And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn and call his state senator to complain about expensive new slurry pit legislation, spend all day with his ag lobby board strategizing about more laws against private raw milk sales, take that state senator out for steak and wine at dinner, and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board at the school he wants to eliminate with a voucher program." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody that can tell an employee to go shape an ax handle, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, make a harness out of hay wire, and not report dangerous working conditions involved in doing those things. And, who, at planting time and harvest season, can get together with his Tea Party friends and complain about unchecked government spending while cashing Farm Bill subsidy and crop insurance checks. Then, painin' from 'golf cart back,' put in another 72 minutes penning an op-ed to the local paper about socialism ruining the invisible hand of the market.

"I need somebody with strong, undocumented laborers. Strong enough to rustle a calf, yet gentle enough to understand the economic need to ignore minimum wage and overtime laws." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to count on an underfunded FDA and castrated EPA, to heave their stomachs out of their SUVs and yet gentle enough to be reactionary about inevitable demographic changes to 'the heartland'… and who will stop his mower for an hour to paint a sign, to be placed in his field by the highway, reading 'Show me the birth certificate.'" So God made a farmer.

It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed and breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk. Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who'd laugh and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes, when his son says that he wants to spend his life "not doing what dad does." So God made an undocumented farm worker.

http://www.theawl.com/2013/02/so-god-made-a-farmer?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAwl+%28The+Awl%29

hah

2/4/2013 2:10:46 PM

and that's.... the rest of the story.

2/4/2013 2:12:32 PM

yea this commercial irked me a little too

2/4/2013 2:13:48 PM

I'm not reading all of that, bro.

2/4/2013 2:13:59 PM

This is a lot closer to the farmers in my family and those that I know than the commercial is

2/4/2013 2:14:43 PM

I went to go smoke a cig halfway thru

2/4/2013 2:18:20 PM

I am a huge Paul Harvey fan. Grew up listening to him and the rest of the story at my grandma's house, EVERYDAY! I always wondered if he was a bigot. Love his voice.

2/4/2013 2:19:40 PM

(just in case some of yall don't realize, this isn't actually the text of paul harvey's soliloquy, it's satire.)

2/4/2013 2:23:59 PM

and is voice was always very irritating to me.

kinda like that guy in the smucker's commercial "With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good".

Wait, was that Paul Harvey's voice?

2/4/2013 2:25:47 PM

I liked the commercial...

Commercials aren't documentaries.

2/4/2013 2:30:18 PM

The commercial was fantastic.

This satire is quite far from being true.

Like eating? thank a farmer.

2/4/2013 3:43:16 PM

Quote :

"I need somebody strong enough to count on an underfunded FDA and castrated EPA"

lol, they're kidding right?

Also, who the hell is Paul Harvey? Never heard of him.

2/4/2013 3:43:38 PM

Radio programmers didn't love Paul Harvey because of his writing.

They loved him because he read ads exactly like he read stories, and before you realize it you've focused in on a 90-second Oreck XL ad.

2/4/2013 3:47:14 PM

Don't we have robots that can do all the farming these days? I can replace those mofos with 6 lines of code.

2/4/2013 3:52:12 PM

Quote :

"Like eating? thank a farmer."

An American farmer?

2/4/2013 3:59:14 PM

thank them for the shitty, water-loving, mpg-reducing ethanol in your fuel

2/4/2013 4:05:39 PM

yeah, I def didn't read that or click that link.

2/4/2013 4:06:38 PM

There are plenty of farmers worth praise, but I'd be surprised if they supply 1% of the food we eat as a nation. The giant corporations that produce the vast majority of our food are nothing to romanticize however. I won't be thanking them for questionable genetically modified food, excessive pollution, miserable looking animals pumped full of hormones, abuse of livestock, or dangerous/exploitative working conditions anytime soon.

Yes, I'm aware of my hypocrisy in supporting these companies on a somewhat regular basis. One dollar, one vote and all that jazz.

[Edited on February 4, 2013 at 4:30 PM. Reason : l]

2/4/2013 4:30:18 PM

You folks are clueless.

2/4/2013 4:49:17 PM

^^A million times yes

The commercial reinforces the way most Americans perceive farming, which is way off. Unfortunately, change won't come to our food system until a majority of our perceptions match reality.

Here is a Wendell Berry lecture, that probably won't sell any trucks, but he damn sure has better insights into agriculture than Paul Harvey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODX-DE8EfqI

[Edited on February 4, 2013 at 4:50 PM. Reason : .]

2/4/2013 4:49:19 PM

^ the point of the commercial though is that there are people out there who bust their asses just like farmers of yore, and these people should be commended and looked up to (and buy Dodge trucks).

It's not that farming today is just like that. The fact that it may reinforce that stereotype is mostly irrelevant. ALL commercials reinforce stereotype. It's identity marketing.

2/4/2013 5:06:42 PM

Quote :

"Here is a Wendell Berry lecture, that probably won't sell any trucks, but he damn sure has better insights into agriculture than Paul Harvey."

To be fair, PH gave that speech in 1978. A lot has changed since then.

2/4/2013 5:45:53 PM

fucking hell


it was Americana


A commercial that was basically Norman Rockwell's painting of a Dodge Ram.


OF COURSE it's not 100% accurate. But it's what we should strive to be.


Jaded motherfuckers like you people keep that from happening. You shit all over everything, then pat each other on the back.

Anyways, I thought it was a badass commercial. But not as good as 30 seconds of Iron Man and that Time Warner Walking Dead one...

[Edited on February 4, 2013 at 5:47 PM. Reason : .]

2/4/2013 5:47:16 PM

^

2/4/2013 5:50:18 PM

And on the 9th day, God made a CEO.
And the CEO killed that farmer and bastardized the food he produced.
But nobody noticed because on the 10th day God created a marketing department.

lol, just kidding. Smoke Marlboro reds Buy this truck and live the dream of a modern day cowboy farmer if that's what floats your boat.

