No, Your Great-Grandfather Did Not Know How to Fix Our Food System

An Open Letter to New York Times Opinion Author Gracy Olmstead

We’ve got to unpack this recent opinion piece published in the New York Times, “My Great-Grandfather Knew How to Fix Our Food System.” (Gifs to help you make it through.)

I am going to try my best here to not be flippantly derogatory for the sake of illustrating how, the next time you see this kind of writing/speaking/ideating, you will have all the tools you need to absolutely tear this argument to smithereens with a smile.

Let’s start with the subtitle.

“In the mutual aid and stewardship of an earlier generation of American farmers, there might be hope for our own communities.”

When I read this sub-head, I was actually optimistic. Perhaps this was going to be the story of tenant-farmers, of progressive agricultural labor movements inclusive of People of Color. Alas, my hope was dashed quickly.

The pandemic revealed just how brittle our food system has become. It has also made me think a lot about my paternal great-grandfather, Walter Howard, a farmer whom I knew as Grandpa Dad.

Born in Idaho, he was 7 when the 1918 flu pandemic swept America and 18 when the Great Depression…