No Farmers, No Food, No Future. Pt 1 (Ignorance & Agriculture)
Let me preface this by saying I personally believe that one of the largest issues pertaining to negative views of agriculture is lack of education.
I work as a farm supervisor for 17 contract farms, I am a liaison between a larger company that supplies the farms with the animals that they raise. My position is to ensure that the contract farmers are raising the animals in proper and humane ways. I also aid in management of the farm and do weekly checks of each facility to make sure no equipment needs to be fixed and or replaced and that the health of the animals is optimal.
With that being said I am not anti vegan or anti vegetarian. Several of my close friends are vegetarian or vegan and after becoming friends with me have gained insight on how the meat industry actually treats their animals. Through education many misconceptions are squashed and a better understanding of how things actually are lead to a lot of relief.
Last week I had a farm come under attack from their neighbors. The neighbors are contemplating filing a lawsuit against "air pollution and contamination" AKA it smells bad. The funny thing (to me is) that the neighbors were fully aware of the farm and knew prior that they would be living next to a farm. Sadly, many people view farms as an easy paycheck. People sue and claim damages that are completely outrageous when I can almost bet that if I opened their fridge there would be chicken, beef, pork or all of the above in it.
Here comes the kicker, prior to the farm becoming active it was checked and rechecked by local authorities to ensure that the facility was up to standard and is regularly monitored to maintain the standard. Even with that being done people still pressure and throw around complaints because they don't understand what goes on.
Instead of asking questions, or doing research so many people jump to conclusions of what they BELIEVE happens on farms. Yes, I will admit the system is not perfect, but that is why I have a job. I'm out there to ensure that those little cute animals are treated as well as I am (if not better). I realize in the end that they will be euthanized and processed into food, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated well. I am an animal lover, and a meat eater, that doesn't make me a bad person. At least I am out there trying to make their lives a little bit better.
All I can wish for is that the world slowly begins to realize that agriculture is not a big scary monster, and that through education people might view it for what it really is. Agriculture is what puts food in peoples mouths and clothing on their backs. Without farms, there would be nothing and we need farmers more then anything else in the world. Farmers are some of the most hardworking and caring individuals I have ever met in my life and I am lucky to be able to work alongside such wonderful people.
Yes, it saddens me that most people never gave importance to farming and agriculture in general.
I love that I'm able to work in the field, I just wish I had the opportunity to show more people what I see on a daily basis. I'm working on it though!
On the one hand, it is important to raise awareness of the importance of farmers; on the other hand, it is also important to note that most farmers in the world are smallholders. They are not those large industrialized farmers that receive subsidies. Sadly, the importance of small farmers are not well recognized by many governments in the world. They are either marginalized in policy making or viewed as a backward social group that needs to be 'modernized'.
Not sure where you live, but here in Europe, farmers can receive a lot of subsidies (billions of EU money are pumped to them). There is also a strong push for modernisation, to stay in business (which make farmers poor, as all their profit goes into that).
I wonder how much micro-farming at home will become a thing? With climate change soon going to have a devastating effect on crops globally, I hope to see people start incorporating things like this super cheap aquaponics setup:
While it is a nice thing, it will not produce enough for a whole year if people are limited to living in small spaces (My apartment is 90m^2, too small for living and producing enough for 3 to feed.). Your crops will also be sensitive to pests, which will show up at some point. Then there are people who are totally clueless of growing plants.
Here in the Netherlands farmers (together with supermarkets) organize activities for families to come and visit the farm a few times a year. It's this type of transparency that should be encouraged. I think most farmers are proud enough about their work to show people the work they do.
I wish that this was something that would happen! It would help tremendously with people understanding the process. Thats so cool that they do that in the Netherlands!
Sorry for the slow reply. You could propose such thing to the farmers that you work with... and then contact schools in the neighbourhood. Encourage teachers to set up a teaching plan (depending on your place, the local government might subsidise it to some extend) and have kids visit one of the farms to have a look during a field trip. This is one example how you could start such thing, with some creativity more would be possible.
I fully agree with you and the vision you have presented. The same thing happens here in Brazil and it seems that the food appears by magic in the dishes of the people.