2/4/2013 6:01:33 PM

^^^

2/4/2013 6:21:03 PM

Quote :

"fucking hell it was Americana A commercial that was basically Norman Rockwell's painting of a Dodge Ram. OF COURSE it's not 100% accurate. But it's what we should strive to be. Jaded motherfuckers like you people keep that from happening. You shit all over everything, then pat each other on the back. Anyways, I thought it was a badass commercial. But not as good as 30 seconds of Iron Man and that Time Warner Walking Dead one..."

2/4/2013 7:23:26 PM

i have always been a fan of AxlBonBach

underrated poster

2/4/2013 8:17:06 PM

Quote :

"fucking hell it was Americana A commercial that was basically Norman Rockwell's painting of a Dodge Ram. OF COURSE it's not 100% accurate. But it's what we should strive to be. Jaded motherfuckers like you people keep that from happening. You shit all over everything, then pat each other on the back. Anyways, I thought it was a badass commercial. But not as good as 30 seconds of Iron Man and that Time Warner Walking Dead one..."

2/4/2013 8:18:43 PM

Agree ^

2/4/2013 8:21:07 PM

The first step in "striving" to be anything is to admit where you fall short. Not admitting our shortcomings and pretending everything is A-ok is why we can't move toward an ideal.

I mean lol at comparing Dodge to a farmer that "works hard and pulls his own weight" - Dodge might not even be here if it wasn't for the american taxpayer

Americana/wrapping themselves in a flag? - Dodge is owned by Fiat and builds all the regular cab Rams in fuckin Mexico!

Don't you get tired of facades?











I was actually pretty indifferent to the commercial, but after the facebook reposts, news articles on the damn front page announcing it was this year's "winner", and this thread - I pretty much hate it.

2/4/2013 9:22:56 PM

Quote :

" But it's what we should strive to be."

'

What does this mean? How did this Ram commercial represent what "we should strive to be"?

2/4/2013 9:31:20 PM

All of the farmers are white except maybe one but we already knew dodge was targeting a racist market.

2/4/2013 10:11:14 PM

Next you'll tell me that Bud Light doesn't help anyone attract silent, big chested women.

2/4/2013 10:41:25 PM

Quote :

"fucking hell it was Americana A commercial that was basically Norman Rockwell's painting of a Dodge Ram. OF COURSE it's not 100% accurate. But it's what we should strive to be. Jaded motherfuckers like you people keep that from happening. You shit all over everything, then pat each other on the back. Anyways, I thought it was a badass commercial."

2/4/2013 10:42:10 PM

The thing about Norman Rockwell is that he painted an ignorant view of American life, a rich, middle-class White view of American life that ignored all of the terrible shit going on. So when people look at a Norman Rockwell painting they see some happy White kid in a White doctor's office having a great time and ignore all the terrible oppression and civil rights issues for Women and Blacks that were going on at the time. It's rose-colored glasses to the extreme

The same way this commercial says all the farming comes from hard-working real Americans, when the reality is it's all from the megacorp Monsanto monopoly who forces farmers into debt and suicide.

Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

[Edited on February 4, 2013 at 11:59 PM. Reason : In before someone posts "The Problem We All Live With"]

2/4/2013 11:57:19 PM

^ there are still farmers like in the commercial that exist though, the minority though they may be.

For example:
https://www.facebook.com/dellingerfamilyfarms?group_id=0

Dogs broke in a few weeks ago and killed baby sheep and cows. Just had to build a new fence.

Not that this is really relevant... plenty of people work hard and aren't farmers.

[Edited on February 5, 2013 at 12:04 AM. Reason : ]

2/5/2013 12:04:05 AM

The commercial wasn't for those people.

The farmers in the commercial are fantasy. Ram is selling that fantasy to those who want to be rugged individualists but really aren't. It's another play on mythological bootstraping.

Not all that different than The North Face selling outdoor gear to students making the long Brickyard trek to the Atrium Chick-Fil-A.

2/5/2013 1:10:04 AM

Quote :

"The thing about Norman Rockwell is that he painted an ignorant view of American life, a rich, middle-class White view of American life that ignored all of the terrible shit going on. So when people look at a Norman Rockwell painting they see some happy White kid in a White doctor's office having a great time and ignore all the terrible oppression and civil rights issues for Women and Blacks that were going on at the time. It's rose-colored glasses to the extreme"

You really couldn't be more wrong.



The Golden Rule 1961




The Problem We All Live With 1964




Murder in Mississippi 1965




New Kids in the Neighborhood 1967




The Sargent and Konkapot 1976

Quote :

"Edited on February 4, 2013 at 11:59 PM. Reason : In before someone posts "The Problem We All Live With"

You got that right I guess.

[Edited on February 5, 2013 at 1:37 AM. Reason : o]

2/5/2013 1:36:50 AM

2/5/2013 2:37:42 AM

lets all celebrate dope smoking college students instead because they know all about life

2/5/2013 1:27:21 PM

it's not an either/or, man.

and who on here is a college student?

2/5/2013 2:03:29 PM

There is a lot of stupid in this thread.

The hardest working people I know are farmers. 90% of you wouldn't last a week...maybe even a day in their shoes.

2/5/2013 2:36:15 PM

I'd hire a bunch of Mexicans and make it at least a month.

2/5/2013 2:38:11 PM

^^so tuff

most of my family on one side farmed until my generation. I think most of them drive Fords though. And probably have no idea who Paul Harvey is. Now,a lot of them work in a family-owned machine shop. and they hire a lot of illegal immigrants. and post gun and god memes on facebook.

2/5/2013 2:46:58 PM