I will ask two questions.
Question #1: What does “Feed the World” mean?
We see what has become agriculture’s noble cliché in advertisements, posters, memes, and on social media sites that promote only a few segments which comprise U.S. agriculture.
So what does it mean?
To me it means something different than what it means to you. People in the world are starving, have been for years and years, and hey! oh! hello! here in the U.S. we’re hungry too, so I question if “Feed the World” is anything other than an ego booster for a select few American farmers and agribusinesses
Maybe “Feed the World” is a lofty goal that’ll never be reached but a goal nontheless that provides direction for the directionless, and hope for the hopeless.
An answer to my first question requires you to think critically and systematically about our agriculture. It is difficult to break the agro-economy into pieces, because agriculture is everything and everywhere so wrapping total brain matter around the millions of tiny bits that try and are said should feed the world is no doubt a cerebral feat. Perhaps let’s start with a predictable thought: U.S. agriculture is food and fiber, and without family farmers and ranchers you and I are hungry and naked. Really?! But, please, I encourage more thought. Agriculture is also the pages of a book. The ink in a pen. The turf in a stadium. The tires on a car. Even the computer screen you’re staring at right now began as something else—a plant, a rock, a mineral, perhaps an animal?
These and countless other objects comprise the world of agriculture, the Agrosphere.
Think beyond what you know about the Agrosphere. What pieces must we fit together to complete U.S. agriculture’s feed-the-world puzzle? Farmers and ranchers live in the Agrosphere, called production ag. Customers live inside the sphere, called consumption ag: By the way, farmers and ranchers are customers too, so maybe farmers and ranchers should thank customers just as many times as customers are asked (told, advised, guilt-tripped) to thank farmers.
Thanking people is not what this story is about though.
Like jigsaw puzzle pieces, the sectors within the Agrosphere contain sharp corners, flat sides, round juts, asymmetric bodies, and they differ in color. We know the process of building a jigsaw puzzle takes time and challenges patience, often forcing us to concentrate to the brink of insanity and frustration. Dang it … I know this goes there but why won’t it fit! We sort like pieces with like pieces, segregating into piles, and through trial and error finally match two pieces together, maybe three or four. Progress! The puzzle then begins to make sense.
Each jigsaw piece carries its own message, its own story. Unique—just as each farmer and customer. To feed the world, if that truly is the goal and not just a catch-phrase used as bait to attract people to agriculture advocacy groups, to like social media sites, to donate money, or to buy products, we need all the pieces of the Agrosphere on the table, no missing or broken parts, no mixed messages that may deter us from completing the puzzle.
The agriculture I’ve come to know has room for all types of perspectives and opinions. Though some may be wacky, rude, rational, clueless, sad, happy, spiteful, superficial, or expert . . . none are better or worse than another. They are what they are until you and I determine their worth.
Question #2: What does “Feed the World” mean to you?
Adios Compadres,
AP
Anthony Pannone is an ILF Catalyst for Conversation and a Texas A&M University graduate student studying agricultural leadership, education, and communication. He wants to sail to Alaska and live with bears on Kodiak Island. Help his dream come true. Send you story to I Love Farmers via anthony@ilovefarmers.org. Your voice matters.
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Photo from http://true-wildlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/brown-bear.html