"People just don't understand..."
The Untold and Unheard Story of American Agriculture
The lands where America's food grows are unfamiliar territory for most
members of our society. With the exception of people who work
in the food production industry, Americans catch only a glimpse of the
process involved in growing and preparing their food. In this
country we encounter food in neatly packaged containers 
on the shelves of grocery stores. Only by our
own choosing do we take time to consider the origins of our grocery
cart's contents.
As the number of farmers in America steadily declines, fewer of
our nation's citizens have any direct contact with the people and places
that produce their food. For the majority of city-dwellers--including
myself up until January of my senior year in college--farms exist as blurred
scenery dotting the landscape beyond the shoulders of interstates and highways.
Some of us urbanites appreciate the pastoral landscape created by old
barns and rolling cornfields. Other urban people find little to inspire
their interest within the wide open landscape common to the rural Midwest
and Western plains.
An agricultural divide exists in America. Most Americans are disconnected from the land and people responsible for producing their food. Urban residents can understand almost nothing of where their food comes from and still count on a regular abundance of goods to be available to them in their local food stores. Unless non-agricultural people or farmers put forth conscious effort, the daily lives of urban residents lack the means to acquire even a surface understanding of the work undertaken by our nation's farmers.
In spite of the lack of contact between the agricultural and non-agricultural worlds in our society, the actions within each profoundly influences lives within the other. As urban areas sprawl, farm land grows smaller. As farming practices change, the price and quality of food adjusts accordingly. Government policies and regulations influence everything from farmers' crop choice and irrigation methods to their marketing techniques and sales of their product. Business and financial matters have an equally powerful impact on agriculture. In turn, farmers' actions have the potential to determine the nature of the food consumers eat as well as the quality of soil, water and air that they share with non-agricultural people.The absence of interaction between these two groups has the potential to generate misunderstanding and animosity. This happens due to on-agricultural people possessing limited understanding of the agricultural, but still feeling concerned about its impact on their lives. In spite of their urban backgrounds, some city-dwellers maintain strong opinions of how agriculture should be practiced. Yet these opinions arise from television and newspapers rather than direct contact with farmers themselves.
From this reality comes the motivation for this site. By conversing with Southern Minnesota farmers in the Northfield region, I have significantly expanded my own understanding of the complexity involved in agricultural processes and the reasoning why these processes occur as they do. I have learned about my own misconceptions of agricultural practices and most importantly, I have listened to farmers express their own perspectives on why they operate as they do. These conversations have allowed me to identify important sources of misunderstanding between non-agricultural and agricultural people. With this site I hope to dispel the misconceptions that cause these disputes and raise the level of understanding between both parties. By looking at common issues from both non-agricultural and agricultural perspectives, I hope to identify the common interests of both groups and work toward solutions that address their concerns as well as their strengths. Home