Definition of hipster: a person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream
Love them or hate them, hipsters are here and they don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. One night in the barn my fiancé and I (yep, we’re engaged now) were discussing the various similarities between farmers and hipsters. You see, both groups wear lots of flannel and boots. Both groups consider themselves to be fiercely independent and definitely not mainstream. They also tend to sport facial hair—at least the men do—and drink copious amounts of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
The main differences, you ask? Skinny jeans, muscle tone, and weird baby names.
What I’m really trying to get at here is that farmers have more in common with customers than we think. In agriculture, we tend to live inside a pretty well-insulated bubble sometimes. We lead pretty hard lives with lots of long hours, but we don’t often realize that we’re very much like the people eating the end product of our labors. They have access to information to make informed decisions about what foods are best for them and their families, which leads me to my main point. Today’s farms are becoming larger and more specialized, which means that we’re growing less and less of our own food…which means that we have to go to the grocery store…which means that we have to make informed decisions on what foods are best for us and our families…which means that we’re customers, too. Despite our differences, we need to keep that in mind when advocating for agriculture. When talking to customers about where their—and our—food comes from (even though you don’t watch Portlandia or listen to Muse), always remember that you’re a customer too.
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