Two-day even brings together disparate voices
for a discussion in the shadows of the Hollywood Hills.
Bryce Knorr
The last time rural American showed up in
Beverly Hills was back in the 1960s, when Uncle Jed struck oil, packed up his
family and moved to the posh L.A. neighborhood. But this week the U.S. Farmers
& Ranchers Alliance is back, as part of its mission to engage the public
about how their food is produced.
A two-day program, part of "The Food
Dialogues," kicked off Wednesday at the Beverly Hills Hotel, in a meeting
room down a garden path from the famed Polo Club restaurant. Hollywood and
'Vine:' The Intersection of Pop Culture and Food Production, kicked off with a
two-hour panel discussion streamed live on the internet that included
representatives from both agriculture and the entertainment industry.
TV producer and director Juliet D’Annibale
talks to California farmer and Rancher Jeff Fowle about the opportunities for
farmers to tell their story.
It was a far cry from the usual policy
discussion, for sure. But though TV food shows are sometimes more like
"Jersey Shore" than Julia Child, the topic is a serious one for
producers. Whether it's controversial documentaries like "Food Inc."
or a cooking show chef pouring ammonia on hamburger and calling it "pink
slime," the business can have a huge impact on the food business.
Still, Hollywood is Hollywood, even to a
northern California farmer and rancher like Jeff Fowle, the lone producer on
the panel.
USFRA panels began Wednesday. From left,
Danny Boone, celebrity chef and TV show host, Juliet D’Annibale, television
director and producer, Jeff Fowle, farmer and rancher, George Motz, filmmaker
and hamburger expert, Karen Rosa, director of the American Human Association’s
film and television unit, and Scott Vernon, professor of Agricultural
Communications at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo.
"You never get used to it," Fowle
laughed, wearing a cowboy hat and boots before getting outfitted with a
microphone.
Food, which most Americans took for granted
for several generations, emerged as a hot topic in the years after the 9/11
terrorist attacks, says celebrity chef and TV host Danny Boone, first as a
source of comfort, and then as a point of controversy, thanks to documentaries
such as "Food Inc." and "Supersize Me." At the center of
the trend are television shows and cable TV, such as the Food Network, whose
success is luring other players into the space, such as Nickelodeon and Disney.
"The shows have helped ignite the
conversation," says Boone.
Juliet D'Annibale, a director and producer of
food shows, agreed: "Food is such a trendy thing right now. People really
do care."
While some of the more vocal voices in the
animal rights debate pushed the policy pendulum to the extreme, initiatives by
industry groups developed solutions. Enhanced housing for poultry helped
counter-balance the claims of free range advocates, said Karen Rosa, director
of the American Humane Association's film and television unit. "People are
interested where there food comes from."
Fowle said farmers need to
"conversate" – not just telling the public what they think, but
listening, too. "We in agriculture have just as much or more to learn from
our customers," says Fowle. Indeed, Fowle made of point of calling them
customers, not consumers.
While part of the media's responsibility is
to education, it's also a business. Controversy sells, says Boone, and it's
easy for a TV show exploit an issue like the recent "Pink Slime"
debate. "Panic is easy to start," he said.
"Let's not confuse it with the
news," agreed D'Annibale. "It's entertainment. But can it do more?
Can it educate the consumer about where their food comes from, how it's raised
and who raised it?"
Today's crop of cooking shows are starting to
re-involve the younger generation with food, giving them a passion for it, and
that's a good thing, said Fowle. "The microwave is the least passionate
thing I can think of."
The hay and cattle rancher said his
five-year-old watches "Chopped," a cooking competition show, then
asks, "'Hey dad, can we have that for dinner tonight?' It's a safe and
healthy show to watch with your kids."
Scott Vernon, professor of ag communications
at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, agreed. "It affects me
every day." His 12-year-old son watches food shows like Primal Chef.
"He has a more evolved pallet and takes food very seriously," Vernon
said.
Size of farms is another issue in the debate.
And D'Annibale admitted she thinks big corporations run today's farms.
"It's true, I believe it's largely corporations. The uninformed like
myself believe that big business is running it."
Fowle noted that anyone talking about
efficiency in making a car would believe it's good. But efficiency in
agriculture is perceived as bad. Still, he said, size is not the goal –
optimizing the operation is. "You can be large, small or anything in
between," he said.
Fowle said farmers have no trouble being
honest. Being open about what they really do may be more difficult. So, he uses
humor in his online posts in a variety of social media, from Facebook to You
Tube to Twitter. "I meet up with different people on Facebook than I do on
Twitter," he said.
Sitting in the front row of the audience was
Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation and Chairman of
USFRA. Afterward, he said the discussion was important to the typical Midwest
farmer, even though corn and soybeans aren't served in celebrity restaurants or
featured on cooking shows. A big market for those crops is pork, beef and
poultry that is a key ingredient for these shows, for one. And issues over
water resources, nutrients, crop protection and biotechnology are all in the
debate.
Part of the job for agriculture is correcting
mistakes that creep into the media. Today's panel provided a perfect example of
that when D'Annibale mentioned the "10-year" Farm Bill several times.
Stallman, a veteran of those discussions since the 1985 law, smiled and just
held five fingers.
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