Why A Farmer Would Occupy Wall Street
December 5, 2011
Every week during the growing season my husband and I cart our family’s grassfed meats to market, priced at $11/lb for pork chops, $7.50/lb for ground beef. Every week we meet someone who tells us the prices are too high.
And yet, at those prices, the average net income for our family members has maxed out at $10 per hour.
But part of our job is to hold our chins up and accept weekly admonishment for our inability to produce food as cheaply as it can be found in the grocery store.
The food in the grocery store is not cheap. It has been paid for in advance through tax dollars for farm subsidies that go to support an ecologically problematic industrialized food system. The prices only look cheap because we are paying for them someplace else: through our taxes, and via the destruction of our soil, water and natural resources through irresponsible farming practices.
The viability of a small farm is contingent not just on garnering a living wage, but on our ability to steward our land in a way that enables future generations to live off it. The ability for industrial food production to stay in business is contingent upon these farm subsidies, and a license to deplete the soils and pollute the water for immediate profit with no regard for what happens tomorrow. This is our nation’s cheap food policy: Make the food in the grocery store as inexpensive as possible, so that we can justify lower working wages for Americans.
With policies like this, we are losing our farmers, and we are poisoning our public with toxic food. Between 1999 and 2006 alone, the CDC estimated that 45% of American adults were suffering from chronic illness. You can’t tell me that has no connection to the food supply.
Even with chronic illness rampant in our culture, our current government oversight policies for food safety favor the production practices of corporate food. My family farm shoulders a disproportionate burden of expense to meet regulations that prove the safety of our products, which are easily traced, more cleanly produced, and which have been proven to be far safer for consumption. This adds to our prices and makes it difficult for many of our fellow farmers to stay in business.
My family wants to nourish our local community. We want to sell pork chops from real pigs, ground beef from real cattle. I’ve been criticized by some for coming down here, because there are media reports suggesting that “Occupy Wall Street” is about a bunch of losers who want to sit around and collect hand-outs for doing nothing. I am in no need of a hand-out. I want to conduct my family’s business honestly, and I want to see my fellow Americans compensated fairly for their contributions, so that we can all earn a decent living. I want to see the handouts from our government policies that support an ecologically rapacious, gastronomically toxic food system brought to an end. I want to go to my weekly market with my head held high, carrying wholesome food that my neighbors can afford.
Comments
December 5, 2011 7:10 AM EST
Interestingly enough that is in direct contravention to the rest of OW. The majority of them believe that the 1% should pay more so the govt will be able to do things like forgive their college loans.
– Matthew
December 5, 2011 7:26 AM EST
right on Shannon. i’ll spread this wonderfully written piece around. maybe put it in the local papers…i could maybe get it in the Freemans Journal in Coop?
– ellen white weir
December 5, 2011 8:30 AM EST
Wall Street is not the source of your problems. Washington is. All the problems you face as a small farmer are a direct result of a government that is powerful beyond its original intent. The burdensome regulation you speak of is not a result of Wall Street meddling in farming practices, but government allowing corporatations and their lobbyists to determine what should be done.
Occupy Washington if you want things to change.
– Drew
December 5, 2011 9:20 AM EST
Thanks Shannon, this is a brilliantly laid out diagnosis of the problem of our food supply. I would take it to the next level, though, and include not just the super markets, where middle class americans can still afford to buy food, but to the cheap chain restaurants like McDonalds & Wendys, where most lower income families end up buying the bulk of their nutrients.
– Cathy Callan
December 5, 2011 10:19 AM EST
Shannon- I really admire you for what you stand for, and how well you express it. Good for you! Oh and our turkey was just inCREDible this year- all gone but the stock in the freezer.
– Kirsten Fredericks
December 5, 2011 1:08 PM EST
I don’t believe that is what MOST of the Occupy protesters want. What I hear them saying is that they want the 99% of us to be heard the same as the 1% regardless of our economic status. We each come to the table with our experience and most important concern. I feel the students would be happy to repay their loans if they could find jobs.
I appreciate this woman’s struggle and can relate to her comment, “I want to conduct my family’s business honestly, and I want to see my fellow Americans compensated fairly for their contributions, so that we can all earn a decent living. ” I work in health care as a small business owner. Our country needs to work more fairly for all of it’s citizens.
– Patty Fox
December 5, 2011 1:48 PM EST
Let’s not forget that cheap food is also ensured for us and paid for by those who get paid insanely poorly and work in terrible conditions to produce that food.
– Annie Heuscher
December 5, 2011 5:13 PM EST
Your points are well taken, I have the same issue with my organic vegetables taken to farmers markets. they finally stopped the produce distributors from having tables at the market, because they were not selling organic produce and were able to beat the price of the organic growers.
– nancynursez637
December 5, 2011 11:06 PM EST
It’s the cheap statement that disrespects the 1% of us who are trying to keep this country healthy and secure. Congratulations on standing up for your 10 dollar an hour job and using the 1st amendment to inspire.
– The Grass Whisperer
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