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Husbandman: noun 1. One whose occupation is husbandry, a farmer.
2. The master of a family.
3. A farmer; a cultivator or tiller of the ground.
I happened to read a recent post from Joel Salatin's blog HERE and was pleased to learn that he was asked to be one of six "Advisor the the Secretary" spots under the new Secretary of Agriculture. This is huge! Joel Salatin is a champion for the small farmer. He stands diametrically opposed to the policies started under Earl Butz, Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture from 1971-1976. Those policies incentivized large-scale corporate farming and an end to the small family farm. It was dubbed, "Get big or Get Out!" and signaled the beginning of the end for rural American farming families.
Growing up on a farm was truly the 'good ole days.' There's not a day that passes that I don't think about it. Sure, it was hard work, but there was something about it that was noble, satisfying even uplifting for your soul. It made men out of boys. I was in a town about 15 miles north of our family farm last week and ran into a fellow that now owns a construction company. He reminded me that 45 years ago we used to pull red rice at the farm together when we were boys. We laughed and told the shop owner about how hard it was, that it was hotter than a two dollar pistol on those humid July mornings when the air hung over you like a wet blanket. We lamented that we didn't know about Gold Bond Medicated powder back then to cure the chafing caused by walking in wet blue jeans, rubbing your inner thighs raw. After a while, we hugged each other said goodbye, and I drove off.
I wondered, why, after all these years, do we look back on hard times with fondness? It was like a rite of passage for a young man starting out in life. You met difficulty head on, facing it and when the day was done, you had some fulfillment of accomplishing something that was worthwhile. Sweat-stained shirts and caps and calloused hands were the currency used to buy the transition to adulthood.
Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness. - Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson's quote above was prescient. It seemed to be stating truth of the time while warning of what happens when you wage war against small agriculture. Things began to change, first slowly and then quickly. Workers became hard to find. Today, much of the work is done by huge machines and very few people. Those that do the manual labor are foreign labor on work visas, doing work that American's "don't want to do." The older farmers died off and were replaced by corporations that hired farm managers. A curious thing happened, though.
The old farmers weren't the only things dying off. The farming communities began dying off, too. The kids found jobs in the cities. Subdivisions germinated and grew on fertile land where rice, soybeans and cattle once grew. The businesses like hardware stores, feed stores, parts houses, and welding shops that once thrived by local farmers, were shuttered and replaced by vape stores, dollar stores, and lounges. Storefronts on Main Streets were boarded up and drug abuse ran rampant. Thieves steal what's not chained down.
On a positive note, my nephew was telling me about "Aggie Day" at their school. I can remember how they would grease down a pig with Vaseline and boys would run through the mud and try to catch it. The winner got to take the pig home to raise. I also remember the pride I had when I got my blue corduroy Future Farmers of America jacket. I'm glad to see that schools in rural America still do this.
Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. The small landowners are the most precious part of a state. Thomas Jefferson
In the 80's, a popular movie taught that "Greed is Good" and we were coaxed to become a service economy - we would have an economy that was fueled by consumption. And boy did we consume! The trouble is, most of the producing was done overseas or by large corporate conglomerates. The capital outlay involved in farming in this new paradigm make it prohibitive for all but a few young men and women to pursue these days. That leaves farming to these big outfits or hirelings who don't own the land or aren't husbandmen or stewards of the land, to merely use it, stripping it of its fertility and topsoil, caring not for the generations that would follow.
I love the land. I love our farm. The memories that germinated and grew from those few inches of topsoil are a crop that I harvest most days when I think of the good old days on the family farm. I pray that Joel Salatin might be able to do something to resurrect the dream of the family farm. It just might spark a revival in rural America!