We’re reading a great deal on the follies of our president and how he dangles a shiny object in front of us—like the promise to cut egg prices—then when he can’t get it done he immediately swaps it out for another promise—like buying Greenland or invading Panama.
Yeah, that’s weird. But, you know, we can do very little about POTUS’s blabbing. Our efforts pay back better when we work to change things in our own communities. And then, as the changes build momentum, Washington gets a clue and, eventually, there’s new policy.
This truth even extends to the price of eggs. There is a lot going on in the sustainable ag world, and all of it pushed by activists in their own communities demanding more and better local production. Not long ago, I visited with an egg producer who started in 2008. The first time he went to a farmers’ market with his eggs, he set up a card table in a parking lot and sold a half dozen eggs. The buyer lived alone, didn’t think she needed a full dozen.
The next week, he set up his card table and sold four dozen eggs. Next week, 40 dozen. Now his business produces 42,000 eggs a week and sells to restaurants and grocery stores all over the state. The farmers’ market where he started has grown, also, into a fancy shelter with a roof and walls that’s open year-round. Thank you, consumers, for demanding local production.
This isn’t an isolated example. We have other mid-Missouri egg farmers moving into local markets instead of selling to the big consolidators at prices that barely meet (or may not meet) costs. And it’s not only eggs. Veggies, plants, baked goods. When ordinary folks look for better food for our families, farmers respond.
When we at home look for solutions to ordinary problems, Washington sooner or later takes notice. Shoppers at commonplace grocery stores know that production from the protein sector is disappointing. Four companies control the beef industry. Tyson, American, is biggest when it comes to sales. JBS, Brazilian, follows. Then comes Cargill, based in Minnesota, and then National Beef Packing, Brazilian.
Never mind the environmental impact of Brazilian beef production that takes down the rain forest to create pasture and grain farms. Impact on the U.S. food security is more than troubling. The Biden administration kicked in to help build meat processors to serve our local communities. We’ll see if they survive under the new administration that they, after all, supported.
These smaller producers are building businesses that are more like the feed-your-neighbor businesses of 50 years ago. This is in contrast to the feed-the-world businesses that universities and U.S.D.A. pushed on rural America. “Get big or get out” U.S.D.A. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz said during his 1972-1976 reign and his words started the decline of rural America. Our prosperous small towns were doomed and so was the environment.
In the farmland of our parents, animals lived in pastures lined with rows of trees where wildlife could find a place. Butz encouraged farmers to tear out fence rows and fences. Then they could ask John Deere to create monstrous equipment to plow the bigger fields. This is supposed to be efficient but truthfully, it put owners into debt. As small farmers moved out, rural America became lonelier and the Earl Butz strategies spurred industrialization.
The giant fields and abandoning of rural America by families meant that chemicals were brought into service to control weeds and pests. In the 1990s, the most popular crops—corn and soybeans—were genetically modified to resist the chemicals, but that’s all. The crops were changed only to resist industry’s chemicals. They weren’t improved in terms of nutritional value.
But small groups of consumers saw the problems and the introduction of genetically modified crops (also called GMOs) turned into the beginning of consumer resistance. Finally, we are figuring out that monster equipment and monster fields mean the end of nature and the beginning of poor food quality. Organic foods have become fashionable and there are now consumer advocacy groups promoting local production, farmers’ markets, local branding and even co-operative business models in every state. Yay, us!
Every now and then, it’s important to remind ourselves that all politics is local. When Tip O’Neill used that phrase, repeatedly, back in the 1980s, he was saying that he could use local issues to sway national policy. One year, when he wanted to pass a billion dollar job bill, he had opposition from a lawmaker in Peoria, Illinois. O’Neill ran ads in Illinois to highlight what the bill could do for those voters and, hey presto!, the opposition caved. And even when all politics isn’t local, the politics that we can affect with our actions is more likely local than national or international.
Resolution #1 for 2025? Support your local communities!
Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2025
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