Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Small Farming Is the Future
Napoleon wanted France to be bigger. He wanted more land. Nothing stopped him until Waterloo.
Have we, the human race, met our Waterloo? Have we finally hit the wall with our never-ending desire for "bigness"?
I decided years ago that I didn't want my farming operation to get bigger. I liked milking 45 cows, raising their feed and doing a little direct marketing. I liked being small.
"Hopelessly behind the times," I was told. Local cheese makers were giving up, local meat processing was a thing of the past. Small farming was dead. The developing world couldn't feed itself and needed industrial farming systems.
Who could argue with the Green Revolution? Until the current food crisis. It's not so much a shortage of food, but a shortage of cheap food. The poor can't afford to eat and the middle class feels the pinch. Why wasn't industrial agriculture, farming fence row to fence row, feeding the world?
There's the rub -- feeding the world was never the intention. Back in the '70s well-meaning researchers and eager graduate students, myself included, were convinced we could eliminate hunger in our lifetime. We had good intentions, but the big picture was always about making a profit.
Farmers, using cheap fuel, fertilizer and plenty of chemicals, could plant more acres, produce enough volume and generally make a profit. This, of course, benefited the seed and chemical companies, which long ago figured out that small farmers saving their own seed and tending small acreages didn't spend much money.
The big meat packers and dairy processors anticipated the end of local processing. Their market share increased and they grew larger. By breaking the labor unions, they could pay lower wages, bring in immigrant workers, increase profits and grow even larger.
It was a grand plan. Agribusiness corporations were increasing profit margins quarter after quarter. The bigger they grew, the better it worked. Prices paid for animals, milk and grain fell as farms grew larger and produced more. Small farmers couldn't compete as per unit profit margins fell and only the larger producers could survive.
Oil prices went up and farmers were urged to grow more corn for ethanol. More land went into corn production, wheat acreage fell, speculation pushed prices up and food prices soared. The International Monetary Fund estimates that 50 percent of the increase in food price was due to ethanol production. Instead of feeding the world, industrial agriculture starves it.
While oil companies banked huge profits, people lost their homes, jobs and farms. We have become too dependent on globalization and the big corporations that control it.
Small is the future. We know indigenous farmers can produce more food using traditional farming methods. They have no need of genetically modified seed or chemicals. All they need is an end to wars and, as Frances Moore Lappe would say, "more democracy." The World Bank and the G-8 need to let them make their own decisions and feed themselves.
Western countries need to take a step back. We cannot continue to feed grass-eating animals a diet of grain, nor can we continue to fill our fuel tanks with grain. We cannot continue to encourage and subsidize industrial agriculture at the expense of small local producers.
What we can do is return to local and regional food production. We can allow the rest of the world to feed themselves by reining in the influence of multinational grain and chemical companies. We can redevelop local communities and keep local dollars local, rather than filling the coffers of offshore corporate bank accounts.
Accepting the value of "smallness" and living more locally is the solution. Embracing small and local addresses the failure of systems -- whether it is the failure of the globalized food system to embrace food sovereignty, the failure of capitalism and its penchant to move more wealth to those who already have more than enough, or the failure of an entire society that has based its existence on oil.
Waterloo is synonymous with defeat, but it was also a victory against empire. We need another victory against empire. We need to reclaim our sense of local and realize the necessity of being small and interdependent. We need to end thousands of years of thinking bigger is always better.
Jim Goodman is a dairy farmer in Wonewoc and a policy fellow for the Food and Society Fellows Program.
© 2008 Capital Newspapers
56 Comments so far
Show AllSmall farming needs people anxious to farm on a small scale. The problem will be keeping them down on the farm after they´ve seen Pair-ee and all the glitz and fluff that they´ve been bombarded with. We farm reeeaally small, and my two adolescent boys can´t get their minds off the stylish city life. They know how to plant, harvest, fix machines, build sheds, milk cows, pull calves, feed cane grass--the works, but they can´t see that what they do is valuable. They see that what they know makes them just dumb farmers. And we farm in Honduras where almost everyone has come recently from the far. So, we have a battle ahead of us.
Sincerely,
Small is beautiful. Learning to live small and in simplicity is our future. There are simply not enough resources for everyone to live large.
