Against the Odds: A Path Forward for Rural America authors (left to right) Jessica Eise, Bruce Vincent and Nicole J. Olynk Widmar at Bruce’s home in Libby, Montana.“YOU are such a hypocrite!”, or the equally prickling plural version, “THEY are such hypocrites!”, get flung around quite often in debates about natural resource use and the environment. Increasingly, these phrases are also flung around in production agriculture where natural resource use intersects production of goods for human consumption in perhaps the most obvious and spectacular way. In addition to being an insult, or at least seemingly intended as one, it makes for an excellent starting point in an argument because, well, it is true! The problem is that if you stop to look in a mirror, it turns out the comeback of, “And, so you are YOU!” is also equally true. When it comes to consumption (which we all do) and consumers (which we all are), we are indeed ALL hypocrites.
Unfortunately, this universal truth-turned-insult gets us nowhere, except for embroiled in an us-versus-them debate between producers and consumers. This debate and inability, or unwillingness, to listen and hear one another without pre-forming our explanation of why we are right has gotten us where we are now. One cannot engage in battle with their consumer and expect to come out ahead; it simply does not work. In short bursts, it may seem to ‘work’ when businesses and corporations get their way, but building resentment with your customer is seldom a long-term path to success.
“Actions that directly violate our stated priorities run rampant, and this is particularly true around matters of environmentalism. You could argue it’s impossible to even live normally in some form of shelter with some form of energy for heat, light and/or transportation and not create negative impacts on the environment. Simply living could contradict a stated intention to care for and prioritize (or even want to save) the environment.”
Quoted from Against the Odds: A Path Forward for Rural America by Bruce Vincent, Nicole J Olynk Widmar, and Jessica Eise. Chapter 17. We’re All Hypocrites.
In 2016, I began on a journey of co-authoring a book, which has become one of my proudest accomplishments. Together, a third-generation logger from Libby, Montana (Bruce Vincent), a professor (yours truly) and a writer/author/communications expert (Jessica Eise) embarked on a journey to give “a powerful firsthand account of life in rural America that offers a broad, probing look at the environmental tension surrounding the collapse of many of our rural resource communities.” (Against the Odds: A Path Forward for Rural America by Bruce Vincent, Nicole J Olynk Widmar, and Jessica Eise.)
The result of our collaboration is the heart-wrenching story of Vincent Logging and the annotated life story of Bruce Vincent told in 169 pages of text. More personally, the result is a stronger understanding of what I seek as my own contribution to the world with respect to my research and educational outreach efforts to aid agricultural and natural resource intensive industries in how to navigate production decisions while taking into account the demands and perspectives of the human beings who inhabit this earth, and thus, have a stake in those resources, even if they do not have any interest in purchasing or partaking in what you are producing.
Hypocrisy creates significant communication barriers, and none of us are immune. Everyday mundane activities reveal us as hypocritical as our stated beliefs collide with our personal actions and our own budgetary constraints. Examples include donating to charities to offset other expenditures for which we feel guilt, wasteful or even inappropriate, or a stated devotion to reduction in greenhouse gas emission followed by heating one’s home, consuming electricity, driving a car (or SUV!) and taking vacations to far-away places reached by airplane.
A little closer to home for agribusinesses are food and fiber industries and the processes employed in production of the products that feed, house and clothe us all. Animal agriculture is rich with opportunities for hypocrisy. Farm landscapes and farm animals are ubiquitous in children’s stories. Relatability to animals is cultivated almost from birth whether children are born into rural, urban or suburban childhoods, yet, those farm animals we feature in cartoons, stuffed toys and coloring books are the same ones we eat.
“Bears, cats, mice and a whole lot of talking, feeling and emotion-laden farm animals have warmed our hearts for generations. Yet, many of the stars of such media are also features of the dinner table. They are our beloved friends and heroes on one hand, but on the other? Most of us don’t have even a second thought of serving them up for dinner.”
Quoted from Against the Odds: A Path Forward for Rural America by Bruce Vincent, Nicole J Olynk Widmar, and Jessica Eise. Chapter 17. We’re All Hypocrites
Hypocrisy is all around us; we each participate fully whether we have framed it as such or not. Production of food, as production of any goods, is a balancing act of tradeoffs between the products we get (goods) and the negative externalities that we create as byproducts. Most of the strife and argument between producers and consumers in animal agriculture today, and agricultural production systems more broadly, is surrounding the tradeoffs. Fundamentally, the argument is around the question, “What is an acceptable tradeoff?”
Yet, my friend Bruce Vincent said it best,
“We can’t keep using the hypocrisy of others as a veil for why we shouldn’t seek to do anything productive. Positive actions are positive and they should be encouraged out of our internal drive or moral obligations. Even though we, or they, are likely still hypocrites anyway.”
ConsumerCorner.2020.Letter.08
