Gilles Stockton is the author of the new book Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change. A third-generation cattle rancher and a specialist on international agriculture development, he is based in Montana.
Q: What inspired you to write Feeding a Divided America?
A: Initially I started writing this series of essays in order to clarify in my own mind what it is that I believe about food, raising food, rural America, democratic norms, and the future as we experience more climate change.
For years, I have been writing and publishing op-eds, primarily about the policies affecting family agriculture, and the ag papers which print my stuff have been indulgent as to document size. Therefore, I have written many op-eds which sometimes are up to 1,200 words.
But it is limited as to what one can say, even with the generous amounts of ink that these papers have allowed me. The rural and agricultural issues that I have been writing about are interconnected and I needed more space to understand and articulate them.
There was no expectation that there would ever be a forum willing to publish these essays until a good friend suggested that the UNM Press just might.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: I actually did a mini focus group. My original working title was “A Hiker’s Guide to the Rural/Urban Divide.” That obviously was not going to work. After it was probable that the UNM was going to publish the book, I needed to find a better title.
In the summer of 2023, I was on a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., what we in ag call a fly-in. I took the opportunity to poll the other producers on that trip along with the staff of the organizations that were shepherding us around.
One of the staff of the Western Organization of Resource Council came up with this title. Later with the editors of the UMN Press we added the subtitle “Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change.”
What does that signify to me? The issues I deal with are complex, particularly for a reader who is not fluent in agriculture. I suspect that the average consumer doesn’t know or care much about rural America or where, or how their food is raised.
There is, however, a subset of environmentally active people who are concerned about access to good and locally produced food. Unfortunately, sometimes their thinking about local foods and its production is faddish or you might say a kind of belief system. Such as raw milk. As a result of this disharmony, our lobbying efforts to reform agriculture results in nothing. Big Ag just rolls right over us.
What I am attempting to do is give people, consumers and producers alike, a grounding in the history and current reality of production agriculture. If we can all agree upon and understand some basic facts, perhaps everyone can focus on realistic solutions.
I really do believe that our current system of industrialized agriculture will not be able to cope with climate change. Unless more of us can articulate that reality in a coherent manner there is little chance that food and rural policy can be diverted from the industrial model. If we fail to coalesce around some realistic and ethical policies our food security future is at risk.
Q: The author Baker H. Morrow said of the book, “Gilles Stockton tackles the challenges modern farmers and ranchers face...and looks at the reasons rural and urban Americans, producers and consumers alike, talk past each other while their mutual interest lies in supporting a genuine remake of national agricultural policy.” What do you think of that description?
A: In just a couple of sentences, Baker Morrow did a good job encapsulating what I am trying to convey. I am having more trouble. So far, I have been invited to address a couple of groups. I looked for some passages that I could read but found that they were all too long to fit into a 15-minute presentation. I am working on writing a summation instead.
The problem is that in my book I address a number of interlacing issues. Different audiences will be more interested in some of these issues over others, making it difficult to have a summation that equally resonates with everyone. It all depends on the depth of the particular person’s engagement in agricultural policy.
There is considerable animosity among some on the left of American politics with rural issues and rural peoples.
I am not defending all of what rural America believes but the reasons for that anger are real. If we, as a nation, continue on this course of non-communication, not only is our democracy imperiled but our food security as well.
Q: What do you see looking ahead when it comes to U.S. agriculture policy?
A: The members of the Senate and House Ag Committees should be ashamed of themselves. That they are not indicates how broken ag and rural policy actually is. Once again, the Farm Bill can is being kicked down the road with no serious attempts to rectify anything.
For an industry like agriculture where the practitioners pride themselves on their integrity, farm policy is as, if not more, corrupt than defense or foreign affairs.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am writing my usual op-eds, aimed at informing my community of ranchers.
This summer, the organizations, with which I am affiliated, are focusing on getting Country of Origin Labeling [COOL] included in the farm bill. That it is not is a measure of how brain dead and corrupt the farm bill process actually is.
My other priority is to defend the rules interpreting the Packers and Stockyards Act, which USDA has promised to publish in the coming months.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: To further the dialogue that I hope this book will stimulate, I created a website, www.gillestockton.com, where I posted op-eds and essays that I wrote prior to the publication of Feeding a Divided America.
Another page includes things that I have written over the past couple of years. This includes a link to my testimony before the House Ag Committee in the spring of 2022.
I am about to post a link to a webinar that I recently participated in, that discusses COOL and how the World Trade Organization no longer has jurisdiction to prevent its reauthorization.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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