What Lin-Manuel Miranda knows...and the ag industry misses
Prime Future 268: the newsletter for innovators in livestock, meat, and dairy
There’s a point where a personal obsession just becomes part of your personal brand, and for me, that point was when I recently went from “longtime fan of Hamilton — the musical, the soundtrack, and the Ron Chernow biography” to “owns Hamilton pajamas1.”
If you haven’t seen the musical, I assume it’s because you hate fun, America, music, and joy? Jk 😉
But seriously, where else can you get the delightful juxtaposition of the intellectual tenets of America’s founding fathers with the flow of modern hip-hop?
Have you ever in your life heard a rap song about a cabinet meeting that ends with James Madison and Thomas Jefferson taunting Hamilton with, “you don’t have the votes….you don’t have the votes….you’re gonna need congressional approval and you don’t have the votes” in a rhythmic way that pops into your head out of nowhere?
Or, what about a whimsical song by King George grappling with the young nation’s absurd notion of elections and a voluntary transfer of power:
They say George Washington's yielding his power and stepping away. Is that true?
I wasn't aware that was something a person could do.
I'm perplexed. Are they going to keep on replacing whoever's in charge?
And then there’s my absolute favorite, The Room Where It Happens, about the backroom negotiations that ended with Hamilton getting his debt plan and Jefferson and Madison getting the capital moved from NYC to Washington DC. I don’t have a strong enough grasp of the English language to do this song justice in a description, but I can offer the gift of recommending a listen…
These are the intellectually stimulating, history-indoctrinating, lyrical earworms courtesy of one of the greatest artists of our generation: Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the musical Hamilton.
But what does that have to do with livestock, meat & dairy? Bear with me for a moment.
People have lamented the lack of civics awareness and understanding in the US for decades, but it turns out that expecting people to suddenly find the original GW fascinating by cracking open a textbook is far less effective than writing an incredibly catchy song (or 10) about George Washington and his cast of characters.
You see where we’re going, right?
Folks in ag love to talk about the importance of teaching consumers where their food comes from, and that we need to “educate the consumer.” Ugggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I find that to be the most tired line in all of the land — ain’t nobody wanna “be educated” y’all.
But there are two things most humans want that are relevant: