Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Bite Your Tongue Summer Guide: A Farmer's Rebuttal
Posted by Carrington Fox on Wed, May 27, 2009 at 6:18 AM
Well, apparently not everyone loved the Scene's Summer Guide. Tallahassee May (pictured above), for one, objected to the use of Delvin Farms as a backdrop for beefcake instead of as a centerpiece in and of itself.
May, whose Turnbull Creek Farm partners with Drury Family Farm to create Fresh Harvest Co-op, drafted a response to the Scene's cover story in a May 23 posting on her blog. You can check out her rebuttal and get a gorgeous photo tour of life on a farm during the growing season.
(Tally, you may not know this, but it's thanks to you that Yvonne Smith, a.k.a. the Traveling Vegetarian, graces the Scene's cover this week. That's because I first met Yvonne two years ago when we were both picking up vegetables at Fresh Harvest on a Wednesday afternoon at the corner of Sharondale and Hillsboro.)
Comments (6)
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My first thought was what were the Delvins thinking?
If you know these folks like I do, it just don't make sense. No, I won't broach the topic with them either. They possess way too much clout nowdays.
Furthermore if you dumbasses knew *anything* about farming, you would realize that the beefcake element simply does not exist. The average age of Americas farmers is running at about 54 years old. No hotties in the milking room, alas.
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That's definitely what we were aiming for with our swimsuit pictorial: a demographically accurate portrayal of contemporary farming.
As for the Delvins, they couldn't have been nicer. Here's hoping folks are fooled into checking out their wonderful produce by the prospect of close encounters with shirtless he-men and gorgeous vegetarians.
Also, if I'd known Tallahassee May, I'd have totally asked her to be in it. Next year?
Deeper thought: I'm pretty sure that almost everyone checking out the pictorial realizes that it's about an accurate portrayal of farming as the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is of a day at the beach. Nobody picks up an issue featuring normal folks doing normal jobs, it's eye-catching and attractive - what's so wrong with that? Besides, the demographic of the American farmer is changing all the time and without someone making farming look attractive to a younger generation, who is going to grow our food when all those 54 year old farmers start retiring?
Thanks all for the comments...
I guess my point was that Middle Tennessee is really a microcosm of the greater alternative agriculture movement, and that's something we should really take pride in. It's not just the stereotypical white older male farmer. My community consists of women farmers, young couples, retirees, families of all sizes and denominations, many doing organic or biodynamic practices and creating their own direct market economy. There is vibrant support for local food, a very enthusiastic population of chefs, great Farmer's Markets, and a growing grassroots movement around urban farming and food security.
There is not a ton of us, but it's not the status quo either, and again, cheerleaders in bikinis is "same old, same old", no matter what the location.
I'll shut up now.
