The black swans of 2022 have helped reveal the true value of our farms and of the products they produce. The questions that this raises have an easy answer
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about agriculture is how rarely we stand back in awe of it.
For instance, in the paragraph on top, I shouldn’t really have talked of the products our farms produce. It isn’t actually right. I should have said “the products they create.”
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That pound of beef or bushel of grain and that warehouse full of every kind of food and foodstuffs aren’t simply “produced.” Farming isn’t just a kind of manufacturing, like how GM transforms a roll of steel into a car or Nike makes a shoe.
Instead, our farms participate in magic. They capture the sun and the rain and make it live.
But let’s not get too poetic. We don’t need to, because here’s another equally extraordinary thing.
In a year of upsets and black swans, when the miracle of agriculture should be sung to the skies, the headlines don’t glory in the fact that we have food to eat. Too many of them bemoan the cost of that food instead, and look for someone to blame.
I don’t want to seem uncaring. People who need help to afford food do deserve help. We should help them. Of course we should. I can’t think of anyone in agriculture who thinks otherwise, although we may disagree on how and through what channels this help should be delivered.
But here’s the point I want to get to. Is it bad or wrong or somehow immoral for agriculture to have the resources to invest in becoming even better at this process of creation?
You and I see the bigger picture. I know it isn’t as simple as I just said. There are the rising costs. There are risks; there are shortages. There are different sectors, too, and the producers in each face sometimes extremely different outlooks.
But for a moment, let’s just keep the discussion at the surface level. Isn’t it a good thing if farmers are able to invest more in growing the miracle of agriculture?
Consumers don’t know it. Few governments do either, but this is an argument farmers can make with enormous justice. Just look at how agriculture has invested in and grown its productivity in the last decade. It’s staggering.
The old complaint was that farmers make bad decisions in good times. In other words, it was that farmers simply squander any good prices that come along.
Who can possibly say that this is true of the industry in 2022?
Country Guide is dedicated to the idea that agriculture is made up of smart farmers who make smart decisions.
Who can possibly deny this?
So, as just one sign, look at the content of Country Guide and the articles that you read, not only in our most recent issue but throughout the year. Add it up. Who can possibly say that you don’t deserve the world’s confidence. This is an industry to be in awe of.
Are we getting it right? Let me know at [email protected].
