Traditional Eating

Small Farms 

I think that being a farmer on a small, sustainable, mixed farm providing healthy, nutrient dense foods for the local community, is one of the most important professions there are.  We hear everyday the warnings about climate change, pollution, health crisis, poverty, malnutrition, bioterrorism, CAFO’s, food born illnesses, water shortages, soil degradation, oil shortages, etc.  All of these problems would be greatly ameliorated and many of them solved if our country returned to local sustainable food systems and economies.  This can only be accomplished by returning to small, local, sustainable, “beyond organic” mixed farms.  Returning to small, sustainable farms is the only way to protect our soils, biodiversity, local ecologies, and natural waters and feed the planet.  I would encourage my child to follow this avocation.  The world needs more small sustainable farms and farmers to run them.  This kind of farming requires intelligence, compassion, perseverance, awareness, personal integrity and a respect for nature.  Being a farmer can teach about the importance of working in harmony with nature and using modern technology wisely.  Farming can also provide an invaluable physical, emotional and spiritual experience.  It can help us understand that we are all one and everything is interconnected.

Small farms use grass farming, rotational grazing, mobility with electric fences, composting, terraces, natural fertilizers in the form of animal manure and urine, ponds for water supply, flood control and biodiversity, savannahs, forest, woodchips, and grasses again.  They rely on biodiversity, local ecologies, soils and microbes.  Small farms grow soils and grasslands using sunshine, trees, pond water and rain, cows, chickens and pigs, grazing management and the whole natural, cyclical, harmonious system.  Cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits, turkeys, grasses, soils, carbon material; all play an essential role in the health, harmony and cleanliness of the farm.  The healthy happy animals on small farms are more resistant to disease and make healthier, better tasting food.  Small farmers understand the land of wherever they live and design their farms according to the local climate, foliage, topography and character.  Small farmers understand the value of providing excellent quality, seasonal, nutrient dense animal foods for the local community and form relationships based on honesty and transparency.  Being a farmer instills the empirical understanding of the natural cycle of predator and prey.  They understand the importance of being a steward of the land ensuring the health and harmony of all creatures involved by working in harmony with nature.

Normal on-farm challenges and hard work can be fun and rewarding.  The most frustrating, infuriating and unnecessary obstacles small farmers face come from uncompassionate and ignorant government bureaucrats and regulations in the form of zoning laws, codes, taxing, food inspectors and disconnected one size fits all farming laws.  These senseless rules stifle creativity and freedom.  Misplaced taxes put extra strain on small farms and the many government farm subsidies benefit big agriculture and food processing corporations and severely hamper small farmers.  Small farmers are prohibited from killing and processing most of their own animals, sales of small farm foods are ridden with restrictions, seminars and educational gatherings are not allowed.  Government rules make it impossible for small farms to hire neighborhood kids and interns that would have provided these young people with a great, meaningful education and a sense of community and involvement.  Many of our hard earned taxes are used to implement laws that force inappropriate restrictions and farming systems on small farms that are not suited for their land.  Government will try and tell you how big your home has to be and what kind of farm structures, water systems and fencing to build, which makes small farms less efficient and disconnected from the local topography, climate and situation.  The government uses a “reductionist, compartmentalized, fragmented mentality” which results in senseless regulations that suppress innovation and creativity.  The numerous obstacles make it extremely difficult for small farmers to sell their foods to the local community and thus hard to make a living.  Unfortunately, opting out is not an option.  The more government gets involved, the further away we get from sustainable local food systems and local economies, and the more power Industrial Agriculture and Big Business acquires.

Government involvement also it makes it more difficult for consumers to obtain farm fresh foods from local, small farms.  The prohibition of raw milk comes from the early 1900’s when cows were raised in confinement in cities next to distilleries and fed the slop and waste byproducts from these distilleries.  Refrigeration did not exist and hygiene was not a priority.  The milk came from sick cows, milked by people who often did not wash their hands and left out in room temperatures.  Instead of returning cows to their natural pastoral habitat and feeding them their natural diet of grass, pasteurization was the outcome.  Most states today do not allow the sale of fresh raw milk from grass-fed cows.  This idea that the government knows more about what is healthy for me than I do, and are going to make it illegal for me to obtain the foods I want to eat, infuriates me.  I do not believe it is the government’s responsibility, nor is it their right, to tell us what to eat and drink.  On the flip side, I am often amazed as well by the apathy and disconnectedness people feel towards their food.  The real way to ensure that healthy, nutrient dense, local sustainable foods are available is for the population to educate themselves about food and where it comes from and become aware of everything they put into their mouths.  They must understand that what they eat is not only about their health but about the health and well-being of the entire planet.  This is what will drive a return to local food systems and economies and heal our planet.      

