This week one of my teachers told me that conventional
agriculture does not feed the world. She
showed a diagram that depicted industrial farming feeds 30% of the world
population.
She showed this diagram to,
and I quote,
“Refute the signs on the side of the highway that say one farmer
feeds 154 people and you.”
WHAT.
THE.
FRENCH.
TOAST.
I’ll admit, it
was really difficult to stay in my seat and not go punch dance out my rage in a
wooded glen. (haha for obscure movie references) I had to remind myself of my
workshop last week where we discussed “thinking hats” and how to use them in
agriculture advocacy to avoid emotional responses.
Mind you, those
signs don’t say what type of farmers feed 155 people. But because of my professor’s preconceived
notions about modern “industrial” agriculture, she felt the need to lash out
and defend the type of agriculture she believes has all the answers. She found her statistic from the ETC group. I could just as easily find a statistic (and
I did) saying that agricultural imports in third world countries have increased
by 122%. That sounds like feeding
the world to me.
We can twist
little pieces of the agriculture story to say whatever we want them to. But how can we refute the fact, the scientific fact, that farmers feed
the world? Yes, conventional
agriculturists, urban agriculturists, organic agriculturists, agriculturists
from Peru and China and Australia.
Honestly, we do
not have the time to waste fighting between ourselves, saying that one form is
better than the other, claiming that one is more important, or that one has all
the solutions to feed our growing population.
We need all agriculture. We need
all the ingenuity, creativity, productivity, efficiency, and sustainability
agriculturists- of all kinds- have to offer.
