The Age of Agricultural Illiteracy
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“The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows,” the Washington Post headline read. In November 2020, this headline jumped out to me just as it did the first time I saw it back in 2017.
“Seven percent of all-American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a nationally representative online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy,” the story went on.
“If you do the math, that works out to 16.4 million misinformed, milk-drinking people. The equivalent of the population of Pennsylvania (and then some!) does not know that chocolate milk is milk, cocoa, and sugar.”
I suggest you get out your giggles and snide comments now, because the rest of this podcast is nothing to laugh or sneer about.
What is the root of this problem and how can we fix it? Well, the problem starts with agricultural literacy, or, illiteracy for that matter.
According to agfoundationg.org, an agriculturally literate person “understands how the agricultural industry works — not just where food comes from, but who grows it, agriculture’s effect on the economy, environment, technology, lifestyle, and its relationship to livestock.”
In turn, we could define a person who is agriculturally illiterate as the exact opposite: someone who doesn’t understand how the ag industry works beyond picking up a sack of spuds at the grocery store and never thinking twice about the backbreaking work which went into getting those potatoes to the consumer.
Agriculture, as we know in our hearts and concurred by our government at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, is essential. And in my opinion, agricultural literacy is also essential because every single person on the face of the planet HAS to eat, be clothed, and have a roof over their head.
Think about it: if we never told our story, many consumers would just be happy heading to the butcher counter to grab a slab of steaks and never dig deeper “beyond” the beef. Which, not too long ago, was weirdly enough “okay.” However, in recent years we’ve seen the rise of social media coupled with businesses who outwardly condemn livestock production and conventional farming while blatantly lying about the ag industry.
I know, you’ve been reading my column or blog now for a year now and I’m sure I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but I keep covering this issue because I personally believe there’s not enough emphasis on the importance of agricultural illiteracy.
We MUST inform our consumers about their food because guess what: PETA is, Beyond Beef is, and so is Impossible Foods — you know, the company whose CEO’s mission is to abolish animal agriculture by 2035. These enemies of agriculture are out there, acting like junior high girls spreading rumors and telling half-truths to make themselves look better and deter any consumer from trusting their loyal friend, agriculture, ever again.
I often ask myself how these anti-ags can get away with dispersing non-factual information and it boils down to an ethics issue. Some people tell the truth, whether it’s ugly or not, and some tell lies to make themselves look less ugly.
Case in point: these fake meat companies tell consumers just how “terrible agriculture is for the environment” and throw out inflated statistics from biased and invalid studies to make the consumers feel bad in the name of global warming. But what these companies neglect to tell the consumer is the amount of carbon dioxide which would be released in the air from their factories and farming equipment, and just how much of the rainforest is actually bulldozed down every year to grow soybeans, the main ingredient in fake meat.
Or how about PETA, aka the bane of my existence, and their genius marketing tactics. PETA will find a video — or better yet, go undercover at a dairy — of the one in a million “animal abuse money shot.” I’ll admit, sometimes PETA and organizations just like it will speak the truth and show the evil in a certain person’s heart, but I have never once seen them dig into what everyday livestock producers do and how they do it.
After seeing the time, energy, and money spent by anti-agriculture promoters to speak out against ag, I can see why many consumers are agriculturally illiterate. How could you not be illiterate if you were told incorrect information which is packaged as “the ugly truth about agriculture?”
It saddens me to drive down the road and see a billboard advocating against agriculture to millions.
It fries my brain to look at some of the posts in my anti-ag Facebook groups where average consumers have been swayed into believing the lies being told about agriculture.
It tears me up inside to see my Grandpa and people just like him be ridiculed for feeding the world.
But you know what? We can combat this; we can make this right; we can inform consumers with the TRUTH about their food… we just have to do it in a way they can understand.
I challenge everyone reading this to make a truthful statement about agriculture this week, whether it be telling your grandkid that chocolate milk doesn’t come from brown cows or getting the same grandkid to post a video explaining this issue to their Facebook page for you, we’ve got to do something and we’ve got to do it now.
We hold all the power in the world to tell our story, but in order to do that, we have to quit complaining about agricultural illiteracy and actually do something to fix it.
What is the root of this problem and how can we fix it? Well, the problem starts with agricultural literacy, or, illiteracy for that matter.
According to agfoundationg.org, an agriculturally literate person “understands how the agricultural industry works — not just where food comes from, but who grows it, agriculture’s effect on the economy, environment, technology, lifestyle, and its relationship to livestock.”
In turn, we could define a person who is agriculturally illiterate as the exact opposite: someone who doesn’t understand how the ag industry works beyond picking up a sack of spuds at the grocery store and never thinking twice about the backbreaking work which went into getting those potatoes to the consumer.
Agriculture, as we know in our hearts and concurred by our government at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, is essential. And in my opinion, agricultural literacy is also essential because every single person on the face of the planet HAS to eat, be clothed, and have a roof over their head.
Think about it: if we never told our story, many consumers would just be happy heading to the butcher counter to grab a slab of steaks and never dig deeper “beyond” the beef. Which, not too long ago, was weirdly enough “okay.” However, in recent years we’ve seen the rise of social media coupled with businesses who outwardly condemn livestock production and conventional farming while blatantly lying about the ag industry.
I know, you’ve been reading my column or blog now for a year now and I’m sure I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but I keep covering this issue because I personally believe there’s not enough emphasis on the importance of agricultural illiteracy.
We MUST inform our consumers about their food because guess what: PETA is, Beyond Beef is, and so is Impossible Foods — you know, the company whose CEO’s mission is to abolish animal agriculture by 2035. These enemies of agriculture are out there, acting like junior high girls spreading rumors and telling half-truths to make themselves look better and deter any consumer from trusting their loyal friend, agriculture, ever again.
I often ask myself how these anti-ags can get away with dispersing non-factual information and it boils down to an ethics issue. Some people tell the truth, whether it’s ugly or not, and some tell lies to make themselves look less ugly.
Case in point: these fake meat companies tell consumers just how “terrible agriculture is for the environment” and throw out inflated statistics from biased and invalid studies to make the consumers feel bad in the name of global warming. But what these companies neglect to tell the consumer is the amount of carbon dioxide which would be released in the air from their factories and farming equipment, and just how much of the rainforest is actually bulldozed down every year to grow soybeans, the main ingredient in fake meat.
Or how about PETA, aka the bane of my existence, and their genius marketing tactics. PETA will find a video — or better yet, go undercover at a dairy — of the one in a million “animal abuse money shot.” I’ll admit, sometimes PETA and organizations just like it will speak the truth and show the evil in a certain person’s heart, but I have never once seen them dig into what everyday livestock producers do and how they do it.
After seeing the time, energy, and money spent by anti-agriculture promoters to speak out against ag, I can see why many consumers are agriculturally illiterate. How could you not be illiterate if you were told incorrect information which is packaged as “the ugly truth about agriculture?”
It saddens me to drive down the road and see a billboard advocating against agriculture to millions.
It fries my brain to look at some of the posts in my anti-ag Facebook groups where average consumers have been swayed into believing the lies being told about agriculture.
It tears me up inside to see my Grandpa and people just like him be ridiculed for feeding the world.
But you know what? We can combat this; we can make this right; we can inform consumers with the TRUTH about their food… we just have to do it in a way they can understand.