Everything about Industrial Farming raises big red flags with regards to food safety.  Small, sustainable local farms are the only solution to this problem.  Yet the small farmers are the ones receiving all the government pressure, restrictions, regulations, fees and armed raids.  Big corporations are very powerful and wealthy and wield serious control over government agencies and politicians.        

Even some well meaning environmental groups will inadvertently make it more challenging for small farmers to make a decent living.  Preservationists often don’t understand the importance of “ecological exercise.”  If left dormant too long without natural grazing and care taking, land turns to desert or is severely degraded.  They want to “preserve” large tracks of land and small farms without allowing any human management.  Well managed, sustainable farming is beneficial and necessary for the well being of land, animals and man.  Even animal rights organizations, in their well-intentioned, ignorant efforts to protect animals with their anthropomorphic view, often cause more problems for small farmers.  Well managed small farms that involve holistic thinking and understanding protect and nourish the land and animals much better than most environmental groups.        

Unfortunately, most of the food grown and raised today is in the form of big centralized industrial farming and their CAFO’s, factory farms, slaughter houses, mono-crops, chemicals, fossil fuel use, soil destruction and pollution.  Big Ag and big corporations provide a very unhealthy supply of processed, denuded foods for the mainstream population.  Industrial farming is largely possible because of cheap corn and soy, antibiotics, government subsidies and mainstream ignorance and fear.  Factory farms are an egregious disgrace.  The mistreatment of animals is criminal and then to feed these inhumanely treated, diseased, poor nutrient quality animals to the population is beyond belief.  These abominations create extensive land, water and air pollution.  The huge mono-crop farms chronically rely on chemicals and more chemicals destroying the soils and everything around them.  Industrial agriculture also uses excessive fossil fuels in the form of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, feed transportation, power and these processed foods are then transported around the country and world.  The crazy thing is that industrial farming, in the name of finding the solution to feeding the world, is actually taking us further away from that goal.  They destroy the soils and pollute the waters which eventually will make it impossible to grow anything.  Nothing about industrial farming is natural and Big Ag thinks technology is the answer for everything.  The animals are not fed their natural diet nor raised in their natural environment.  The inappropriate corn and soy they are fed is genetically modified.  The fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics and hormones are all chemicals and synthetic.  They try to control food born illnesses with pasteurization, irradiation, antibiotics and pesticides showing their ignorance of biodiversity, microbes and living soils and that it is “all about the terrain.”  Big Ag and Big industry are concerned only with becoming bigger and more profitable and rely on chemicals, pharmaceutical drugs, invasive technology and unconscious behavior to do so.  They are completely disconnected from the natural world and real food.  They destroy everything they touch making it more and more difficult to protect and feed the planet.           

Even many of the so called “organic” farms do more damage than good and are not sustainable nor in harmony with nature.  Industrial organic farms require excessive tilling which severely damages the soils.  Government control of the word “organic” has resulted in a very watered down version of what the word originally meant.  Many small farms are also not sustainable because often they rely on chemicals and other farm inputs; they use silos and feed their cows grains.  They build permanent farm structures and fences rather than portable ones stifling their freedom and creativity.  Often their farm structures are only used for one thing rather than multi-purpose, making them inefficient.  Some over graze their pastures and ignore the topography and diversity of their land.  They spend lots of money on unnecessary equipment and farm toys rather than on ponds, terraces and electric fencing.

If you look at the big picture, small sustainable, “beyond organic” farms are actually much more efficient than big factory farms and small farms heal the land in the process rather than causing destruction every step of the way.  They can produce more and healthier food per acre, they use way less fossil fuel, grow soils, and require very few if any outside farm supplies by managing natural, “symbiotic systems.”            

For more on the subject, I highly recommend reading Weston A. Price, Joel Salatin, Kaayla Daniels, Sally Fallon, Mary Enig, Wendell Berry, Sir Albert Howard, Lierre Kieth, Gary Taubes, Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan.

I hope many children will want to become farmers on small, sustainable, “beyond organic” farms and provide healthy, nutrient dense animal foods for their local communities.  This would help to create local seasonal food supplies and unique, vibrant local economies all across the world.