The Daily Struggles Of Farmer Summary

The Daily Struggle of Farmers What is a profile essay? A profile aims to inform the audience about a specific person, place, or event that might otherwise be unknown to them. This type of essay provides vivid, interesting descriptions of facts pertaining to the subject. In order to develop credibility and an authoritative tone, a profile essay requires the author to go out into the field and interview the person or visit the place or event that he or she is writing about. But, in order to make a profile well written and interesting, the author must explore general preconceptions regarding the subject. In other words, the author should find a way to present the topic in a new light that will make the readers question their presumptions
about the subject. In Barry Estabrook’s profile on food politics titled “Selling the Farm”, Estabrook constructs his report on the Borland family auction in such a way that was relatable and provided me with a new perspective on the daily lives of small, local dairy farmers. Estabrook opens his profile describing a topic almost all people can easily relate to—family.
Instead of opening with the Borland family’s auction—a topic not many people can relate to—Estabrook opens by stating how the Borland family, after 144 years, had to break tradition and change the way they lives as a result of economic issues, by selling something that had been in their family for six generations—their farm (213). Estabrook, wisely I believe, chooses—instead of focusing on the statistics of dairy prices and the earnings of each quarter, which someone could find on the news or in a newspaper—to spent the majority of his essay showing the reader the “human side of the dairy crisis” (214). By narrating the lives, specifically the auction, of the Borland family, Estabrook shows the reader how bad the present situations are for small dairy farmers. By focusing in on the lives of the Borland family, the readers can sympathize with the hard work and love the family has put in all these years into farming and empathize with the economic struggles they presently face. In this way, Estabrook gains the readers compassions; indeed, if the author just presented statistics and dry facts to the reader, he would not have been able to present the “human side of the dairy crisis” or gain the audiences sympathy for the cause
(214). Not only does Estabrook, in his profile, trigger the reader to relate to the Borland’s situation, and thus become invested in the situation, he also subtly establishes his authoritative voice. By choosing a family who has been in the farming industry for generations—144 years—and receiving first hand information from the Borlands, Estabrook automatically convinced me the information he used for the topic he was discussing—that there is a deep routed economic issue in dairy farms—was trustworthy. Although I found little to no biases in Estabrook’s essay, since his article was a profile, there is going to be biases, even if they aren’t apparent. Since a profile, in its definition, is based off of an authors observations and perspective on a person or situations, the work is going to have the writers biases, even if they are unintentional. However, if Estabrook were writing this essay as an objective report for a newspaper and not a profile for a magazine, he would have to remain emotionally detached from the topic and just present the facts without adding his personal feelings or opinions. Overall though, for a profile essay, I found Estabrook’s piece to have a fresh, informative perspective on the everyday struggle of the dairy farmers.