Supporting your local farmer is an act of resistance
In the last several weeks, I’ve had lots of conversations with folks about what it means to be a young farmer starting a small farm. It’s both an exciting and overwhelming endeavor - one that requires vision, optimism, tenacity and grit. As the world has moved to a global food system, one laden with chemical inputs and dependent on fossil fuels, the small, local, chemical free farmer is a romanticized anomaly. I’ve heard many statements about the naivete of back to the landers, and the impossibility of feeding the world organically. And yet, those of us choosing to do this work have undertaken it with the goal of replicating successful, regenerative models. Models that have the potential for producing maximal life giving food, with dignity and respect, while healing the earth. Like many other farmers in my position, I feel a fundamental obligation to my community and the children of the future. Collectively, we want to reclaim the practice of making food.
Farming is relentless. The diversified, small scale farmer must be present and engaged day in and day out. It’s no surprise that many motivated, educated people try out farming for a few years, only to return to the land of graduate school, non-profit work or something generally more recognized and respected. I get it. Being a farmer isn’t just long hours and manual labor. If you are a small scale farmer it also likely means that you are a bookkeeper, PR agent, driver, social media guru, writer and salesperson. Today, being a small farmer is a true entrepreneurial pursuit! I enjoy the multifaceted aspects of the job, but the reality means the true art of farming only receives a portion of my attention. A large part of my job is educating others that, despite the up front costs, there’s true value in real food.
One of the beautiful aspects of being a farmer is experiencing the beginning, the middle and the end. Here at RadFarm, I’ve watched and participated in birth, life and death. I’ve learned to turn life into food. I’ve reflected on my child’s observation that “humans are scavengers” and thought about how this is both true and a recent phenomenon.
Farmers feed the world. All of us. Those who are doing it with giant machines and chemical inputs, those that keep animals in inconceivable conditions, and those of us planting seeds, spreading compost and watching our 9 small chicks hatching from eggs. Collectively, we make all the food that allows for human life on earth (with the exception of the hunting and gathering that is still practiced by some and the home gardening by others), and there are a very small number of us. In the United States, just two percent of people are farmers with 98% of people eating from the fruits of our labors. Why does this matter? Food, our most fundamental commodity, the thing that sustains life, is no longer a part of the commons, but controlled by the few. While many small farmers produce a diversity of nutrient dense, life giving produce, meats, mushrooms, eggs and dairy, the majority of what is grown and raised today wouldn’t have been recognized as food even 100 years ago. This “food” is making us sick, fat and shortening our lifespans. It is subsidized by our tax dollars, earns giant corporations unfathomable profits and is killing the planet. And yet, the ancestral skills aren’t entirely lost or forgotten. All around the world leaders are sharing regenerative knowledge bit by bit and people are learning the skills to bring real food back.
We are all eaters and almost all of us pay for food. Where you spend your dollars matters. Each bite you take either sends dollars to faceless corporations (even ones that are certified organic) driven by profit, or to those that are the backbone of our communities. Your spending power, no matter how small, can be an act of resistance. By supporting small, local farmers you are resisting the commodification of what sustains us all. Instead, you’re investing in rebuilding the soil, dignified treatment of animals and food that has the power to heal. You’ll also get to talk to your farmer about your kids/day/job/garden each time you visit them at the farmers market or farm stand. When you eat as an act of resistance, you learn about the successes and challenges of making real food, what the animals you eat eat, and why certain crops thrive and others fail. You are investing in the education of those making your food and helping them build the skills that we all need to survive.
So shop small and spend as much as you can directly with farmers. You may have to adjust what you eat a bit, but in the process you’ll discover a whole new world of seasonal, local options. We are blessed in Vermont to have a plethora of local, small farmers who respect the earth and work hard each day to make real food. Those farmers need you to make it work. We need your stories and smiles and dollars. We need you to bring back real food bit by bit, bite by bite. I hope to see you soon at RadFarm and to share the gift of life giving, nutrient dense food with you.