As a writer on Grist points out--using the cute term 'farmwashing--the grizzled, weary, classic profiles of the campaign's protagonists share many similarities with the infamous Marlboro Man. Beyond that hilarity, though, I find it difficult to imagine a statement more unapologetically wrong than the one in the ad above:
"Few industries have shown such respect for the environment."
It literally doesn't get any more disturbing than that. Adding to the infinite host of problems posed by this campaign is the reality that megacorporations like Monsanto have latched onto the economic benefits (read: jobs, jobs, jobs). These are the kinds of progressive messages that had been touted by the sustainability industry over the past five years to incentivise everything from climate legislation to saving forests to scaling up renewables. They're quickly becoming meaningless-green jobs, anyone? clean energy economy?--for their overuse. And at the same time being killed by the very industries they were intended to counter.
The official website for the campaign is ingeniously titled America's Farmers, if you can handle it. Word to the wise: you probably can't.
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