Local beef solves global trade tensions.

Local Beef Solves International Trade Tensions

Here is a headline I found in my email recently: ‘Five things cattle producers should know about beef trade with Japan.’

Headlines mentioning what we all ‘need to know’ about various countries around the world clog up nearly every artery of agricultural media I encounter. The global publicity fits, I suppose, considering farmers today are told they need to be as proficient at world-wide economics as they are at fixing equipment with baler twine and a scrap of metal salvaged from the road ditch.

You’ve probably read the tired old mantra in one form or another. Modern farmers need to be chemists. We need to be weathermen. Those smart phones need to keep us connected to market prices in Chicago. And the list goes on.

As I was reading this morning and came across the Japan trade deal headline, I couldn’t help thinking that we really shouldn’t need to know anything about Japan at all. Or China, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina, or even Canada. But the headlines are there and farmers obsess over what’s happening everywhere but at home.

The only reason they’re fussing is because everyone produces the same end product. A steak in Maine is the same as a steak in southern California. In fact, a person on a road trip from Maine to California could spend the entire journey indulging on steaks that are remarkably consistent. Furthermore, steaks in other countries are becoming alarmingly homogeneous, too.

Beef has become too boring.  Consumers long for connections to the farm, variety, integrity, and relationships, none of which are received from major beef packers.  Facing stagnant sales, the industry looks overseas for new markets instead of addressing the desires at home.  Consumers, feeling put off by the lack of attention, seek alternatives to beef in hopes of satisfying their desire for more wholesome meals.  Beef sales stagnate a little more, the industry pushes for more overseas trading, and the cycle continues. When food is all the same, competition starts to get a little tricky: it’s no longer demand that draws customers and pays your bills, it’s politicking.

Which brings us full circle to the trade deal with Japan. The United States is trying to grease the wheels to make a little money flow, and many a cattlemen is waiting with bated breath to see if this will finally be the windfall deal that nudges the price of their communal commodity beef upwards so they can make a profit. Of course, in the midst of it all, no shortage of political manure is being distributed. Everyone is trying to stick the blame on someone else’s shoulder: ‘It’s your fault the farmers are struggling!’

Well, not really.  A farmer in America does still have the ability to control his (or her) own destiny without the help of agribusiness and government ninnies.

Whoever decides to participate in the global trade complexity can be blamed for subjecting themselves to the rigors of keeping up to it.  Instead of learning about industry trade deals across the Pacific, American farmers need to learn a little more about their neighbors, and then create a plan to sell them beef.  It’s easier to keep up with what’s happening in town than what’s going on in Tokyo, and the relationships formed with the community are much more stable than those hinging on political friendships.

Here’s a personal example:

At home, we don’t have to worry a bit about the Japanese taste for American beef, because our steaks stay close to home. We aren’t aspiring to the lofty goal of feeding the world; we’re feeding our neighbors. Our beef is entirely unique. It stands out in a crowd, because it cannot be purchased anywhere else. The traveler in our aforementioned hypothetical cross country tour, should she stop by Clarion and visit our farm, would find a steak that’s not replicated again on the whole journey. See my point?

A regional economy solves the Japan crisis, because nobody is exporting to the other country. This frees up space in the mind of both the farmer and the consumer to be used for other creative ideas that can further alleviate the need to follow headlines streaming in from a different part of the world. Think how liberating such a reality is: when something goes wrong in Washington that affects beef quality, our customers don’t have to think about it.  If we did have to think about it, what would we do anyway? Wring our hands and hope some slick politician can come up with a good deal.  Indeed, when it comes to the stuff we eat, active engagement and proximate sales are far superior to hoping for the best and taking what comes.

I’m a farmer. I don’t need to know about global economics. I need to know about the culture of my hometown. How brilliantly simple.