Of Crumbling Farmhouses and Dreams...

I've long been told in a business setting that it is not acceptable to bring problems to others without having proposed solutions already formulated and ready to discuss. I tend to agree with a small caveat.  Sometimes people really are insulated from reality and don't recognize the problem looming. Bringing those issues to one's awareness (even if you don't have answers) can help facilitate a discussion.  That conversation allows many minds to formulate solutions and everyone benefits.  I'm not going to sit behind the keyboard today and pretend to have the answers or solutions.  Maybe, let's just talk about it.

Crumbling Farmhouses...

Image Credit

I'm reading a book right now by Joel Salatin called "Fields of Farmers."  The subtitle is Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating.  I've read many of Mr. Salatin's other books and I admire him.  His farm, Polyface Farms, was featured in Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma and he is a pioneer.  His farm is described like this on his website:

Polyface, Inc. is a family owned, multi-generational, pasture-based, beyond organic, local-market farm and informational outreach in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

Image Credit

This book is really not applicable to our little operation, Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  Our little farm has no full time workers.  I work a full time job away from the farm and for all intents and purposes, we operate our homestead farm on what I call the "Bluebell Ice Cream Philosophy:"  We eat all we can and sell the rest! The fruits of our labors are enjoyed by our family first.  Our farm is not successful enough to be self sustaining and requires me to work a 'real job' in order to support my family with overwhelmingly off farm income.  As a result, we could not realistically have interns.

I am a hopeless nostalgic, locked in the past, reminiscing about the 'good, old days,' but I also look to the future and ponder how to resurrect the old ways.  There is an excerpt out of Mr. Salatin's book that is written with such emotion and passion that it comes alive and lights a fire within my soul.  It also highlights a problem that I alluded to in the opening paragraph.

In Chapter 6, titled, Investing in People, Mr. Salatin states:

"Unappreciated in society, most farmers have been relegated to the edges of socio-political importance and discourse.  Numbering too few to even merit noting in the census, farmers generally have slipped into a defeated, anachronistic mindset. Growing weary on the acreage they love, many encourage their children to seek a better life.  Abandoned by an unappreciative society, most farmers have emotionally given up.  They plod along because that's what they've always done and they don't know anything better to do.  Too old to learn a new trade, they just keep planting, feeding, and showing up at the Ruritan Club until they can't get up in the morning.

It's sad.  Really sad.  I see it in their faces at the livestock auction barn.  I see it in the faces at traditional farm conventions, and too often even at sustainable farm conventions.  Oh they try to put on a good front.  They tell stories and reminisce about the old days.  Most of the stories happened because lots of people were around... back then.  Whenever a young farmer, boy or girl, comes by, their eyes twinkle as they think of what could have been on their farm.  But most of the kids are gone. They went to Dilbert cubicles to work for Fortune 500 Companies, put their kids in soccer leagues, and joined the Sierra Club in penance for all the chemicals and plowing Dad did back on the homeplace.

All you have to do is drive out through the midwest, the heartland of America, to see that heart stripped bare and bleeding.  Not one in three houses is inhabited.  Many sit abandoned and lonely, crumbling, amidst gargantuan fields of genetically modified corn and soybeans grown for animal factories. In a few years, the old houses will go ahead and give up too, like their former owners, and crumble into the soil.  Then they won't impede the plow anymore.  They will decompose back into the earth, a little spot of fertility, hearkening back to earlier days when the fertile earth sprouted small diversified farms, communities, tax bases, and livestock shows.

How do we get the life back?  How do we create hope in these seemingly hopeless situations?  Only families that have vision, singleness of heart, magnanimous spirit, and optimistic hope can realistically..." (I cut it off in mid sentence, because Mr. Salatin goes on to explain about how having interns on the farm can turn things around.  They most certainly can, but I'm not in the position to start an internship program and I'm ruminating about other solutions.)

Image Credit

I don't know if you appreciate that writing like I do, but it was like poetry to me. Gripping, emotional, evoking a visceral response.  How do we get the life back? Great question.  I don't know if we can. We are a different society now.  We've moved from the Agrarian age, into the Industrial Revolution, and now into the Information Age.  According to ag101 demographics here are some noteworthy statistics that give you an indication of where we (Agricultural folks) find ourselves:

• Less than 1% of Americans (based on the 2007 Census of Agriculture) claim farming as an occupation.
• Only 45% of those farmers claimed farming as their primary occupation.
• The vast majority (87%) of farms are owned and operated by individuals or families.  
• In spite of the predominance of family farms, there are markers showing concentration in ag production.  A mere 187,816 of the 2.2 million farms in this country (8.5%), accounted for 63% of sales of agricultural products.  (Get big or get out?!)
• With the advent of productive farm equipment, improved crop varieties, commercial fertilizers and pesticides, the need for human workers has declined from 27.5 acres per worker in 1890 to a whopping 740 acres per worker in 1990.  (This seems great at first glance, but is it really?)
• The average age of the principal operator of a farm stood at 57 years old in 2007.

Those are some startling statistics and they are 7 years old.  Think about that for a minute.  So, back to the question.  How do we get the life back?  First, I'll say that the majority of people don't want that life back because they never were connected to the land and even if they were, they don't feel a calling to the agrarian lifestyle. For those that do want to either engage in or support local farming, here are my thoughts and brainstorms on how to start:

1. Start somewhere - regardless how small.  The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  Plant some herbs in a pot on your patio, plant a tomato plant, some cucumbers in a row you pull up in the backyard.  Get your hands dirty tending for the crops.
2. Harvest and savor the flavor. Homegrown stuff tastes better than candy and is fresher than anything from the produce section at your grocery store.  You'll also enjoy the sense of pride and satisfaction of eating stuff you grew.  Enjoy your own food and the benefits of building a healthy family and then sell the excess.
3. Get your kids or grandkids involved.  Introduce them to the land.  Help generate a love for growing plants and caring for animals.  Let them experience the excitement in watching the miracle of plant growth. Share memories of your family's agricultural heritage to help them see the legacy of the land.  Young people love to be involved in a cause. Enlist their help in healing and building healthy soil. Let them raise some chicks and then collect the eggs.  Chickens are so much fun to watch and care for.
4. Shop Local.  Support neighboring farmers at farmer's markets or roadside stands.  Talk to them. Encourage them.  Learn from them.  Keep the dollars circulating in your local communities, helping local folks.  Work with like-minded folks to develop a market for your produce & meats.  Once they taste the difference, they will be hooked!
5. Read, experiment, expand, learn & grow.  Let your love for the land grow and see where it takes you.  Find a niche and fill it.  Perhaps new family farm enterprises could be incubated.  Maybe you could figure a way to make the farm support itself without requiring off-farm income.  Rediscover your love for the land and the joy of the simple life.  Slow down and take time to enjoy things we've taken for granted in our fast-paced, rat-race world.

These are all minor steps, but very do-able things - not rocket science.  If we did some of this, we could make inroads, and begin to re-ignite/reinvigorate family farms and slow or reverse the advancement of crumbling farmhouses and dreams. It is a noble goal and one that will leave a lasting legacy.