Public Image of Farmers has risen dramatically

Marjory Wildcraft
Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin
edited October 2020 in Other News

Times are changing...

Farming and agriculture has risen to the top in the 20 years that Gallop has been polling Americans on their views of various professions.

Hah! People are starting to "get it" about how important food is. Maybe those empty shelves on grocery stores had an impact, huh?

It's about time!

Guess who was rated the worst? The Government and Pharmaceutical industry.



Comments

  • Melissa Swartz
    Melissa Swartz Posts: 270 ✭✭✭

    It's interesting that the 3 top industries have to do with food:

    1. Agriculture
    2. Grocery
    3. Restaurant

    Also interesting that Sports declined significantly, but mainly with Republicans, so that tells me it's not society waking up, but more about politics.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin

    DUring the Cuban "Special Period" - a.k.a. economic collapse, humble gardeners became the most important people in the neighborhoods and doctors and lawyers fell in social ranking.

  • AngelaOston
    AngelaOston Posts: 249 ✭✭✭

    Thats so sad. Well hopefully they start realizing its healthier to be unsanitized.

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @greyfurball good point re the vegetables not looking perfect. Some people's expectations are ridiculous and grocery stores, supermarkets and the like are largely to blame. In Australia, some chains have started "The Odd Bunch" nothing odd about them but they are "not perfect". Mainly things like bananas, avocados, apples, capsicum and the like but they are bagged up and sold very cheaply. We really do need to educate the mob to embrace real, natural and healthy, not perfect and shiny.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @greyfurball I remember my niece from the city, at the age of about 6, not wanting to eat a carrot from our garden cause it came from the dirt and not the grocery store. You should have seen the look on her little face when she asked about visiting the pigs and I said we ate them already. No idea at all that bacon and pork chops were pig meat.

    Far too many of us have become so far removed from the source of our food that we have no understanding of the work involved in producing it. Hopefully some of the people who started gardens for the first time this year will have a much better appreciation of farmers, how hard they work and how valuable that wonderful produce is.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    When I was in Wyoming, I did some field work for a farmer who grew onions. I was told that this work was usually done by Mexicans who came up.

    Anyway, I and several others were picking onions in the field. It was not difficult, but hot & really didn't pay a lot as it was piece work. What they told us is to only put onions of a specific size & shape into the bags. It seemed wrong to me to waste so much food. I grew up eating all shapes & sizes of veggies from the garden.

    One thing that made me feel better in a way is that at least they would feed the ground as compost.

    I heard of someone refusing to let their children go see chickens (on a small farm) & pick eggs, since they might find out that eggs came out of a chicken's butt. They had told their kid(s) that the eggs come from the back of Sobey's (large grocery chain). Its very sad.

    On the other end, the first time we butchered pigs, our oldest, at 2 1/2, knew that we would eat our pigs as sausage, etc. While the process began not far from her window, she set her little table with 3 plates, forks & knives and put her piggy bank & plush piggy on them. When asked what she was doing, she said, making lunch for us. 😁 She knew from a young age. She had trouble with us butchering some hens many years later, though. 🤷‍♀️ She refused to take part. She has no problem with eating meat. It was probably just that she didn't think of those as food.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin

    My mom was a young woman living in NY City during WWII. There were food rations and all sorts of controls. Networks bringing in fresh foods directly from farmers - much like today's CSA's - sprang up. My mom lived in the Village a part of all the artists, writers, and creatives who were more 'fringe' so this was more of just an alternative way to get supplies versus something bad. Anyway, my mom told me the quality of food she got was truely amazing - the meats and vegetables were suprior to anything she had ever seen sold in stores. Back then no one worried about varying shapes... I was fascinated that evne in NY City in the 1940's getting food directly and fresh from the local sources was still better than shopping.

    Yes, as our world changes there is a lot of basic things, like carrots have dirt on them, that people will be learning about.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭✭✭

    About time Farmers get the respect they deserve, it is not an easy life!

    According to my dad I come from a line of Farmers and I learned early on the true taste of vegetables because my dad would grow our vegetables among the flowers in the front yard. I remember one time when my dad's neighbor asked him how many carrots he could get off of one plant. 😕

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @Lisa K :( Well, at least the neighbor asked? It was an opportunity to educate & give a reason for the neighbor to find out more.

