With Respect to Agriculture

With respect to agriculture, dismay and sadness comes to mind when reading the Internet or social media. By in large my experiences in agriculture would indicate the people I have met and worked with are good people. There is no doubt that good people can disagree and they do, but at the same time how did conjecture come to a standstill pertaining to issues of politics and food. Is there any middle ground to be had anymore?

In Rebecca Costa’s book, Watchman’s Rattle (http://www.rebeccacosta.com/about-the-book.htm), she identifies ‘super-memes’ that have pervaded our society and therefore block any chance of progression or transformation. From her website, by definition, “super-memes are learned thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are not necessarily true or viable, but passed on as unassailable from generation to generation. An example of a meme would be “Wait an hour before swimming.” In contrast, super-memes, which Costa explains for the first time, are complex, ingrained, deeply embedded cultural beliefs that prevent complex problem-solving from evolving at the same pace as social complexity.”

Costa points to five specific super-memes that she opines are blocking progress. Read through these aspects as limits to addressing the complexity of our food system resiliency and the growth of the grass-fed beef industry:

1) Irrational Opposition: are we more comfortable rejecting ideas than advocating solutions. Think two party political systems… do you vote against the candidate you fear the most versus the one you like the best? Is it easier to point the finger at another food system than to address challenges and advocate solutions. We can also use grass v grain-fed beef.
2) Personalization of Blame: this meme persists that as soon as everyone is held accountable, society is off the hook. Crime, poverty, obesity…. Farming! All of these can fall under this. If that boy had a spanking growing up these things would not happen… if only that person counted calories, or if only that person would quit tilling the land things would be better. Truth is any of these issues are highly complex and allaying blame really doesn’t get us far.
3) Counterfeit Correlation: Correlation does not mean causation. When we determine cause and effect it can lead to incorrect diagnosis of our problems. My favorite is pointing to the growing population…. In 30 years we need to have enough food to feed 10 billion people, the truth is we produce that many calories today.
4) Silo Thinking: Adopting a territorial mindset slows adoption of resilience. We can always learn things from other disciplines… in fact trans-disciplinary (holism) models completely doing away with disciplines will be key in the future of education and agriculture.
5) Extreme Economics: When the bottom line is the only line: hospital care, education, food systems, society suffers. Effectively because the path forward may negatively impact my bottom line, I will block any means necessary of adoption of a new technology. Unfortunately the dollar is seen as the only investment in society. Soil carbon, clean water and healthy food…. what about things that are rights to humanity?

All in all when I look at the grass-fed beef industry and its potential for growth, I see these memes slowing us down as well. I too take note as I am guilty of some of these things as well. Moving forward if I want to advocate and see transformation, gaining incite is key, and not letting super-memes slow our industry down. Down with roadblocks, including those that lead to Georgia. This is why you must be present at the 2016 Grassfed Exchange!