Make relationship economies normal again

As part of the work I do with food, I organise events at regenerative farms in my local area. Yesterday we were doing an event with a farmer we know well and work with often. When we did our introduction at the table we said that we want people to have a relationship with the farmer. When I said this there was a ripple of uncomfortable laughter and someone jokingly said something along the lines of feeling like “relationship” felt a bit too intimate of a word to use in the context of getting your food. And I also went along with the joke and then kind of downplayed using the word relationship. Because apparently it’s uncomfortable for us to talk about relationships beyond the family, friends and romantic sphere, we get uncomfortable and have to make jokes.

But I think this discomfort (apparently also at the word relationship in the context of consumption and especially in the context of our food systems) is very telling of what we have been taught to feel when it comes to commerce and food. But thinking about it later I want to actually give myself the opportunity to say: actually, we need to become comfortable using the word relationship again in this context.

Our society is not used to systems built on direct relationships. It is in the interest of the huge conglomorates and corporations that profit off of it. If you have a direct relationship with something or someone, a mutual and reciprocal relationship, it becomes very hard to abuse, cheat, poison, exploit or harm the people you are in direct relationship with. I think I prefer to live in a world where our commerce and especially our food systems exist within the context of direct relationship.