    This would still not be too far fetched of a question for someone to ask in modern society. It is up to us who know to respectfully answer & educate no matter what the question.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin
    edited September 2020

    Another funny story. My brother-in-law, from the city, started gardening in his back yard about 5 years ago. He had never grown a thing in 50 years so a totally new experience for him. He also didn't know that you would only get one carrot from one seed. Nor did he know how many tomatoes one plant would produce. We were visiting at the beginning of the flowering stage and as his tomatoes were in a greenhouse, I told him he would have to get a small paint brush and "have sex" with his tomatoes, cause there would be no wind or insect pollination. He got a very strange look on his face and said "But won't the neighbours see?". He now gets a great deal of fun out of telling other people about his sex life with tomatoes. But they definitely have a new appreciation about where their food comes from and how hard farmers work.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin
    edited September 2020

    Well, I can only say that it still isn't a "chick magnet", LOL! The entire concept of being self employed seems alien to millennials.

  • Ethereal Earth
    Ethereal Earth Posts: 142 ✭✭✭

    I grew up on a small rabbit farm with a large garden - I much prefer my dirt covered carrots over store bought any day. My friends do not quite the difference, especially those that have only lived in large cities. Often they say an apple from the store is the same as an apple picked yourself from the orchard, which is quite false and I usually accuse them of having no taste buds.

    I really like the idea behind the subscription boxes Imperfect Foods and Misfit Market - people in cities tend to be more open about subscription boxes it seems. So at least those are bringing these foods to light.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin
    edited September 2020

    Hi Lisa, that reminds me of a time when a friend of mine had his first laying flock - he was so proud of his hens. He was feeding them the 'shrooms' fungi top from his big kombucha brewing operation and he started getting 2 eggs a day. He was pretty convinced that was upping his hens production... then his room mate fessed up that he had been sneaking in extra eggs under the hens as a pracitcal joke.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin

    isn't there a country song something like "she thinks my tractors sexy"?

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Yeah, but there is an older, better one that rings more true, "I'm just a country boy, money have I none, but I've got silver in the stars and gold in the morning sun"

    so's this one

    ... and just since I'm on a Don Williams roll now..


  • dimck421
    dimck421 Posts: 203 ✭✭✭

    Once someone asked what I did "for a livin'". When I replied that I farm, the response back was, "Wooooow. :( I am so sorry." lol I told him, "Nope. I'm living the dream!"

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited September 2020

    @dimck421 Everything is so backwards.

    I was trying to explain that Mennonite schools here, by treaty agreement with the govt of Canada, had (and still have) the federal protected right to oversee all aspects of their own children's education. Because of that, Mennonite schools officially teach up to grade 9 or 10 even though the provincial law says all kids go until 18 years of age or finish grade 12, whichever comes first. Some continue on (through homeschooling, then college or university), some choose not to.

    She assumed, since Mennonites are known to have been (great) farmers in times past, that if they didn't continue formal education, that they had no choice and were doomed to be farmers. :( Now why is that bad? They are highly productive and content.

    What she also didn't consider is that not all of those not continuing education by secondary schools become farmers. They do all manner of work, and most are highly respected and have booming businesses.

    Yes, gardening/farming may be basic to life, but it certainly is not something to look down the nose at. It is necessary and can be very rewarding.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning he did explain to his neighbor and showed him the row of carrots he had growing in the front yard and even gave him some. I also agree 100% that farming/gardening is necessary, if we did not have farmers then most people probably would not have much to eat and restaurants would not exist (they have to get the food somewhere).

    @Marjory Wildcraft I think I would have looked for a new roommate, haha.

  • dimck421
    dimck421 Posts: 203 ✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning I hear that here as well. We are near Amish and Mennonite communities. Each, clearly farm and put away food, sell food, but also they are fabulous builders and so many other wonderful trades, but as you said, they are viewed as being doomed to farm. I agree with you, the communities are highly successful at a variety of businesses. If some folks stood back and gave it some thought, they would fast realize how key these farmers are! So many farmer's are looked upon as being poorly educated and dim of witt. Reality is, it takes quite a bit of smarts to farm! It was from farmers that the true meaning of "redneck" was born. By working in the fields, the gap between collar and hat became red in the sun. So many look upon the term as a title for almost anyone.

  • twinspringsnc
    twinspringsnc Posts: 21 ✭✭✭

    The polls accuracy is verified by the increased interest in gardening, canning and such. We can confirm that with canning stuff flying off the shelves and seed suppliers getting backlogged . Interesting times. All this current craziness is bringing people back to tbeir roots.

  • Marjory Wildcraft
    Marjory Wildcraft Posts: 1,615 admin

    Oh @judsoncarroll4 you are bringing be back! Love it, thanks so much. When Dave and I were dating - oh so many years ago - we went to see Don at the Broken Spoke in Austin.

  • marjstratton
    marjstratton Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭

    Even though I grew up in the city, my father had grown up on a farm so I knew where food came from. Dad did have fruit trees and berries growing in our back yard. Even though we lived in the city, during the summer we kid could go earn some pocket money picking berries at local farms. My husband and I lived in rural areas when we got married so for our kids, it wasn't a mystery where food came from.