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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Organic Farming Opens a Way for Farmers to Return to Their Proper Role
  • Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:24:52 -0700


Organic Farming Opens a Way for Farmers to Return to Their Proper Role as
Innovators and Stewards of the Land
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/03-0
by Olga Bonfiglio Saturday, April 3, 2010

"There seems to be three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is
by war...this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally
cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way." Benjamin Franklin

The twenty-first century's uncertainty about the future abounds with
predicaments like climate change, depletion of our water resources, and the
end of cheap energy. And farmers are being called upon to assume a new role
as innovators and stewards of the land because they know how to produce food.

"Farmers were the true founders of the United States," said Lisa Hamilton,
author of Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness,
"because they went out into the wild and built the first structures and
communities that eventually became our cities and the nation." In 1800, 90
percent of Americans were farmers.

She spoke recently at the 21st Annual Conference of the Midwest Organic &
Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) held in La Crosse, Wisc.

By 1900 after the frontier closed and the nation moved from an agricultural
to an industrial economy, the percentage of farmers dropped to almost 40
percent. That's also when farmers began to shift in their role from
"citizens" to "producers."

And they have been rebelling ever since over land and crop prices and
agricultural policies, said Hamilton.

"They weren't looking to change the system; they only wanted their fair share
of the wealth."

Meanwhile, other inducements moved them off the farm.

They were perceived to be "hayseeds" and helpless victims of droughts, floods
and crop failures.

War in Europe exposed many young men to a more expanded view of the world,
including the city's lures of wine, women and song as expressed in the World
War I hit, "How ‘Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm After They've Seen Paree?"

Economic opportunity and excitement in the city led to the gradual
abandonment of farming as a career choice. Even during the Great Depression,
income was three and four times higher off the farm than on it
(http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/classroom/lesson2/large009.gif). In 2007,
the USDA reported that farm income per capita was $28,781 compared to urban
income of $40,570. Today, a mere 2 percent of Americans are farmers.

After World War II, the United States began a program of prosperity and
productivity for all. Farmers who grew crops and stewarded the land were
cajoled into resembling industrial workers from the city who produced
piecework in a complex system overseen by major corporations, said Chuck
Hassebrook, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs.

Livestock are cared for by "employees" of big corporations rather than by
farmers who once took responsibility for their businesses as well as the
small communities where they lived. These were things that gave meaning to
their lives. As a result, small farming towns have fallen into social decay
with a disappearing middle class.

Then, the USDA's "cheap food policy" of the 1970s resulted in giving major
food corporations almost total control of the food system.

"What have we wrought over these past 70 years?" asked Hassebrook.

"People yearn for greater authenticity and a genuine search for meaning and
significance in life," said Hassebrook. "They don't just want to accumulate
things. They are searching for community and meaningful relationships with
people and with the land. They are yearning for more access to nature."

The Center for Rural Affairs (CRA), located in Lyons, Neb., a town of 980,
represents a set of values that reflect the best in rural people, he said:
fairness, widespread ownership, personal and social responsibility and
stewardship of the land where it is preserved for the next generation.

"When you look beyond selfish interests, the true interests reflect these
values and are tied to community and the common good," said Hassebrook.

But there is change in the making. Organic farming and the local food
movement are capturing the imaginations of people in small, rural towns. And
while it's difficult to tell where the future lies, Hassebrook urged
conference participants to recognize that people need to take responsibility
for their own destiny and future.

"We can't wait for government or corporate America to save us."

Hassebrook identified five keys that tap farmers' full potential to create a
better future.

1. Protect authenticity.

The recent clarification of organic standards on dairy products is a vital
start that means something to family farmers who want to treat their animals
well and consumers who want to believe that their food is safe.

2. Be entrepreneurial and re-build ownership and a legacy in the family farm
rather than subject it to corporate ownership and control.

"There is a great untapped opportunity in grass-fed dairy. Go after that
market," he encouraged. "This is a strategy for linking farmers with
consumers."

Cooperatives are a great way to do this. Spain has developed a cooperative
system where they train entrepreneurs and created a bank to finance start-up
businesses.

"Emulate that!" he said.

3. Be mindful of the importance of contributing to the community.

Farms have always had a symbiotic relationship with cities and the organic
food movement can rebuild this relationship as people grow more concerned
about where their food comes from and who the farmer is that grows it.

In truth, these are quality of life issues, said Hassebrook. Baby Boomers
are retiring and choosing places where they want to live instead of where
their jobs take them. Likewise, people in their 30s are attracted to rural
America as a good place to raise their children.

"If they could make a living in small farms and businesses, they would come
to our rural towns," he said.

4. Protect access to good germ plasma.

Organic farmers can collaborate with conventional farmers on the issues of
genetic drift and improving seed varieties. Allowing big corporations like
Monsanto to have almost total control of seeds is antithetical to good
stewardship.

"It pains me greatly that Monsanto received exclusive license through the
University of Nebraska," said Hessebrook who has urged policymakers to
prohibit this practice, especially when public funds go to private companies
outside our own states.

5. Reverse the government's bias toward big corporations at the expense of
small and medium-sized family farms.

This practice drives these farms out of business and also drives up land
prices. Conservation of these lands is also an important and essential
aspect of stewardship.

These issues are about money, which is one source of power in Washington.
The other power source is people, said Hassebrook.

"When people give up, money fills the void. When people hold the politicians
accountable, they trump the power of money," he said. "When we send people
to Washington to represent us, we need to remind them who sent them there."

"We can create a new wave of change in America," said Hassebrook. "Organic
farming is a big part of this change, but it won't be automatic. We have to
work for it."

"Let our inspiration be the pioneers who first settled America. Those who
succeeded were courageous. They made sacrifices to achieve their dreams.
They were builders and entrepreneurs. They cared about their communities,
which were comprised of a diversity of people with different languages and
customs. They were farmers, carpenters, teachers, politicians and planners.
They were visionaries who worked hard to achieve progress. They remained
optimistic and were open to new ideas. Our challenge is to go forth and do
good."

Olga Bonfiglio is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan,
and author of Heroes of a Different Stripe and several national magazines on
the subjects of food and social justice. She currently volunteers as a
gardener and LaMancha goat handler on a small, non-commercial, organic farm
in southwest Michigan. Her website is www.OlgaBonfiglio.com.




  • [Livingontheland] Organic Farming Opens a Way for Farmers to Return to Their Proper Role, Tradingpost, 04/03/2010

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