• Common Ground •

Hosting a group of urbanites, regardless of age, is always illuminating. Keep in mind that I lived for 27 years in Passaic and Paterson NJ, two very urban cities in the NY Metro area. Hosting a group of farmers is also equally interesting and oddly enough there are many commonalities between both groups in folks response to the way we farm.

What do I mean when I say we farm at a 'human scale'?

Yes, I have several tractors and other implements and equipment that I use in field preparation and there are some crops that are almost entirely managed with these mechanical aids. However, the vast majority of the vegetable crops are worked with hand tools by hand. Now in any given year this may mean that a crop is planted using a tractor and planter or by a walking planter or for that matter direct seeded by hand. Of course the tillage is mostly done with a machine although not always and not entirely. Cultivation and weed control are also managed variously. Harvesting, is 99.9% by hand. Actually, as I write this I can't think of any vegetable crop that is harvested mechanically here.

Why would I chose to farm this way?

There are actually a number of reasons. I suppose the first being that when I began farming commercially, even market gardening with my family, we did a tremendous amount of the work by hand. This is really much more efficient use of the land. It takes a lot of field space to have travel lanes and turning space at the end of a field and most of the fields here are quite small by comparison to large commercial farms in other geomorphic provinces [glacially etched mountains vs. rolling plains or open land]. However, I can effectively grow a higher concentration of plants [due to reduced row spacing] than a bigger commercial grower and this gives us a much higher yield per acre. Yes it is more labor intensive! Now, it is important to understand that both equipment and labor are very expensive. You need critical thresholds of either to be able to farm. I believe that it is futile to expect to be able to continue to farm if you do not have soil that is healthy and has good physical characteristics. The soil is my number one focus. What is the use of building the soil if you are not going to protect the soil and prevent erosion or other degradation. Based upon my years of farming and knowledge gained through attention to agriculture I believe that from an ecological, environmental and, yes, economical [considering the hidden costs and impacts of conventional agriculture] perspective, farming at a human scale is better stewardship of the land.

Here enters the commonality of response among folks who visit. The farmers simply say that if it took this much work they would do something else, and the same comment in general is heard from the urbanites. It seems that neither commercial farmers or city dwellers are interested in working this hard. I have a friend who declared to me that when he got into farming he decided that, "if you couldn't do it from the seat of a tractor it wasn't going to be any part of his farm". He is a big grain producer here in NJ. [Please Don't misunderstand me; anyone who really works at their farming is working hard!] In general, commercial farmers are trying to cut costs and boost production through more aggressively working to mechanize their operations with profit measured in the smallest fractions over large acreages and high volume. They believe this is necessary because of the market valuation of products. I believe that the market valuation is a result of a systematic cultural devaluation of food as a result of the choices offered and advertising done by industrial food giants who compete for food dollars through scale and not through quality. WalMart is the best example of this. In my opinion this is merely an attractive veil that hides a stark poverty.

"I can make $7 an hour flipping burgers, get my food and not work anywhere near as hard" is the usual response from young people with not a thought about what it really means for that to be possible.

I often have pointed out that there are very few occupations you can engage in that actually create new wealth. Mining, logging, fishing, and farming are really about it. Every other activity is merely adding value to a raw material or a service. Logging could be practiced sustainably but the harvest intervals would best be hundreds of years for many tree species and so is more like mining in that it consumes a prior existing resource to the detriment of the environment including exhausting the resource that the industry is built on. Anyone see a big slab of redwood lately? Now we are using up the worlds growth of mahogany. Generally, services are dispensable in spite of the fact that they are very nice to have. I am not aware of booming service industries in impoverished nations or parts of the world. Mining is simply consumption. When we have extracted what value is available, the aftermath is often an environmental catastrophe. That leaves fishing and farming. When I first went to college I was in the marine studies curricula and learned quite a bit. Lately, I have given considerable thought to commercial fishing. There are so many other man made and natural impacts on fish stocks that it seems unfair to blame diminishing fish stocks entirely on fishing mismanagement. Mismanagement is certainly responsible for decreases in some waters, however in other waters the degraded stocks are a calamity of multiple events.

Farming, harvests energy from the sun via plants and animals and converts that into food. That is real value to humans!! This is the most direct and pure generation of wealth possible when done holistically and truly sustainably, just as fishing can be. Unfortunately, big business is involved and milking the process for all they can with little real regard for the environment. If you dispute that, just look off shore at how these same corporate giants treat other peoples where our laws do not apply. They have a pretty abysmal record here. I honestly believe that the recognition of the potential for 'new wealth' is a significant reason in the motivation of big business to develop ideas and material like the 'terminator gene'. If you recall this was a gene that would render the plant it was inserted into impotent and incapable of producing viable seed thus preventing the possibility of farmers keeping and replanting their own seed as has been done since the very first hominid intentionally planted a seed. This gene still exists!

Ok, so it is easy to rail against these 'corporations' but they are run by people. People whose motive is profit. Generally profit for themselves and profit for their shareholders. Stepping back in time, Thomas Jefferson said, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." So now, only 220 or so years later there are global corporate entities that, for the sake of profit for few 'bid defiance' to the countries of the world. there are also no old growth forests in the east, no chestnut trees as the predominant hardwood species in our forests, no pristine waters, and 220+ years of consuming the natural resources that no longer are here but have been replaced by landfills bigger than some of the mountains that were razed to build the towns outside of which sit the landfills. To what end?

The basis of perceived wealth is individually defined in that each of us must understand what we value. One of the things I most highly value is my relationship and role in the ecology of this farm. I have a much more intimate relationship because of my choice of how to farm than could ever be achieved from the 'seat of a tractor'. I have the great and tangible value of being able to help a community of like minded people coalesce and I have the most often undervalued opportunity of knowing that this is to a great extent the fruit of my labor. I have a purpose that inspires, motivates and sustains me and through this production of our food we realize great value as a community. The wealth is in better eating, improved nutrition, healthier bodies, and sharing through community.

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