they were fellow farmers and my heart ached for what was happening to them.Everything is a label, a judgement—right down to the choices of what foods to purchase. When asking farmers about their foods, don’t be a snob by walking away as soon as you’ve decided that the buzzwords do not match your criteria. There are plenty of farmers using organic, biodynamic and regenerative practices yet choose not to be certified. I’ve been to plenty of certified farms who have egregious labor violations, pollute their community with an overload of nutrients by raising far more animals than the environment can support and use and excessive amount of CO2-producing inputs such as plastics and fuel. Yet the food snob will not take into consideration any of these factors…only the label, and then judge others for not also purchasing likewise.Award-winning journalist Tamar Haspel put it best when she tweeted, “There is DANGER here because consumers take away the idea that ONLY stuff with a label like ORGANIC or BIODYNAMIC is RESPONSIBLY GROWN. When in reality some CONVENTIONAL stuff IS and some of that other stuff ISN’T. You can’t know.”Well, you can know when you shop at the farmers market and take the time to get to know your farmers, their practices and their beliefs. While I don’t pretend to agree with everyone’s way of farming, truly making a difference boils down to actions instead of accusations.