Call Me a Farmer, Not a Producer

 

Troy’s “letter to the editor provoked the following response from readers.

 

Nice! We use ‘producer’ when we need to refer to all the farmers and food producers at our market  to include bakers, for example, and jam makers using local jam – but for me it’s like ‘partner’ – when I want to say boyfriend I say boyfriend. And when I’m talking about farmers, I say farmers. All best wishes Nina

 

Troy, nice show. The term "producer" has always been a thorn in my hoof.  It was surely derived from the group of "agency" folks who have never grown an animal...easier to count us (producers) as check marks on the clipboard like counting calves through a chute.

 

Troy, very appropriate, but as usual when are people really going to get it?

 

Good point Troy.  I'm guilty of doing it myself in some of my writing so will be more cognizant of not doing that in the future.

 

I couldn't agree with you more.  Imposing the language of industrial production, manufacturing and our economic system on farming and agriculture was a subtle but damaging step in the process of control, disrespect, diminishment....

 

Troy:  my chair, Rene Van Acker - a farm boy from southern Ontario - says precisely the same thing.  Good on ya'.  Ann

 

A farmer by any other name is still a farmer, but not all are good stewards, some are just producers. How do we distinguish them?

 

Farmers also get another unhappy label: "operators"
The industrial model has been elevated in value over the natural
stewardship of the world.
Yours is a good letter and I am pleased that it was published.

 

Tanks for the note.  I appreciate your pride in being a farmer.  I'm one of those guilty types that usually uses the word processor and avoids the word farmer or even rancher, because of political correctness I suppose.  My one grandfather was a wheat farmer and was dang proud of it.  My other grandpa farmed quite a bit, but considered himself a rancher and considered anyone calling him a farmer as someone trying to pick a fight. 

Then my dad always taught us that we weren't cowboys but rather horseman and cattlemen, and while I admire cowboys and all they stand for, I still cringe when somebody calls me a cowboy.  We wear our titles with so much pride that one has to be very careful to assign the wrong title to the wrong person. 

Producer is a universal term that seems to avoid offending anyone, but I love the fact that people will stand up and say they are a farmer, rancher, cowboy, cattlemen, horseman, grass farmer, or beef producer and say it with both pride and passion, and I'm proud that people can wear all those names with pride.  You are right I have never seen anyone stand up and introduce themselves as a producer.

 

 

Troy,

 

I agree with the point you made in an editorial about the use of the word “producer” as a substitute for the word ”farmer.” The word producer is generic. It homogenizes. It eliminates the real connection between farmers and farms. It eliminates the distinctions between types of agricultural products and types of farmers. Rather than being a dairy farmer, or an organic farmer, or a grain farmer, or a large farmer, or a small farmer, all are reduced to becoming simply producers. All their products become interchangeable. Their differences in quality disappear.

 

The word producer is an insult to the long history of farming. It is a verbal assault on what it means to farm. It pushes the farmer and the farm into the background, hiding them from view even more than they have been hidden by other forces. The word supports those who think that milk and vegetables are produced by supermarkets, not farms. The use of the language itself becomes a corrosive weapon against both quality and history.

 

If use of the word producer is allowed to grow, we next could have artists become producers. After all they simply produce art. What about musicians? They are simply producers of music.

 

Already the words “doctor,” “nurse,” and “dentist” have been replaced by the generic word “provider.” They are simply providers of medical services.  This change has been created by insurance companies who see these providers as nothing more than profit loses for their shareholders. In the process of reducing highly skilled medical professionals to an insulting word, the specializations, the respect, the history of all of these professions has been lost. It is all a way to turn patient care into nothing more than a commodity and a profit.

 

 

Thank you for saying this.  I do not raise my horses for food, but with the introduction of NAIS, my home has become a premise, my personal property has become part of the "national herd", and I've become a producer.  One size does not fit all,  and apparently USDA has not yet realized this as they attempt to sweep everyone into their international marketing plan that is designed to give a warm, fuzzy feeling to consumers who don't know better.

 

I absolutely vote for "farmer" because for me a farmer is a much more accomplished individual than a producer. When I think of a farmer I imagine a steward of the land, a lover of nature, an environmentalist, an agronomist, an animal husbander, a veterinarian, a mechanic, a carpenter, an electrician, a heavy equipment operator, a business manager, an accountant, a strategist, a marketing executive, you name it. A producer on the other hand brings to mind a one dimensional commodity oriented pawn of industrial agriculture. No thanks.