*Disclaimer – This blog reflects the current state of my knowledge. It does not reflect the opinion of any institution, and my understanding will change as I learn more. The purpose of this blog is to summarize information, stimulate thought, raise conversation, and serve as a basis for further studies.
I just had a conceptual breakthrough around “marketing regenerative food’ – as farmers, this is the most difficult task in ecological food production. Every year, we farmers wonder how to convince eaters to start cooking with regenerative ingredients. On our production fields, we could produce double and triple, but we cannot sell it locally – more importantly than the cost point, seasonal cooking just does not meet the preferences of local eaters. Life is busy – whatever it is, there’s no more time for cooking or eating together. Others prefer non-seasonal foods or don’t want to pay fair prices to producers – yes, food that was produced under slavery-like work conditions and by externalizing environmental costs DOES make a cheaper product! Especially if grocery stores sell under purchasing price, for a sale offer. So most eaters prefer prepared foods or buy industrially produced foods… and leave their “real local farmer purchase” as an occasional experience. Local food is nowhere near playing a significant role in our overall food supply.
A few days ago, I was “called in” by a black activist. In short, she made clear to me that it’s not black folks’ responsibility to convince bigots that racism is bad. She made clear that it is the responsibility of white folks in general to change their community culture, and it is the responsibility of each one of us to do the work on ourselves necessary for overcoming our inner racism. That’s when it clicked – the same is true around earth-destroying and slavery-enabling food choices. It’s not the responsibility of local farmers to ‘convince’ and ‘educate’ the public to make better food choices – we cannot overcome ‘willful ignorance’ that conventional food marketing is built around. This requires decolonization work by all eaters, and this work can only be done by eaters themselves. To build a regenerative food system, eaters also need to shift their lifestyles such that a regenerative diet becomes compatible with their days. Until then, food impact will remain a driving degenerative force for ourselves and for the Living Earth. If people say “regenerative food does not meet my daily routines”, what this also means: “I feel entitled to my current lifestyle and don’t want it to change. Even if it destroys the living basis of future generations. And even if I could make different choices“. For anyone who is not living in existential crisis, it is their individual responsibility to change their daily routines, overcome their entitlement to sustaining a destructive lifestyle, and make regenerative living possible. As farmers, we cannot change that for them – nor is it our responsibility. As a community, our alternative to “committing to the decolonization work on ourselves” is that our children won’t have a living world to live in. “Decolonize or extinction” – Indigenous people remind us that our civilization only has two options. They also remind us that they cannot do the decolonization work for us. It’s on each one of us.
Easy? No. Overcoming our arrogance toward Mother Earth is as easy as overcoming racism, our own trauma, or our disrespect for ourselves. Possible? Certainly. As soon as someone allows him/herself to start on this journey, it is impossible to turn back. The main barrier? For middle-class folks and above, our privileged entitlement that food is a sideshow in our lives, that we can de-link our lifestyle from the seasonal limitations set by nature. For poorer folks, the fact that 80% of income goes toward paying some investors for an overpriced service (rent payments, corporate services, etc)… there’s simply nothing left for good food choices. What can ecological farmers do about it? Absolutely nothing. We can only service those people who have decided to “decolonize their food habits”. That is our responsibility as farmers. Slogan: “Our farm cannot make eaters choose to eat regeneratively. But for those who have chosen, we can sell you a regenerative product“.
This realization changes EVERYTHING around marketing messaging. As farmers, we told ourselves that we need to become cooking teachers, environmental educators, anti-industrial food activists, gardening teachers and cheerleaders, community builders, and psychotherapists. Often multiple at once. Yet, these are all not our roles. We are growers who learn about regenerative growing, within an economic framework that encourages the opposite – that is our limited contribution in humankind’s quest for having a future. We want to be paid because people choose to eat our food. Yet, this is frequently not our reality: many customers support “their personal farmers” – and later, good food rots in their fridges. That happens if people don’t buy from us for our products, but for us. Next year, these customers don’t come back because food rotting in their kitchen weighs even heavier on their conscience than the horrible “externalities’ of industrial food. So, we don’t need customers wishing to support their favourite farmer. We need eaters who purchase our product because they actually love cooking with our excellent products.
This is a major shift in how I frame our responsibilities in the local food system. Let’s stop marketing local food – marketing does not work against a bulwark of convenience, corporate narrative making, entitlement, and poverty. Together with others concerned about the future of our civilization, let’s call people in to do the work on themselves that our children and grandchildren need from us (while supporting our own health and well-being). In the same way that black and indigenous folks have realized that it is not their responsibility to change white bigots. In the way that Buddhists teach that we can only change our own minds, not other people’s minds. In the way that Christ taught us about “the beam in our own eye while we are focusing on the mote in our neighbor’s eye“.
Fundamentally, we are not dealing with a problem of education, infomercials, or marketing. We are dealing with a spiritual conundrum – people want change, but cannot change themselves for many different reasons. Without calling this in clearly, we are doomed to waste our precious short lives on pretty useless advocacy/education/marketing.
So how can we address this problem, and who should be the actors?
- First, farmers may deliver “education services” – if they get adequately paid to do so. Profits from selling basic food cannot cover our time for hour-long education, even of beloved customers. In the last 12 years, we can count on a couple of hands when people actually offered to pay farmers for education services. Nobody would expect that from a lawyer, a doctor, or their trades person.
- Organizations whose mandate is to support ecological farming can do it themselves, or they can help build partnerships with multipliers – educators, spiritual teachers, churches, school teachers, sport clubs, parent organizations, service clubs, and other entities that impact eating behavior.
- Organizations whose mandate is to support ecological farming can help farmers to educate the multipliers – against appropriate compensation of labour, and in recognition that this takes time from farm production.
I recognize that farmers’ preoccupation with “educating consumers” stems from a dangerously false understanding of our role in the food system. If we produce a product – shouldn’t we be the ones responsible to sell it, educate around it? This is a dangerous trap that sucks us farmers dry – let’s get clear on that! And instead, let’s put our energy into educating multipliers, building partnerships, and letting others do the education work. We don’t get paid for it, we cannot afford to volunteer this time by neglecting our farms and families, our community and our self care. As vendors, we are also biased – and may be perceived that way. Eating regeneratively is not about us selling our product. It is about basic decolonization work of all eaters – this is everyone’s responsibility.
Recent Comments