One thing that was affirmed to me during the “toxic wheat” debacle that happened a few months ago, was that farming is a lot like parenting. Why? The way a farmer farms and the methods, technologies and products that a farmer uses are a very personal decision. It can be as simple as defending one’s tractor colours to defending the choice of herbicide you spray on your crop. There’s envy, pride, arrogance and judgment flooding my social media feeds. I have felt this as a mother in our online world in the mommy wars. I have been told that by being an advocate for breastfeeding that I make formula feeding mothers feel ashamed. I have even had a comment picking me apart regarding my winter car seat safety blog post. You just can’t win the Internet, you really can’t!
I was very shocked that the agriculture community didn’t band together to support each other after the lies that were written about wheat farmers regarding glyphosate application. The response that I saw from one farmer reacting to the “toxic wheat” post was: “I am a farmer and we never do that on our wheat farm and neither do our neighbours! THAT IS ILLEGAL!!!” and it received hundreds of Facebook likes. Before we make blanket statements like that, we need to ensure our due diligence and talk to other farmers. Perhaps this isn’t done in the state or the province you live in, but that doesn’t mean that no farmer uses this practice or that it’s illegal. Sometimes we owe it to each other to dig a little deeper before making such offensive statements—give a fellow farmer some credit.
My husband trying to explain to another farmer that glyphosate isn’t that toxic, same farmer calls my husband ridiculous. Productive conversation? No.
Tweet from a farmer to Monsanto
@NurseLovesFarmr I cannot research ignorance. Most North American ag schools are funded by Monsanto Dupont and Bayer. The one in Guelph is!
— Drumlin Farm (@DrumlinFmGuelph) December 21, 2014
I admit that I get very frustrated with the way that a lot of organic products are marketed as I find it is very disingenuous. I make that no secret and I frequently engage with activist groups to call them out on their lies and propaganda, but I have always had a disclaimer that I don’t care that organic farmers choose to farm organically. It doesn’t affect me how any farmer chooses to farm, so why must we tear each other down? There’s enough activists and consumers already doing this! We certainly don’t have to sit around in a circle, hold hands and sing, but we can at least respect each other as individuals and an industry as a whole to not tear each other down along the way? This widens the gap between the consumer’s legitimate questions and the farmer.
I’ll be the first to admit that I do not get along with everyone in life (I think it would be a miracle to find someone who gets along with everyone!). It’s evident that I have gotten under some farmers’ skin in the online agriculture world, and I’m fine with that. Farmers have been some of my biggest critics and have taken the time to tell me to stop doing what I’m doing (agvocating), because “it’s not helping”, that my views on marketing are wrong…they have just been SO cynical towards seemingly most things I do. I will never stoop to name-calling and gossiping, especially in a public forum for the world to see, that’s not the kind of person I am. Most of these comments happen on Twitter, and that’s what the block and mute buttons are for. I don’t need to subject myself to ridicule or read someone’s constant criticisms of the things I say and do, this is why I mute without hesitation and block only when necessary.
I surround myself with people who lift me and others up. Does constructive criticism help? Absolutely. True friends and people who care about you will still do that for you. I’m not the kind of girl that needs constant praise and reassurance, trust me, but people who constantly attack and disagree with everything I say? I can’t be bothered. To them I say: be strong enough that you don’t have to tear others down to make yourself feel better. You’re a bully and I don’t have time for that.
I have seen farmers bully other farmers, gang up on them, send threatening emails, snarky tweets and drive each other out of sharing their farming stories and educating consumers because of intimidation. I have personally seen way too many farmers step back from social media because of this and it needs to stop. Dealing with hateful activist consumers is hard enough to have the motivation to keep agvocating. There’s MANY TIMES I have wanted to throw in the towel, shut down this blog and say “I don’t deserve this, it’s not worth it”.
I don’t care if you’re a farmer who has found a small niche market for organic, humanely-raised, GMO-free food, or if you’re a conventional grain grower that farms 20,000 acres and doesn’t have multiple labels to attach to your end product. What I do care is how you treat me and those around you. It’s time to stop throwing each other under the bus, don’t you think?
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This farmer's son and ag scientist agrees with you, Sarah. Just remember, there are still people who actually believe the world is flat, so you'll never convince everyone.
Thanks, Tyson. It's never been a goal of mine to "convince" anyone…I just call for a mutual respect, even when opinions and beliefs differ.
Excellent post! It is as bad as mommy wars, for sure! Admittedly, there have been posts since following you that I haven’t agreed with 100% (maybe 97%, lol), but I completely respect and appreciate your perspective. It challenges my own thinking; I’ve learned a lot about agvocating and it definitely is an important message that we need to keep putting out there!
I think I'd be hard-pressed to find someone that agrees with me on EVERYTHING, my husband certainly doesn't! Thanks for the comment.
[…] that annoy, harass, or bully you. You don’t have time to deal with this negativity, surround yourself with positive people. People will judge you for it and talk behind your back, it’s best to ignore it and not waste […]
Totally agree. Critisizing each other is so counter productive in the Ag community's fight against the nonsense of the non science movement. Keep up the fight Sarah! You are doing a great job and it is appreciated by this farmwife/ farmer/rancher/ agronomist!
I completely agree! I say it every chance I get, with farmers only being around 2% of the population we really need to be united in explaining our industry to the world. Every piece of land responds different, every area has different climates and seasons, every farm has a different cash requirements and equipment, access to different types of feed for their animals, different storage for their grain, different access to markets and different marketing, I could go on and on. There are so many variables that come into play in every decision a farmer makes, no one has the knowledge or the right to judge another farmer for what he does because you don't know his situation. We already struggle with non farmers thinking that things are black and white (example 'roundup is a chemical so you should never spray it on our food – simple as that') we need to be respectful, understanding and supportive of other people in our own industry. Ask questions, don't judge. Come on people, we all work much harder than what we get paid for and have many of the same struggles. Let's play like we are on the same team and stop the judgement.
Amen! We don't use Roundup on our Winter Wheat… but only because we don't need to in our area and it would be an added expense. If we needed it, I guarantee it would happen. I would never expect or neighbors much less someone in a totally different area to farm exactly the same as us… It takes all kinds to make the world go around.
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That is a GREAT way of putting it, Marla! No two farmers farm exactly the same. I know Jay quietly shakes his head at some of the different things farmers do in our county, but no one does it all the same and that doesn't give him the right to publicly call them out online and make fun of them or shame them for it.
Once again Sarah you have nailed it spot on. We always talk about the activist the NGO's that have so many money to plant negative seeds of doubt against modern farming. The fellow farmer is truly the challenge and it stems from the oldest war time tactic known to man DIVIDE AND CONQUER. Thanks for you continual shooting straight approach. Trent Loos, Nebraska
Thanks for the comment, Trent. I have a certain number of farmers on Twitter that will jump the gun and come at me any time I mention certain buzzwords and this has been going on for years. I have muted and/or blocked them because I don't want to constantly be entertaining their negativity, then I get poked fun at (from what my husband tells me as he still follows said people) for ignoring them. Just can't win, but that's okay. In nursing we have a saying that the older nurses "eat their young" and I've seen this improve even in the decade that I've been a nurse, but in the farming world (online anyway) we definitely eat each other too.
Sows do eat their young…litterally