Gah! Kids These Days!

So, I saw this article in the NY Times (www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/dining/24interns.html) about highly educated kids grabbing onto the new local food/organic farming trend and couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of some of the damn "activist" kids! Also, since I grew up in a multi-generational farm family, I'm probably a bit annoyed that it just now matters to people because it's trendy... So I'm sure this is a bit reactive... Ah, well!

So, basically the kids said:

1. Farming is hard!

I mean, who knew that farmers don't make much money or have access to entertainment technology or housing for their farmhands, much less for themselves?!? I mean, until I read about it in a food-trend book, it wasn't true, right?!?

2. Farmers aren't political enough!

Seriously, how dare they not do everything to the perspective and worldview of someone who has been at a liberal arts college for the last three years instead of making decisions based on the pressures of agribusiness monopolies, feeding their families, or paying their mortages in a society that hasn't given a shit about them until it was cool to actually buy the food from the farmers face to face? Tres chic!!!

3. I wish I'd been born in the 60s so I could be a part of a cool hip social movement!

Dude!!! Like, come the fuck on! Wishing you had been around to help change the past because lots did it back then means you are less about change and activism and more about you and your ego... Like a LOT of privelaged "activists" I met in college and beyond. Real change and activism isn't about realizing it's happening and feeling swell about yourself, it's about doing it regardless because it matters! Now that a bunch of sheep think that taking care of, well, sheep, matters, we're all special and care and aren't we AWESOME!!! It's harmful like the people who held (and still hold) the 50s up as some sort of magical era of perfection (if you were white, had money, and were a man or enjoyed a man telling you what to do) and fought the 60s tooth and nail. Nostalgia does no one any good! Change the world for the sake of what's right, not your identity or status.

I mean...

Of course I think that the more people who understand farms, the better. I also think that the farm fresh, local food movement is also important, economically, environmentally, and socially. And I know that a lot of these kids are young and will hopefully learn a lot about themselves and other lifestyles, no matter where their intentions started. I just worry, from my own personal interactions, about the exoticising or fetishing of activism and social movements where it ends up being about selfish ego and status, instead of for other people...

But, I guess anything that gets people out there, doing something, instead of being apathetic, is good...

I'm still going to roll my eyes, though, when you say dumb things!