Willie: the voice of Global Agriculture? Yikes.

If you've ever been lucky enough to be around when the subject of modern farming practices comes up in conversation, you know this is a major hot button for me. My husband has learned to live in fear of the moment when someone within earshot of me mentions something about organic foods being healthier, factory farms being inhumane, pesticides being used irresponsibly... you get the idea.


My goal in this post is not to take on each of those issues individually. There are tons of much more qualified folks within the Ag Industry singing that song and supporting what our farmers do. (like Holly Spangler, who you can read here or Emily Webel here)


The central issue for me, the hot button, the soap box and the message of this post is this: the decisions we make, the commercials we run, the legislation we pass, the agricultural science we criticize...things we think will simply make a difference on the shelves of our local grocery stores actually have GLOBAL IMPACT.


Here's a recent example that I've been itching to tackle ever since the Super Bowl. As many of you recall, Chipotle ran an ad casting modern farming practices in a very bad light, depicting animated pigs being pumped full of chemicals and pills until the animated farmer has an epiphany and knocks down buildings and fences to allow said pigs to run and frolic to their heart's content.

Here's how Fox News reported it: "It may feature cute animation, but the message is a strong one. It’s an indictment of what many consider a dark side to the meat industry here in America: factory farming. While people may dream of animals roaming free before being taken to slaughterhouses, in reality, most meat comes from animals held in cramped cages their entire lives, pumped full of drugs and food that plumps them up in a short amount of time."


Now, while the advertising major in me can appreciate the well crafted message and clever animation, and even the Willie factor, the part-time, very inexperienced and very new-to-this economic developer in me is horrified.


And here's why.


Chipotle is trying to sell more burritos. Simple. As. That. They are using a popular social issue and great advertising to do so, but at the end of the day, they have a bottom line and share holders that like it when they operate in the black.


The problem is, the message that they're using to sell more burritos impacts lives far beyond those that grace their corrugated tin doors. Leaders of developing nations are listening, to our advertising, our talk shows (cough...Oprah), to our legislators and to us. American voices can be LOUD and we demand to be heard, without always thinking about who is listening.


This issue has always been an important one to me, but never more so than since we started farming in Rwanda. When you can look into the very faces of mothers who are breaking their backs in fields planting open-pollinated seed that is sure to dry up if there is no rain, knowing that drought-tolerant seed is available but illegal in their country, nothing is more heart-breaking.


Our choices abound in this country, from what food we buy, to what seed we plant, and where we go to church. Not so in much of the rest of the world. And the voice in which we speak about these freedoms carries great distances.


No one is speaking about or supporting this message better than Bill Gates. In a recent speech given to the UN Rural Poverty agency IFAD, he is quoted as saying, "If you care about the poorest, you care about agriculture. We believe that it's possible for small farmers to double and in some cases even triple their yields in the next 20 years while preserving the land." A fact that we are seeing first hand on our model farm in Mpanga just by introducing mechanized methods and better seed bed preparation.


He goes on to defend the case of GMO's (genetically modified organisms), a highly controversial issue in developing nations, by saying "You should go out and talk to people growing rice and say do they mind that it was created in a laboratory when their child has enough to eat?"


And that, my friends, is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Somehow when Bill Gates says it, it carries a little more weight. Weird, I know.