TrendingTowardTransparency

March 14, 2014 Becky Rosaler Humanity

Opening aged boxes of family treasures, I found yellow-stained papers with cursive penmanship and brittle
photographs. Each piece told a story of my grandparents youth, when days were marked by simple rhythms and
neighbors helped out in a pinch. Faded pictures show men and women holding the feet of chicken as a dusting of white
covers the groundde-feathering dinner. Grandpa Vans career as a meat distributer meant he had established
relationships with local farmers and butchers. In my grandmothers home, an icebox kept food cold, including milk
delivered every other day by the milkman.
Home gardens, milkmen and butchers speak of simpler times, when families had a vested interest in where their food
came from and how it was produced. The local sourcing of my grandparents food was based on necessity, but also on
relationship: relationship with local businesses, next-door neighbors and the land and animals that provided the very
nutrients they needed. In the decades following my grandparents youth, a peculiar change occurred in our food system.
As a drive for efficiency increased, minutes became too valuable to spend on relationships. Nation-wide companies that
held production in highest esteem overtook the growth and production of crops, elbowing local farmers out of the way.
Yet over the past few years, public perception has shifted. We are tired of the unknown mysteries involved in bringing
nutrition to us and, consequently, we are reverting back to a more transparent food economy. Digitally connected
friends share their photographs of vegetables grown in their very own garden, the daily chore of cleaning out their
chicken coop, and visits to the neighborhood farmers market. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions
are promoted as people revel in the fact that twice a month a fresh box of produce, meat, cheese and locally made goods
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are delivered right to their front door. Becoming a farmer, especially an organic farmer, is seen as a respected career
decision.
This shift is clearest in the United Nations declaration of 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming. By
spotlighting the role of small-scale family farmers around the world, IYFF reminds us that relationships and local
production remain key to global food security and a sustainable food economy. In his article, The Family Farming
Revolution, Jos Graziano da Silva writes, [IYFF] provides an occasion to highlight the role that family farmers play in
eradicating hunger and conserving natural resources, central elements of the sustainable future we want. The UNs
decision sheds light on an important cultural trendwe are re-learning to celebrate and support small-scale farmers and
locally sourced food.
Dale Partridge, who has studied cultural trends, shares that a shift toward transparency is not so unexpected in his talk
titled People Over Profits. He explains the explosive popularity of farmers markets is evidence that we have lost trust
in our grocers, we have lost trust in our food companies. Partridge argues that truth, transparency, quality, and
authenticity will be the best strategy for businesses to move forward over the next couple of years as we transition into
a more honest business era. This quality and relational element is exactly what consumers are looking for in homegrown
foods produced by family farmers.
We should be encouraged to note that a people-based food system isnt just a trend; its the model by which most of
the worlds food is grown. Family farmersthose who farm the small plots next to their homes for their own sustenance
as well as a source of incomeproduce 70 percent of the worlds food. They represent the backbone of our global food
system. For the rural food economy, and therefore the global food economy, relationship is everything. Family farmers
intimately know their land, the seasons and their neighbors, with whom they barter food and sell produce. The
International Year of Family Farming gives us a chance to recognize people as the essential ingredient in a healthy food
system.
If we truly value a food system that hinges on transparency and relationship, then it is time to invest in family farming.
Despite the essential role they play in the earths food production, rural farmers have limited access to resources. Plant
With Purpose, an international environmental development agency that promotes healed relationships with land and
livelihoods, reports that crop production from family gardens can double with small investments in basic tools and
training. This increase in crop productivity is opening the door for rural farmers to earn an income through hard work.
And as a result, it is changing families futures. This unique development model not only promotes healed relationships
between people and their land, but also between each other.
The International Year of Family Farming is representative of an important movement toward a more transparent era.
We are trending backward as well as outward, remembering the relational value our grandparents placed on their food,
as well as the 500 million family farms producing food today. Lets welcome 2014 as the year to support family farmers,
both locally and globally. Plant some seeds with your children, volunteer at your community garden, invest in rural family
farmers, cook together and cherish the relationships that deepen around the table.
Our cultures movement toward farmers markets, CSA shares and handmade products is more than a trend. We are
entering a new, transparent era, one that is reminiscent of my grandparents youth as well as family farms worldwide.
There is no better time to invest in the future of a transparent food systemone that hinges on our neighbors, local
growers, and small-scale farmsthan the Year of Family Farming.
photo by: khawkins04
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