VIRGINIA AG SECRETARY LOVES STINKY FARMS

The commencement speaker at a local high school on Saturday was Kate Frazier, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, a cabinet appointment of our new Governor Abigail Spanberger.

                  After explaining how accomplished she was to be named to this position, she challenged the graduates with the common list of things:  persevere, collaborate, etc.

                  But then she launched into a section about gratitude, especially for where you were born, your roots.  While I agree with that in principle, I was quite taken aback with what she wanted these Shenandoah Valley grads to remember gratefully. 

                  "Be grateful for the smell of poultry litter--it smells like money to me," she said.  Of all the things she could have identified as memorable in our area, stinky farms topped her list.  It illustrates not only the worldview of industrial Big Ag, but how absolutely disconnected it is from people.

                  You would think farmers and the farming community would be dialed into all the nuances surrounding food.  Nutrition, production, taste.  But no, mainstream farmers are not only oblivious to how what they do affects their neighbors; they feel entitled to continue doing it. In the next breath, she admonished the grads to "spread care and kindness everywhere."

                  Does stinking up the neighborhood sound like spreading care and kindness?  Are you kidding me?  People don't want stinky neighborhoods.  Here she is telling a graduating class that the greatest memory they could carry with them about their childhood home is  poultry manure stench.  How could anyone in public office be this blind and tone deaf to the real desires of a community?

                  I'll tell you how:  when you believe what you're doing is so important you are above neighborhood obligations.  Nobody should be forced to breathe fecal particulate air.  I call that your fist hitting my nose--literally and pun fully intended.  

                  I think this speech illustrates one of the growing problems in American farming:  farmers do not see themselves as part of a food and fiber system.  They see themselves as standing aloof from culture, standing on a pedestal.  They see themselves as deserving to exist whether what they produce is beneficial or not. 

                  This is the sense of the soybean farmers demanding $12 billion bailouts--yes, they received it thanks to President Trump.  Who cares if the world is awash in too many soybeans?  "We're soybean farmers, by golly, and you'd better support us."  Would any of these farmers suggest that a construction project requiring 20 electricians hire 30 because "electricians deserve employment?"  Of course not.  This is the intellectual schizophrenia of modern industrial agriculture. 

                  If any other business in our area stunk up the neighborhood like these poultry farmers, these poultry farmers and everyone else would be up in arms.  But somehow farmers--and certainly our Sec. of Ag--assume they're so special society should give them a pass for making our neighborhood smell like a septic tank.  As the current leader and spokesperson for Virginia agriculture, Sec. Frazier is embarrassingly naive and elitist. 

                  Her thinking is the reason people are fleeing industrial food.  It's the reason a growing sector of the culture hates farmers--look at what's going on in Oregon.  This "I don't care if I stink up the neighborhood" is a recipe for consumer pushback and, ultimately, political and societal correction.  You can't walk around punching people in the nose and assume they'll enjoy it.

                  If Sec. Frazier visited our farm and walked through thousands of chickens without any smells, what would she say?