Sarah Mock: Farm And Other F Words

Today’s newsletter was written by a new woman. That’s what I feel like, anyway. I turned in my manuscript and the second vaccine is now coursing through me. I’ve been eating at restaurants. I’ve even been reading books. 

One that’s stuck with me came out a few weeks ago by a freelance journalist and farmer I admire, Sarah Mock. It’s called Farm and Other F Words. In it, Mock explores the myth of the small family farm, the wealth that has accumulated on corporate farms and the government’s role in enabling it (hello, $38 billion of subsidies annually!) 

It’s a soul-crushing story. Except Mock tells it hilariously and, crucially, without romanticism about the agrarian life and small family farms like the dairy she grew up on in Wyoming. As she told me while we were catching up recently: “If you're independently wealthy, you can farm forever and you're going to do great, likely. But some people have wealth when they start, and then they lose it all, and then they have to exit. There's a lot of stories in agriculture of people who are in that position. So we have built this perception that there's this big class of impoverished farmers out there, and the reality is when you look at the data from the Economic Research Service, it's not true. Most farmers are wealthy and that’s because 2 million people in the United States control $3 trillion worth of farmland wealth. That farmland value doesn't really go down. As long as you own it, you can stay and have a pretty stable level of wealth, especially because farmland is some of the least taxed forms of wealth in the country. This virtue of the American family farm and what it is all tied up in, on closer inspection, falls apart.”

As a former wealth reporter, I was echoing a steady stream of “yes, yes, YES!” as she explained this all to me, and after our conversation, I devoured her book quickly. It asks key questions like do farmers really get paid not to farm and whether big corporate farms have to be the future of agriculture. With blunt force, the book reframes decades of fraught history.

“The future of American agriculture is not yet decided,” Mock writes. “A diabolical pair of ideas are out there, on the one hand, that our only hope is to give up on agriculture altogether, and on the other, that the sector’s many problems are already righting themselves and we just have to wait out the inevitable shift. Neither idea is true. The future of the American farm system is still unwritten. It can and will be guided and transformed by all its participants.”

— Chloe Sorvino

Get The Book: Farm and Other F Words

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What I’m Thinking About: 

James Beard award-winning chef and author Kwame Onwuachi on bringing more representation to the media and culinary industries. Lack of locally produced food propels Singapore into global race to attract meat alternative companies. Focus Brands has experienced ‘explosive’ growth. Jollibee to buy back $250 million in debt as business rebounds. New York City restaurateur Roni Mazumdar is one to watch. The Acclaimed Eleven Madison Park is going vegan and still will cost $335 a person. How DoorDash's new pricing structure will affect restaurants. Tate’s Bake Shops founder invests in better-for-you snacking company. Wendy’s dethrones Burger King to become #2 burger chain. Why the Pro-Act is key for racial justice and economic democracy. New York’s 2021 Michelin Stars. 

Weekend Reading:

Coffee Tech Startup Commits To Paying Colombian Farmers 20% More To Achieve A Living Income. Tech start-up Bellweather Coffee has publicly committed to paying farmers in its supply chain a living income. Shayna Harris explores how it is pioneering a data-driven approach to setting farm-gate coffee prices. 

Marita Canedo Of Migrant Justice On Milk With Dignity And Supporting Dairy Farmworkers. As Errol Schweizer writes, Migrant Justice dairy farm workers founded Milk With Dignity to organize for better pay, safer working conditions and a more just food system.

What Questions Should We Be Asking About Cell-Based Meats? What questions should consumers, advocates and retailers be asking about cell-based meats? Here is a starter list, compiled by Schweizer.

Joe Rosenthal And The Instagram Feed Looking To Save The Restaurant Industry From Itself. Thrilled to welcome back Lizzy Saxe to our roster. She writes here about how Rosenthal has used anonymous sources and publicly available information to break major restaurant news.

Can You Compost Cicadas? Millions of cicadas will emerge soon in the U.S. Can they add a little crunch into your soils? Here's an explanation from contributor Marshall Shephard, with a broad climate lesson too.

The Emergence Of The New American Table Within The $6.2 Trillion Food Retail Market. The United States is more diverse than any time in post-colonial history. Shayna Harris digs into the deep implications for what and how we eat.

It’s Not Just Fuel — $7 Corn Is Sending Meat Prices Soaring. Two of the biggest global meat suppliers JBS and Tyson announced this week that consumer prices would rise due to soaring grain costs and unfavorable market conditions. By me.

Say Hi: I’ll be interviewing baking expert Bryan Ford, author of New World Sourdough, LIVE on the Forbes Instagram account on Tuesday, May 18th at 1 p.m. EST. Tell me what questions you’d like to hear asked!

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