Beans, corn and pumpkin sprouting on a mound at PRG central.
I’m all for spreading the word about growing your own food using the land and resources you have. I believe knowing how to feed yourself – is well – important. And I don’t believe a trip to the grocery has anything to do with feeding yourself well.
But I’m not sure I dig Triscuit’s newest campaign to support “home farming.” Kraft brands – Triscuit – is co-opting momentum in the local food, slow food, grow your own, or know your farmer movements.
My favorite term for what Triscuit is calling “home farming” is “backyard homesteading.” Some folks refer to it as urban farming. In general, all these refer to using a suburban or urban yard , or containers, to grow vegetables, fruit and, often, chickens or other small animals. Often, folks grow sustainably and preserve their harvests through canning, drying or freezing.
Part of the Triscuit campaign, is building 50 community vegetable gardens. They’ve broken ground on some already this spring. Have to applaud them for that. To further support home farming, they’ve launched a website and are spewing ads proclaiming their support of home farming. On the site, there is good information, you can join a forum and add your own farm to the map.
OK, it’s nice that a big company believes there a lot of interest in growing food. Enough interest, actually, that they want to grab on and join the gravy train. BUT, what I understand about the people who are taking back control of their food supply, is that they –we- became interested in growing food because we lost faith in the quality of food produced by companies like Kraft.
So it’s smart. Kraft –even with its mayonnaise – is trying to direct attention away from additives they use by focusing on the real ingredients in their products and by creating an alliance with backyard gardeners.
I’m torn every time I see the Triscuit commercial. I feel a bit insulted. Do they really think I’m going to equate Kraft with real because they launch a farming website? Hey, I’m glad about the gardens, but I’m skeptical about the amount of altruism behind the effort.
This could well be my over-zealous optimism, but the Triscuit campaign has encouraged me that there is incredible power in the backyard homestead movement. I’d like to believe that companies are a little scared that our consumption of fake food will decrease.
Suggestion Kraft? I think it’s great that you’re building community gardens. Great work there. But I’m not sure any of us are going to stop closely reading your labels looking for harmful additives because you claim to be on our side. Try making food with less bad stuff in it. That might get you farther in the long run.
4 Comments
I totaly agree. After working for a food company for 35 years , they only see dollar signs.
This is why I vote with my fork; at every meal. I don’t eat Triscuits or Kraft Food products and the word mayonnaise makes me gag.
However, I’ll take their money. I’m building a school farm and managing a community garden. Bottom line, I could always use more funding.
What’s next? velvetta & sprout appetizers at the community garden openers?
In the end, a movement is no different than nature– the Tilth and community garden spirit cannot be co opted by corporate tools.
No tv so I can’t comment on the advt, but I assure you, this too shall pass.
I do see the farm moving into high rises in cities– and organic farming getting more corporate as food is grown in 20-30 floor greenhouses.
Kraft will no doubt have a picture on the side of that building with a Monsanto corporate corn cob dripping with Kraft margarine.
There is another path. Here’s a favorite poem by Wendell Berry – Mad Farmer Manifesto http://www.goodnaturepublishing.com/poem.htm
best.
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Some time before, I did need to buy a building for my organization but I did not earn enough money and could not order anything. Thank heaven my comrade adviced to get the loans from banks. Thus, I acted so and was happy with my financial loan.
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[...] This post by Laura Mathews on Punk Rock Gardens, a community gardening blog out of Pennsylvania, questions Triscuit’s and Kraft Foods’ motives. While the Home Farming campaign promotes home gardening and local eating, it is still being presented by Kraft Foods, a major producer of processed and prepackaged food. Mathews says Kraft is attempting to use this campaign to position its products as containing real ingredients, ignoring the fact that they’re really full of unnatural additives. She writes: OK, it’s nice that a big company believes there a lot of interest in growing food. Enough interest, actually, that they want to grab on and join the gravy train. BUT, what I understand about the people who are taking back control of their food supply, is that they –we- became interested in growing food because we lost faith in the quality of food produced by companies like Kraft. [...]