There is this movie – either you love it or you hate it. At the beginning of that movie, though, there is a monologue that is pretty good and ruminates on the meaning of, well, love, but it works for food production, too … if you’re flexible.
That is how I feel about National Agriculture Month. I used to be an ardent proponent of the underlying theme built into National Ag Month and, by extension, National Ag Day (March 24, if you’re wondering), but as time has gone on, I am less enthused about the observance as a one-dimensional idea. Officially, National Ag Month is a “time dedicated to recognizing the crucial contributions of farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses in producing food, fuel, and fiber. The monthlong celebration highlights the industry's role in the economy and daily life.”
Unofficially, there are key pieces of the puzzle missing from that notion of National Ag Month.
First, and foremost, without consumers, farms and ranches don’t have much to celebrate. Farms, ranches, and agribusinesses need the folks at the other end of the line who buy what they grow because farming and ranching is a business.
Second, education and outreach, are critical components to the celebration of agriculture. There are not enough months in the year for farmers, ranchers, and members of the agribusiness community to tell the story of food production in meaningful and approachable ways. According to most recent data, less than 2 percent of the total population of the United States is directly involved in food production.
Speaking of education and outreach, “directly involved in food production,” means less than 2 percent of Americans are actively planting, helping to grow, harvesting, washing, packaging, and shipping to the store, the food people buy in the store. Active participation means that less than 2 percent are the people who check on mama cows in the middle of the night alert to birthing complications or walk 30 feet into a corn field to determine if it is ready to be harvested.
Finally, the regulatory burden on farmers and ranchers is different than many other businesses and needs to be better explained. People in agricultural business circles often discuss the concept of being a “a price taker, not a price maker” but rarely expound on what that means.
Price makers are businesses that can “name their price” for the product they are trying to sell. Apple is a prime example of a price maker. The company dominates the smart phone market with its iPhone and when a new version of the iPhone is released, Apple sets the price of that product with little to no pushback in the market.
A price taker is a business in which the market, not the business, dictates the price a product is sold for. Farmers and ranchers are price takers. They grow their “products” based upon their best estimate of what the market will pay and what their geographic location will support while navigating the regulatory burdens and input costs in advance of getting paid.
When a price maker faces a new regulatory or input burden, they pass that cost on to the consumer via “making the price” for the product they intend to sell. If, for example, the costs of fuel and warehouse property taxes increase, then the cost of what they sell increases accordingly to cover those new expenses.
When a price taker faces a new regulatory or input burden, that cost is not passed on to anyone because price takers do not make their prices for goods produced, they “take the price” the market sets. Price takers must wait for what appears to be a “peak price” in the market and hope it will cover the regulatory or input increase.
Which brings me back to that movie that people either hate to love or love to hate, and the monologue about good things in the world. Our food system in the United States is one of the safest, best producing, and most efficient in the world. Even so, it has been suffering during the last several years. Yet our farmers and ranchers are still holding on during this year’s National Ag Month.
So, hear me out when I borrow from the movie and write instead: Whenever I get gloomy about the state of agriculture today, I think about green fields in the spring and new calves being born. General opinion in agriculture is that we live in a world of pessimism and poor markets, but I think there’s more than that. It seems to me that hope is abundant on our farms and ranches. Often, it’s not in plain view or even particularly easy to find, but it’s always there – in the morning dew, the smell of fresh cut hay, the bellow of a cow, the bustle of early shoppers at a farmer’s market, eggs collected from the coop, hot coffee available any time of day. When farmers struggle, their friends and neighbors don’t ignore those struggles, they stop by with words of encouragement, offers to lend a hand, they help finish the harvest for a neighbor in need. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling agriculture, and its hope, actually … is all around.
During this National Ag Month, don’t just think about farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses. This month, think about all the ways that food production permeates our everyday life. No matter what part of the food supply chain a person is participating in, our food producers, packers, pickers, shippers, consumers, and everyone else along the way are equally important to consider when we think about agriculture and how to support it. From farm gate to dinner plate, each person in our state and beyond are equally responsible for the success of our farms and ranches and should be celebrated this month.
