A Personal Connection

The misguided loss of common ground in the agricultural world is scaring me as I enter the adult world. Vandana Shiva said during her speech that we are at war with Monsanto, to me implying conventional farming is evil and that we (the local organic farmers and supporters) are righteous and have the right to austricize other practices of farming. The negatives of conventional farming are too great to be able to discuss and the only solution is to destroy all the technological advancements in agriculture in the past sixty five years and revert to traditional agriculture with no chemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified crops and major corporations running the market.

 Up until this trip and having the opportunity to see farmers on different sides of the same respectable trade, I never made a true connection with the material that I was been learning in school and outside school as an involved citizen. It was all in my head so to speak; I know a lot of important facts, numbers and possible solutions to the issue but didn’t connect it to my own personal life. It seemed as though I knew everything about how awful and evil the agricultural system is. However, when we talked to the men at UC Davis the first day, I felt a familiar connection resurface and a spark of pity for myself. Why was I not pitying them? These fools who did not see the animals and the industry like I did, the young idealist that I am. I realized that the pity for myself was the connection between conventional farming and my interest in farming goes back to when I was growing up with my farming family.

 When we talked to the man at the slaughter house, he spoke about his history and sense of place in the building; his dad had worked there when he was a a child and he grew up visiting the facility. Also the man at the feedlot had a story connected to feedlot cattle. His last job was at his own ranch in Nevada, raising beef for slaughter. The memories of my grandfather’s and uncle’s cattle ranches, the extensive land in my family planted in genetically modified corn and soy beans  as well as the time I spent there. I thought about how deeply flawed it is that I am focusing on changing the business that my family is invested in, that I just read how the industry is terrible, when I have a thriving family who lives on that system.

 It seems easy on paper to have a change of heart and convert your business to an organic and sustainable one, however just like seed, once it is sown it is difficult to transplant. I want to continue being a local and organic advocator, without being an elitist against something that is still on the same issue. I feel it is important for both sides to agree that both are working towards a common goal: to feed and sustain life. Even though Monsanto creates loopholes to take advantage of non-gmo farmers through lawsuits, the man we visited at the seed geneticist lab concluded the reason he was working there was to feed the 2000 children who die every day due to starvation. That is not an evil reason for advocating something that has bad history, but the biases I hear are still very against it. I believe there must be a way for both groups of advocators to work together and make it work. I love living on a healthy earth and want to restore it to its former vigor, but I also love my family who supports a food system that goes against that judgment, There must be a way to mold the two together before its too late, before the war really starts.