Pink Houses, Small Towns and Scarecrows

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Created on Wednesday, 05 October 2011 15:50

Last Updated on Wednesday, 05 October 2011 15:52

Written by Melanie Wilt

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Driving around Southern and Central Indiana yesterday listening to John Cougar Mellencamp (on every Indiana station) made me think not only about pink houses, small towns and scarecrows, but about how similar our issues and concerns are across the Corn Belt.

Small towns bleed into the most fertile land in the world, putting pressure on farms and increasing what’s expected of our farmers. Neighbors expect little noise, little dust and little odor. Farmers know it’s part of the job – noise, dust and odor are the signs of work getting done on a farm.

Farmers across the country will tell you that they just want to be left alone to do their jobs, carry on their family traditions and raise food for the world.

Consumers across the country will tell you they just want to know where their food comes from, understand it was produced with care, and be able to see “behind the curtain” of food production.

Farmers have not intentionally veiled our profession in mystery, but we are guilty of avoiding change and not going out of our way to help others understand how our food’s produced. We have kept to ourselves living humble, rural lives.

Consumers have relied too much on sensational media reports to form opinions about food production. It’s much easier to go to the theater to see a screening of Farmageddon than to find a farmer, make a connection and boldly ask to tour their farm.

Today, we are neighbors. Two perspectives pointed at the same horizon. And, while we may have “10 million rows to hoe”* and a dirty job to get done, we also have to tend to building trust and understanding a different point of view.

One of the main building blocks of trust is similarity, according to Neuromarketing by Christope Morin and Patrick Renvoise. As farmers, we need to focus on the common ground we have with consumers (no pun intended) – not on our differences or feeling victimized by a system that we feel tells us what to do. A few similarities we share:

• Uh, eating (duh)
• We live in or near the same “small towns”
• Our kids go to the same schools
• We value health and well-being
• We like to find a good value

The list could go on…

Amid the noise, dust and smells is where most farmers feel comfortable, but in 2011, building community is just part of the job. Every effort to bring those two perspectives to common ground may just “bring peace to this troubled land.”*

* Lyrics to John Cougar Mellencamp’s Troubled Land, Small Town, Little Pink Houses, and Rain on the Scarecrow served as inspiration for this column.