Factory-farmed fresh

Ever grab that Ontario-grown Gala apple from your fruit bowl, place it under running water and discover that residual water beads form and slip right off the skin? The apple still tastes like an apple should, the crunch still satisfying, but there is some kind of invisible dressing wrapped around the perfect, store-bought ruby. Apparently Clay Butler, well-known political cartoonist, has thought about it too:

The answer: wax. 

What I love about the rhetoric at play in this cartoon is Butler's use of clarity and irony to address issues with food cultivation and politics. In first frame the audience is introduced to the startling image of the "Cropmaster 2000."Butler contrasts the stereotypical image of an apple orchard, rich with budding trees, by way of a desolate landscape being zapped with crops.  The use of exhaust fumes, exaggerated equipment, and a gun as the planter, shows how dehumanizing the current process of growing fresh fruit has become. This theme continues in the next frame when Butler illustrates a faceless character in a sterile, white suit; the dark shadow behind him representing death and danger, as he or she sprays the poisonous chemicals on the crops. In the third frame, the metaphorical assembly line from field to store becomes a physical assembly line where Butler shows the crops being enhanced with artificial colours, sprayed with a stream of more toxicity and polished off with a waxy gloss. Finally, Butler brings the audience back into the comforting reality of the typical grocery store, where the food is "FARM FRESH!"

As consumers, we rarely see behind the scenes when it comes where our food comes from and how it's produced. Although Butler's illustration is an exaggeration, he brings up relevant issues about fair representation, labelling practices and the lack of visibility in today's food production. Through simplistic irony, Butler encourages his audience to question clever grocery store gimmicks, which act to appeal to traditional and misguided stereotypes about today's farming industry.

Is ignorance bliss?

- Danielle

Citation:
Butler, Clay. "Good Ole Farm Fresh Goodness." 1996. Pub. 3 March 2010. Sidewalk Bubblegum: ComicPress. 27 October 2010. http://www.sidewalkbubblegum.com/category/comics-about-industrial-farming-and-food-politics/