Generic

Most people are increasingly concerned that our food system consists of just a few major players who operate on an international scale to put food on your table. Transparency is obviously an issue when customers are spread all over the country and producers are all over the world. As the beef industry consolidates into a vertically integrated mass production machine, they're running into issues with public relations.

The problem faced by promotional entities of Big Beef is they're forced to represent a generic product because their umbrella encompasses almost everything. Nobody within the group can admit if one production practice is better than another or if domestic beef should be favored over foreign; they're stuck in the stagnant waters of generalization when it comes to outreach. They have to try and make the cheapest, most widely produced garbage look as good as a premium, single source steak from a family farm. The resulting advertising is as ridiculous as a car salesman trying to convince a buyer that an '84 Chevy Cavalier and a 2018 Ferrari 488GTB are of equal quality and value.

Customers today don't want generalities. Eaters want specifics, relationships, and communities. I don't care how much money Generic Beef has to try and sway the masses, it will never be able to purchase the goodwill created by face-to-face interactions on a real family farm. Promoting an unlimited supply of common, cheap beef maintains a model of careless consumption that eliminates the valuable role of farmers in our society. As more people make the effort to shop directly from the farm, the value and quality of food will increase because it's much harder to take for granted a product raised by hand and sold in limited quantities directly to the families who use it.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of the ride. Your food dollars have the power to change our entire food landscape when you choose to spend them locally, and we can't wait to see what the future holds!