Growers Can Control Our Industry’s Public Image [Opinion]

Richard JonesBy now you’ve probably heard about and maybe even seen the Chipotle-restaurant-produced video series, Farmed and Dangerous. The four-part series premiered in February on Hulu and continued the company’s very visible support for sustainable farming practices.

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The content of the series goes a step beyond Chipotle’s previous ad campaigns touting its sourcing of sustainable ingredients. This is a full-on takedown of factory farming in a TV-sitcom format.

I’ve read a few opinion pieces and news stories with ag groups complaining about a portrayal of U.S. farming that puts everyone in our industry in a bad light. After watching all four episodes, however, I have a hard time imagining this series is going cause many viewers to think worse of farmers. This isn’t a hard-hitting documentary. This is broad satire — ultra-evil agribusiness, six-winged chickens and exploding cows(!) — that sets up an easy target for viewers to feel good about knocking down.

A show like Farmed and Dangerous isn’t going to hurt your fruit operation. In fact, the series promotes much the same message that our industry is promoting: sustainably produced, safe, nutritious produce, grown by our nation’s family farmers is the best choice for everyone.

Actually, there is a bigger issue in the media doing much more damage to the reputation of our industry than Chipotle’s web series is. Stories like the one that came out in early March about a Michigan man getting prison time for selling tainted and unlicensed sweet cider are much more likely to impact you as a grower.

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Despite multiple citations for making and selling cider without a license, James Ruster, owner of Mitchell Hill Farm, eventually sent four people to the hospital with his E. coli O157:H7-tainted product. The victims may suffer symptoms for the rest of their lives.

This is clearly a case of one bad actor whose bad actions impact all of us. Scary stories like this change consumer behavior. People hear that someone got E. coli from drinking fresh cider and stop drinking fresh cider and buying it for their families.

The industry is doing its best to get the message out that this incident was an outlier.
“No foodborne illness outbreaks have been associated with cider producers following the GMPs [good manufacturing practices] or meeting the requirements of the law, and Michigan’s apple industry as a whole works closely with regulators to make sure production practices use the best science available to keep products safe,” said Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development director Jamie Clover Adams.

In the end, though, how many people heard that message and how many watched the news and heard only, “Fresh cider is unsafe?”

Every case of contamination should not be penalized equally. Problems happen in the best-run operations. As an industry, we have to take care of our own business and ensure everything we’re doing is safe. We must be transparent and public in showing what we’re doing to protect our customers. And we should support strong penalties that make it clear that we do not support anyone cutting corners.

Someone in Michigan will be spending the next 14 to 48 months in prison. For the damage he did to the lives of his victims and the potential damage he’s done to his peers, that seems fitting.

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