“Farmers feed cities”

I’m sure everyone has seen this bumper sticker at least once. It seems to be growing in popularity.

I guess farmers are feeling neglected.

Now I have nothing against farmers. We need food so we need farmers. But I find the whining and winging a bit annoying.

If it weren’t for urban population concentrations where would farmers sell their goods? If it weren’t for manufacturing and the urban working class how would farmers plant and harvest their produce? If it weren’t for scientists at universities how would farmers get those new hardier and more economically/environmentally viable strains of grain and other plants?

What I resent, as a progressive urban dweller, is the conservative governments that farmers continue to disproportionally support. Rural voters (not all farmers, of course) stymie the progressive instincts of the urban population. They vote for governments that would decrease the earning power of the people who buy from farmers and produce their machinery. They vote for governments that deny climate change and would cut back of agricultural scientific research.

So every time I see one of these bumpers stickers I feel like asking the driver ‘what the f**k are you asking for?’.

Read this article for some of the economics of farming in Canada: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/taxpayers-oblivious-to-the-cost-of-farm-subsidies/article13055078/

I think it’s better to practice the politics of inclusion and unity of working people…whether in the city or on the farm, not sow division the way these silly bumper stickers do.