Farm and Ranch Bureaus helping the poor

Every year there's a well orchestrated media event that happens in small towns across the country. It's called "Food Check Out Day" as designated by the national and local chapters of the Farm and Livestock Bureaus for the various states. As their press releases claim, this day designates the day in which the average family has earned enough to purchase food for their whole family for the entire year. This year, the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureaus claim this day fell on February 4th here in New Mexico. To celebrate this "event," the local chapter gave $250 to a few high school students who used the money to purchase groceries which were then donated to the local food bank, Socorro Storehouse. In Socorro, the students shopped at the John Brooks Supermart and the Supermart matched the $250 to make a total of $500 worth of groceries given to the Storehouse. This all sounds so generous and kind hearted that it almost feels shameful to criticize it in any way. However, our motto at Socorro News is "dig a little deeper," and so we will.

Isn't charity a good thing?

No caring person would deny that helping the poor, the needy, and the downtrodden is a worthy cause. "There, but for the grace of God, go I" as the expression goes. Most religions teach their adherents to pay special attention to the poor and vulnerable. For example, in Christianity many of Jesus' most famous teachings mention the poor. The Beatitudes, a section of the famous Sermon on the Mount, for example, includes the verse, "blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Islam and other religions have similar teachings. Even for those who aren't strictly religious, most would agree that giving a donation to the local food bank is a good thing.

But maybe there's more going on here than just charity?

As in other major religions, Christianity tends to suggest that those doing good deeds employ modesty. The idea behind this type of admonition, presumably, is that an act of charity should be for the benefit of the recipient, not for the self-aggrandizement of the giver. To illustrate this point from Christianity's perspective, we have this famous verse from the Sermon on the Mount, for example:

When you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

The point of these examples is merely that when one sees an annual donation to the food bank that is always accompanied by cameras and a newspaper story, one should immediately ask, "is there more to this story than meets the eye?" Or, as they say, "miners, dig a little deeper!"

Are you picking on the FFA and 4-H kids?

Before delving into "the rest of the story" it should first be stated that the local kids involved in this story are to be credited with being involved in a positive way in their community. There is no doubt that they had good intentions. The same may well hold true for the local adults involved, including John Brooks Supermart, which matched the $250 donation to make it a grand total of $500. All the local folks involved may genuinely believe they were just doing a good deed; for this, they should not be faulted or chastised. But, there's more to this story. It may be that some of the local folks were pawns in a game much larger than themselves, without realizing it.

Why the cameras? Why a national "day" to recognize this "event"?

So, why do you think a national "day" called "Food Check Out Day" was established or decreed by the Farm and Livestock Bureaus in the United States? Is it that they just want to help out the needy? Couldn't they do that without cameras and news reporters present? Couldn't they do that without a "day" that they invented for public relations (PR) purposes? What's really going on here - why are they trying to get media attention?

The heart of the matter

Well, after the long build up it's time to cut to the chase. The real message that the Farm and Livestock Bureaus want folks to take away from the so-called National Food Check Out Day is two-fold: first, on a conscious level they're shooting for a reaction from the average member of the public along the lines of, "golly gee, food is so cheap and plentiful in the U.S.!" Second, on a more subconscious level, the message they want folks to take away is "if food is so cheap in the U.S., we must have wonderful laws and regulations in the farm and ranch industries; don't change a thing, congress!" In other words: the Farm and Ranch Bureaus want the public to get the message that we don't need to repeal ANY of their subsidies, nor to enact stricter regulations on pesticide or herbicide use, nor to have any new laws protecting farm workers!

Did you say subsidies?!

As you may know - or more likely may not know, as they are not widely publicized - the United States government has many subsidies for farming and ranching. Subsidy is, of course, just a fancy word for "the rest of us taxpayers are paying for it." That's not always a bad thing mind you; not all taxes are bad, by any means. But most of us don't like sneaky taxes that have to be supported with sneaky little PR ploys, that's all. In fact, if someone were to ask most taxpayers if they'd pay a bit more in taxes to help out the poor and needy, many - perhaps most - would probably say "sure." But most citizens would just like a straight up, honest discussion about poverty, where the poor are the ones benefitting from the taxes and not a special interest group or industry.

Food so cheap no one goes hungry - wait, scratch that.

A third and final message that this PR campaign sends to the public is probably unintentional: reading between the lines of the so-called Food Check Out Day, one would think "gosh, if February 4th is the day that families have earned enough to buy food for the whole year, things must be great in the U.S. and there must not be much poverty or hunger here." Yet, the reason this message must on some level be an unintentional one is that it is immediately contradicted because the entire media event for this PR stunt involves giving a donation to local food banks! If food's so gosh-darned cheap and families have made enough in a little over 1 month of work to pay the bills for the whole year, one might ask "why is there a need for a food bank?!" The answer is that this whole thing is a public relations event. Hunger and poverty are a major problem in the U.S. regardless of what the subsidized food industry folks want us to believe.

The final word

So, the next time you see cameras at a charitable donation, start asking the tough questions. It doesn't mean charity is a bad thing. It just means that where there's smoke (cameras) there's usually fire (a hidden agenda). Disagree? Post a comment - registration is free and posting a comment costs you nothing.