My perspective - Revolution of relevance

Details

Published on Friday, December 23, 2016

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

The Neepawa Banner

Almost every girl who grew up in North America in the last 60 years has, at one time or another, played with a Barbie doll. Launched by Ruth Handler in 1959, the young woman with her Malibu house, pretty clothes, perfect hair and pink car have filled many young girls’ play time and imaginations.

But as time has passed, many began to question her relevance, her unrealistic proportions and perceived shallow life.  But something pretty neat showed up in my Facebook feed last week, farmer Barbie. Barbie has had a number of careers over the years, starting as a fashion model the year she was launched, but this one is different. Mattel, the company that owns and manufactures Barbie dolls, has a product line called Barbie Career Dolls dedicated to educating girls about potential careers. The dolls come with career appropriate clothes and props and along with the ice skater, nurse, teacher and chef are some less conventional career Barbies, like video game developer and of course, farmer.

In addition to the doll itself, the packaging tells girls about their Barbie’s career. For those of us interested in agriculture, the description of what farmer Barbie does tells us about how our urban neighbours perceive agriculture. It’s actually pretty positive. 

According to Mattel, farmers are experts in agriculture and produce a variety of crops, livestock and materials, such as cotton and wool.  Farmers have a strong understanding of nature, but also use technology, science and business skills to run a successful farm. The packing goes on to say, “Do you like caring for plants and animals? You can be a farmer, just like Barbie!”

For an industry that’s struggling with ageing producers and a smaller rural population from which to draw the next generation of farmers, promoting agriculture as a career option for young women and girls is positive for the industry’s future. 

It might also be part of a larger trend focused on skilled trades.

Much of Donald Trump’s support in this fall’s American presidential election came from middle class Americans worried about their jobs.  The past three decades have seen huge swaths of what were once well paying jobs dry up due to some combination of automation and outsourcing. It isn’t just manufacturing jobs– legal work, investment analysis and even writing are now being done by computer software.

It’s taken a while, but people are finally starting to see which careers are vulnerable to these changing times and which aren’t, which careers hold a future here, in our communities. It turns out that farming and other skilled trades are pretty secure.

Barbie is part of revolution of relevance. Fundamentally, a company can make cars, or clothes, or appliances anywhere.  But the same can’t be said for farming.  While you can ship in metals and fabric to a manufacturing plant anywhere in the world, food can only be grown in certain places.  Each type of agriculture is suited to a different climate or soil type and while we can use crop selection to introduce hardiness or drought resistance, fundamentally, agriculture must remain where it is now, it can’t be outsourced to a city in the developing world.

Last month, Mike Rowe, most well known as the host of the Discovery Channels’ Dirty Jobs, and This Old House, a multi-media home renovation company, launched a new charitable campaign.  The goal is to offer scholarships in order to help educate the next generation of skilled tradespeople in the home construction and renovation industries. Rowe has been a tireless champion of the skilled trades, using his public profile to correct myths and help young people on the path to fill the large number of job vacancies for skilled tradespeople.

Like farming, it’s very difficult to outsource building construction or fixing a broken sink, both of which pretty much have to be done on site.

Wouldn’t you know it, Barbie is even dipping her toe into these waters with the Barbie MegaBloks set, which lets you design and build your very own Barbie dream mansion.  Maybe it won’t be long before we see electrician Barbie!