Eating Is An Agricultural Act

This fall in an effort to become better versed in all things food so as to have a fighting chance among her sisters, my mother dragged me along to a talk by renowned food critic Ruth Reichl and Q&A with local chef, Ouita Michaels. We snagged a front row seat next to Ouita’s mother. She was the sort of a person my mother calls “a kick” and I call “pretentious.” She told us right of the bat that she inspired her daughter’s local foods movement in Lexington, and she buys her lamb from ‘Wendell”. I was not impressed, but though the name-dropping was pretentious it resonated with the sense of community inspired by small farms and local foods. She and her daughter understand what Wendell, better known as farmer, writer and sustainable agriculture activist, Wendell Berry means when he pronounces, “eating is an agricultural act.” This act of consumption affects our culture, economy and health and yet few know the difference between what Wendell calls the conscious decision of consuming sustainable agriculture and the passive choice to support the industrial agribusiness. It is long past time to realize the importance of our “agricultural act” and begin to “eat responsibly”. It is up to our generation to change our eating routines and habits as consumers to shift our community back toward local and sustainable agriculture.

There is a distinct different between the depth of agriculture in sustainable farming and industrial agribusiness. It is the difference between harmony with nature and domination of nature. Farming is no longer a symbiotic relationship between the land and the consumer; it has now become a parasitic relationship where, for the purpose of profit maximization, abuse of the land has become the norm. This domination of nature that the industrial agribusiness relies on has been the status quo since after World War Two when new technologies made large scale farming cheap and easy. Considered progress, American people marveled at the mechanization of farming. No longer were small family farms necessary. A much higher profit could be made by one person on one large farm selling one large crop than a small farmer on a small farm selling a diverse selection of crops. But as farms grew larger so did land abuse and by the 2000’s the idea of a thriving family farm has all but been replaced by the industrial agriculture. By 2007 Monsanto controlled 87% of genetically engineered seeds.  The farmers that grow Monsanto seeds must spend thousands of dollars for seeds and technology just to compete with other farmer’s crops all the while destroying the soil, stripping it of all of its nutrients. And while on the labels of food produced are happy, healthy farms the reality is slowly becoming the opposite.

This ideal of the bucolic family farm is still prominent yet the reality is far from it. How far have we strayed from the idea of farms in harmony with nature. The abuse of land has become commonplace. Yet the consumer continues to support this unhealthy practice. We have sat back and allowed the standard for farming become profit maximization and have pushed the standards set by nature fall to the wayside. We look past the fact that land abuse is human abuse. When farms are consolidated and left to the mercy of industrial agribusiness the small family farm disappears and along with it the local economy. As farmers leave the “urban industrial economy more and more usurps the local economy”, and as the local economy fails communities die. People in these areas become bankrupt and the standards for community life and farming are lowered. We must reduce large-scale farming and industrial dependency to stop abusing the land so that we preserve communities.

Instead of supporting the standards set by the industry, we need to set standards that adhere to those of nature by raising consumer demand in urban areas for high quality products and “pure” food. Our generation must support local food movements at farmers markets and coops to bolster the surrounding communities and local economy.

In his essay, “The Pleasures of Eating”, Wendell Berry attempts to explain what eating responsibly means. He argues that to eat responsibly is to become acquainted with what you are eating. To eat with “understanding and with gratitude” for the food you are eating, the farmers that farmed it, and the land the produced it. That is the fundamental difference between sustainable agriculture and the industrial agribusiness. Specialization, a standard of the industrial ag business, sends us cheap, chemically preserved, pre-packaged food. In contrast, you can eat home grown, locally produced, chemical and hormone free meat and produce that are produced together on a balanced and diverse farm. In the documentary, Coming To Ground, a farmer remembers the genetically engineering of a tomato. If the tomato bounced after being dropped from above a man’s head then they would use it, if not they tossed it. That is what is being produced on industrial farms, produce void of nutrition and freshness, tomatoes that bounce. A real tomato, grown and tended with care at a small farm and sold at the farmers market does not bounce. In fact, it may have dirt stains or a small split but it was grown in soil that had not been stripped of its nutrients, it tastes better and is much more nutritious than bouncing tomatoes that have been genetically crossed with fish to withstand lower temperatures. Besides that, these “frankentotmatoes” have a much larger carbon footprint than your sustainably grown food bought locally.

Just as our environment would be healthier if we were to support locally grown food so would our economy and ourselves. We must find a balance between the prosperity of the local economy and the federal economy. Which is essentially the difference between local health and monetary wealth. Though the economy has boomed as a result of the industrialization of agriculture, the health of the nation’s land has severely declined. And yet it is the wealth of our lands that will last not our monetary wealth. When truly, considered supporting local food is no more expensive than the long-term costs of unemployment and health care that must be paid as a result of the industrial ag companies. We need to begin consuming food that doesn’t rape the land and destroy communities. So what makes a burger that costs $7.50 at Stella’s better than one that costs $1.99 at McDonalds? Stella’s buys their beef that is raised grass fed is Paris, Kentucky and slaughtered in Bourbon County. The lettuce was grown pesticide free and Elmwood Stock Farm and the tomatoes, are fish gene free. McDonald’s burgers are from grain fed cows that lived most of their life in a space filled with their own excrement too small to turn around. They were raised in Texas but shipped to Kansas to be slaughtered. Then shipped to a factory to be made into patties and finally to your local McDonalds. Now, which one sounds better? Wendell Berry claims, “one reason to eat locally is to eat free”. Free to know where your food comes from and how it was treated. Free to not be influenced by the advertisements of big agribusiness. Free to stop being a passive consumer and an industrial eater and begin to realize the responsibly of the agriculture act each bite you take is. You determine your health, the local communities’ health, the local economies’ health and the health of the farms where your food was produced when you eat.

Kentucky’s move from tobacco to sustainable agriculture became a change to community. Many committed young farmers left the competition of industrial tobacco farming to create bucolic farms dedicated to preserving the tradition of generations of farming before them. They have inspired life into the community and a local foods movement. This farm to table movement has sparked life into many old farms that today produce everything from your Thanksgiving turkey to spring strawberries to grass fed beef and brussel sprouts. As these farms grew the local economy began to flourish, and farmers markets in Lexington and Louisville expanded. Local food is different from organic food. Organic food can have a large carbon footprint and “free range” chickens that never leave their coop, but there is now way for the consumer to know. Local food has a much smaller carbon footprint and the consumer knows that the chickens roam around with the pigs because they see them together and they know and trust the farmer. This trusts builds a trust through out the community and community is the fundamental difference between industrial ag and sustainable ag. Sustainable agriculture does not just help sustain the biodiversity of produce and health of the soil, but the local community and economy as well.

To eat locally is to decide to support food that emphasizes a system of permanence, quality and beauty, not speed quantity and profit. That is to choose to eat responsibly. Is everyone in the world did not buy gas for one day they would lower the cost of gas monumentally. If every one bought and ate locally produced food one day a week they would fundamentally change the system of agriculture in the United States. Local farms would thrive, as would local communities and economies. We wont all be able to say we buy our lamb from “Wendell” but we will be able to say that just like Wendell we eat responsibly because we know that eating is an agricultural act.