In the spring of 2003, I was enrolled in a contemporary studies course that examined the concepts of reality and simulacra as they appear in media, literature, and society. At the time, I had become fascinated with the use of the American farm as an icon. I noticed a profusion in marketing gimmicks purporting claims of “freshness,”  “farm fresh,” and other masks for food products shipped up to 1,000 miles away from large, corporate farms to chain food outlets countrywide. 

In my paper “Buying the Farm: America’s Food System and the Illusion of Fresh,” I argue that while the concept of “the American Farm” and the quality and freshness that it connotes has been co-opted by marketing agencies, the actual entity of the American Farm has shifted from that of a local, family-run operation to a pervasive, large-scale, corporate model. Drawing from texts such as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation (2000) and interviews with clerks from an NC-based chain grocery store, as well as a local, small-scale, family-run organic farm this paper examines how Americans symbolically connect with their food and how the value system Americans attach to food has reshaped the model of the American farm.

Note: the image above is cropped from a mock book jacket design completed for a publishing course.