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The Browning of America
Why we need Small Family Farms – NOW
David Oelker
FoG March 2003

Today I watched a huge, shiny green combine chewing up row after row of field corn. In its wake was a cloud of dust and shattered bits of corn stalk and cob. The cab of this acre eater held the “farmer”, decked out in jeans and flannel shirt. On his head, a John Deere cap sat cocked slightly to the side. At the end of the field stood his dual wheel, king cab, four-wheel-drive truck (complete with Cummins diesel engine) parked on a strip of grass.

This is what most of us see when we happen to pass a farmer harvesting his crop. This is the same image that finds its way onto numerous calendars that lie on the counter at the feed co-op, or in the pages of glossy country and farm magazines. These images, for us, are more than just what is on the surface. We fill in what is missing from the picture. In our mind’s eye we can see the white frame house that our farmer will go home to. Out back stands the red hip roof barn and a few grain bins and silos. Some chickens roam about the clean yard while black and white cows graze nearby. We even throw in a few pigs and perhaps a horse or two – for his Sunday afternoon rides with his wife and kids. A pleasing sight, no? Problem is, our picture isn’t real. The real picture is quite different from the one on our calendar, or in our mind.

The Real Picture

Oh sure, our farmer is still riding high in his combine, but the combine carries more than just corn. The combine also carries a debt load so high that all of the corn, in all of the fields our farmer tends, is needed to make the payments to the finance company, with little left over. The truck is also financed and the farmer’s clothing was likely purchased on credit as well. What about the home place? Well, the hip roof barn fell into disrepair after grandpa quit milking, back in the ‘70s. There hasn’t been a cow on the place since. Our farmer finally bulldozed the barn a few years ago to make room for more grain dryers. The man at the Ag Support office told our farmer he would have to expand his operation in order to maintain his cash flow and get that year’s operating loan. More land was leased for the extension and Mrs. Farmer had to take a job at Wal-Mart when the crop was hit hard by an early freeze. The horses were sold soon after. No one really felt like riding anymore. Farmer Jr. was heard to tell his dad that he “hated this place” and wanted to leave the farm “as soon as I’m old enough to get a REAL job”.

This picture is not the one that American agribusiness wants us to see. The ag-extension offices, chemical manufacturers, meat and dairy processors, and implement companies have yet to admit that the modern mono-culture model is a failed experiment. However evidence is building to such a level that the business-as-usual glossing techniques just don’t work anymore. Ground water is being contaminated by fecal runoff from feed lots. Newspapers carry stories about manure spills in creeks and rivers. People are getting sick from contaminated meat and dairy products. Food giants such as A.D.M., Dole, Cargill, Tyson, Oscar Meyer and others are increasingly accused of unethical labor practices.

In a recent story from the Associated Press, scientists reported that extremely low concentrations of the common weed killer atrazine disrupted the sexual development of male leopard frogs. The levels of atrazine used in the experiments were 30 times lower than the E.P.A.’s maximum limit for safe drinking water. If it does that to a frog, what does it do to us?

Another story in the December 1, 2001 Lexington Herald Leader reported that a federal grand jury in Tennessee issued a 36-count indictment against Tyson Foods, Inc. for employing illegal immigrants, including underage Mexicans. Company officials allegedly obtained false documents for them – in the name of cost reduction and production quotas.

Reports of “super bugs”, bacteria resistant to antibiotics as a result of routine medicated animal feeds are common in the media.

Factory food production is responsible for all sorts of sickness in consumers. The F.D.A. has now approved irradiation of chicken to kill bacteria that is a direct result of factory processing.

The Small Family Farm

We need small family farms and we need them NOW. We need no time to wait for agribusiness to get its act together. Prime American farm land is being gobbled up by development at an alarming rate. But having yet more families adopt the failed agribusiness model won’t work. We need families farming much smaller acreages, using low-tech traditional methods. We need to adopt the tried and true methods of our grandfathers. Up until the latter part of the twentieth century no farmer would have dreamed of practicing mono-culture. Successful farms used the principle of diversification. If one crop failed, another would make up for its losses. If milk prices fell, hogs or poultry would carry them through. Farmer sold to consumer – directly,

Where agribusiness models have no room for God, family farms must work in cooperation with God. The Almighty has designed complex systems in nature. We cannot go against these systems. If we spray all the insects in a field, we will kill the good with the bad. If we spray the earth with petrochemicals we are going to poison the soil and the water. Also, farming, like any other vocation, has many stresses. We need to avail ourselves of all the Graces we can. We can best do this by making frequent use of the Sacraments and being active members of our parish community.

Farm families cannot live like factory workers. Most conventional farmers buy their food at the grocery store, just like their factory cousins. Consumerism must be avoided like the plague that it is. Living a simple lift is a must for the family on the farm. There is no room for fancy tractors and equipment, with their burden of debt. Families must use low-tech equipment and methods. Many tractors manufactured right after WW2 are still putting in a full day’s work. For some families the use of horses as power can be a viable option. In many cases, draft horses can be shown to produce a higher return per acre than tractors (you can’t grow gasoline, but you can grow oats, and tractors have yet to reproduce themselves).

This isn’t just a dream

Families are succeeding where agribusiness doesn’t, right now. There are many examples. Joel Salatin is one example. The Salatin’s Virginia farm supports 4 salaries through hogs, beef, poultry, eggs, vegetables and firewood. Numerous Amish still support large families with farm income. In Pennsylvania, Eric and Anne Nordell make their entire living from 6 acres of organic vegetables, herbs and some cut flowers – with 90% of their sales at local farmer’s markets. A family in Tennessee derives their income from the manufacture of bent wood rocking chairs, the wood being raised on their farm. The small farm dream can be reality if we are willing to think outside the box, if we are willing to step out in faith. Faith is what it will take. Not everyone is called to farming, and it is a calling. But for those of us whom God is calling, it is our destiny. We must do it. We have no choice but to reclaim the land and feed God’s people. And just as we need farms, we need people to buy from the farmers. What would it take to give our business to the local guy? Is there a farm near you that might appreciate a fair price for its beef or hogs? Maybe buying locally is not convenient. But, I submit to you that convenience is what has gotten us into this mess in the first place. Let’s take another look at the economy of day’s past. Let’s not turn into the Wal-Mart super center. Let’s instead, just once, drive out to the country and lend a hand to the farmer. Who knows, we might become ones ourselves. We can choose the sane road of sustainable culture, or we can choose to continue down the path of chemical madness that we are now on. The choice is ours to make. But, if we do choose to return to a more sustainable past, someone is going to have to step out and take chances. There is but one solution. We need small family farms and we need them NOW.