Snyder: ‘It’s Going to Take All of Us to Get It Right’

Editor’s note: In a front-page article in last week’s Lancaster Farming, some quotes from the Feb. 2 opening session of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conference were wrongly attributed to Brian Snyder, PASA executive director. The critical remarks, specifically referring to two other ag organizations in the state, were actually made by Kim Miller, the outgoing president of PASA.
Below is the full text of the speech Snyder gave at the opening session, entitled “From Confusion to the Common Good.”

Brian W. Snyder
Executive Director
PASA

Every year the PASA conference comes shortly after our president’s State of the Union address to Congress. And so this leaves me in a frame of mind thinking about the state of PASA, how we are doing as an organization and whether or not we are achieving the kind of change in the world we wish to see.

There’s also a natural inclination to stop at this time of year before you, our members, launch into a new growing season, to see if we can perceive any trends that might affect your work or your success, on the farm or another part of our food system. Will it be more of the same this year, or are we really getting somewhere?

Well here’s a quick answer to these questions, at least from my perspective. Since I moved to Pennsylvania in 2001 to take this job, there has never been another time when there was as much going on, as much discussion about the future of food or as much confusion occurring in agriculture as there is today. And if you’ve studied anything about social change or scientific revolutions as I have, you know that “confusion” can be a prime indicator of active change in the system!

With both an Ag Census and new Farm Bill due this year, we will soon have some concrete evidence of just how much change is actually occurring out there. But in the meantime I thought I would share with you some anecdotal evidence that I have witnessed in recent months . . . perhaps you’ve noticed some of these things too.

First, I recently received an interesting item in the mail. This very flashy advertisement for McDonald’s would have you thinking we’re not talking about an ordinary fast-food restaurant here. On the cover you see pictures of brownish looking eggs and fresh oranges . . . I guess just before they get squeezed. The tomato slices are ample and fire-engine red, and the hamburger patties are — I measured them — a full half-inch thick. But the one I like best is this photo of an actual wheel of artisan cheese . . . I suppose they have a fellow in a French hat in the back of every McDonald’s nowadays, cutting a fresh slice off every time someone orders a cheeseburger! But then you look to the writing on the front. It says among other things that “we promise to use only quality, wholesome ingredients and to support agricultural and economic growth in our communities.” I half expected to open up the brochure to find a picture of a farmer feeding the chickens by hand, but mercifully that was not the case.

So, are you confused yet!? I haven’t been to a McDonald’s lately and unfortunately these two-for-one coupons inside expired yesterday. But can anyone tell me if they’ve changed this much? They seem to be trying to push the concepts of “fresh” and “local” . . . Gee, I wonder where they got THAT idea?

I’ll tell you one place they might have gotten it. Maybe from a PASA member who happens also to be the new director of food and beverage for the Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, where a few years ago he initiated a program to have all of their 80 restaurants, 72 Healthcare accounts and 40 college and business dining accounts purchase 20 percent of their food supply in and around their communities. I am speaking of Jamie Moore, and he is in the audience with us today. So here is one example of where I think confusion in the system is an indicator of progress being made.

For my second example, I will just reference the current furor in this state and elsewhere over milk quality. If you’ve missed it, you haven’t been paying attention. Milk quality is really a fairly complicated issue, creating confusion all by itself. I have been part of a minority of the Pennsylvania Dairy Task Force that eventually convinced the group to look at this issue.

Along the way we heard some familiar excuses, like the person who said in an early meeting, “We can’t improve milk quality in this state because the quality of our milk is so poor.” And when I get to talking about organic or grassfed milk as a potential source of quality, someone will invariably say something like “If we all make high quality milk like that, then what are the poor people gonna drink!?” These are the kind of arguments that supply their own rebuttal, especially if you think about them long enough. I mean, I’m sympathetic on the issue of cost, and I think Joel Salatin got it right when he told us last night that there really is no honor in having the highest prices around. But then I must insist that farmers are not really responsible, and should not be penalized, for the very REAL problem of unfair distribution of wealth in this country and around the world!

But the big issue these days revolves around the practice of using artificial growth hormones, or rbST to induce more milk production from cows. The issue-behind-the-issue here is that there simply isn’t enough certified organic milk to meet demand in the country, and so the processors are responding to what they believe consumers care about most by asking farmers to not use the drug Posilac that is marketed by Monsanto.

Well, you can legitimately take different positions on this, depending on the scientific evidence you rely upon and the way in which you look at how the profits from rbST-free milk get distributed. As is so often the case, the farmer seems to get the short end of the stick in all of this. But regardless of these circumstances, I am wondering, just how many of you would agree with me when I say that I just don’t want either the cows that produce milk for my family, or the sports heroes who I admire, to be injected with artificial growth hormones? Folks, the use of artificial hormones in agricultural production is not primarily a scientific issue, but an ethical issue — and as I’ve often said, scientists often do not make very good ethicists. The issue with milk is confusing, but again, I think confusion in this case constitutes progress.

The third example I will give is a bit more personal, because as I travel around the state and participate in meetings where people are still trying to get used to the idea that there are now four agricultural organizations to be accounted for in Pennsylvania rather than just three, I often hear criticism that is becoming painfully familiar.

There are really two oft’ repeated statements that get under my skin, and they were just recently cited again in a letter received by our office from the head of one of the other three ag organizations right around Christmastime. It is said that PASA is just trying to turn the clock back on agriculture in Pennsylvania, usually somewhere from 50 years to a full century. And it is also said that our efforts are aimed at defeating unity by fragmenting the industry so that everyone ends up losing.

You know, the first one of those comments just makes me hopping mad, because nothing could be further from the truth. All of us at PASA love science and use research as a basis for our work. We especially like the kind of research where the outcome is not predetermined by the funding source. And I will stand with (Penn State) Dean (Robert) Steele and Senator (Mike) Brubaker, who are here with us today, in insisting on more public funding for research that will be done in the public’s best interests!

But the second comment is the one that always hurts the most. And I sometimes wonder if we here in this country even know what “unity” is anymore. Because whether we are talking about agriculture, or national politics, or relations with our neighbors around the world, the “enemy” is not an individual, a group or even a country that thinks this way or that way . . . the “enemy” is monolithic thinking of any kind, and it must be confronted anywhere we find it.

For when we achieve true unity, it will be a meeting of the minds that honors and welcomes the many different perspectives and approaches of the agricultural community, because it’s going to take all of us to get it right.

I want to direct your attention to the large banner behind me and the theme of this conference (16th Annual Farming for the Future Conference: “Cultivating Excellence — Farming to Serve the Common Good”). We are here to talk about the “excellence” of our farming, which in one way is represented by the quality of the food we produce. We are here to talk about the “service” we provide to our customers, to our communities and to each other. And we are here to talk about how we can do this to achieve the “common good,” so that everyone in our society wins.

As you can also see from this banner, and all those that came before that are arrayed around the room, this is not the “Farming for the Past” conference, nor is it the “Farming for the Status Quo” conference, and I can tell you it certainly is not the “Farming to Keep Losing Farmers” conference. Take my word for it, I’ve been to all three of those, and you don’t want to go there!

No, this is the “Farming for the Future” conference, and we are proud of the increasing interest it is attracting and the meeting of the minds that can take place here, so that in this one instance we can move beyond the constructive confusion we now experience to find that genuine unity is still possible in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and in our troubled world today.