Planting gardens and fruit trees, harvesting edible wild plants, and learning to preserve food will become increasingly important in a world of shortages. Shopping local is essential and learning to live cooperatively is fundamental.
Small is happiness. I agree that it is hard to convince the young, who have been brainwashed by corporate media all their lives. How can a person who is living in luxury surrounded by things and gadgets be truly happy? It is impossible. The more I have scaled back, the happier I have become and the more in love with our beautiful home, earth.
It's really about living with and being taught by Nature. Chiron taught most of the Greek heroes. Let go Luke! Use the Force.
You can always tell when you're off the track when you ask 'What's in it for me.'
Avrice is called a Deadly Sin for a reason.
And as long as you allow BIG GOVERNMENT to keep the ban on hemp and zoning laws against solar and wind intact along with phoney patents on farming seeds, FORGET IT ! Everyone needs to shut the hell up and BLOW out the corrupt pols in Washington giving in to Big Oil and Agri. And shut the corn lobbyists out please. This planet can do without high fructose corn syrup, saccharine, aspartame, etc ... Get some organic sugar or better yet STEVIA !
Small consumption is the future.
ROBERT CONKLIN-your boys will "get it" eventually. Nothing wrong with experiencing Paris, glitz and fluff...they'll come back to their foundation.
In the sixties, we experimented with small farming communes. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. One had that great, tired but satisfied feeling at the end of the day.
Like Mr. Conklin said, our kids found the mall and decided they liked it better than having dirty fingernails.
Everyone finally split, we sold the farm and moved to the comfort zone to dream of being back on the land.
Robert C said: "Small farming needs people anxious to farm on a small scale. The problem will be keeping them down on the farm after they´ve seen Pair-ee and all the glitz and fluff that they´ve been bombarded with."
You're right, but this is the way it's always been. I have seen many young people leave agriculture. They couldn't get out fast enough (me too). They move to Pair-ee and get higher paying jobs (moved to Mpls/St. Paul in my case). Sure, there are always a few idealistic ex-urbanites willing to try a small farm, but they are small in number and many have lots of cash on hand made from the urban jobs they just left.
The reality is only a handful of people are needed to farm 5000 acres with big equipment. It's just not going backwards. The plains states are dotted with abandoned farm houses. People have been leaving farms in the Midwest for "greener pastures" for over 100 years. I'm sure if people want to put their employment where their mouths are they can pick up an old farm house in the Midwest for nearly free. I know of many houses, actually. (too many)
Check out this video of a great panel on "The Global Food Chain" with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), food activist Vandava Shiva and Slow Food Movement founder Carlo Petrini.
http://liberationvideo.blogspot.com/search/label/Food
I have a perfect solution. Genetically modified farmers. Slip a few ant genes into the human genome and they will labor till they die worn out. They won't even want wages. The ant/farmers could all serve one corporation- call it BIG BROTHER.
For home owners with a lawn, realize that since you are neither cattle, sheep, goat or other ruminating grazer that land is wasted food production potential. Dig up the turf in a four foot square. Plant a few tomato, green pepper and bean plants. Top it off with some potting soil and maybe a little black cow non-stinky cow manure. Then do it again and soon enough you will have less lawn and more food.
Then plant blackberry, raspberry (black or red) and blueberries which grow on bushes that can be border hedges. All of the above can be bought at not to great a cost and with proper care will keep on producing food year after year.
Ditto for fig trees and grape vines (both of which when properly arbored provide nice shade and a food producing privacy screen close to your house.
If Small Farming is indeed the future, then an increase in birth rates will follow.
This is how we can wage peace against the multi-national corporations that have been allowed to consolidate wealth and power for almost thrity years now under the cover of the conservative movement.
Economic Relocalization; transportation, enrgy production, food, construction, building materials and other basics and necessities transition back to community based.
Just think how many small indepentent businesses would crop up after Walmart (the China connection) and Home Depot, for example, were laid to rest because no one shopped there any more...
More money for more stuff is meaningless if you don't have the basics; food, water, shelter and clothing covered. We have been dupped into this forever growing economy of consummerism for too long now. Life is good when things are simple, and this does not mean going back to times past, just using the best of everything we now have. Learning to once more be content with having the basic elements of life in abundance for all is a feeling we have lost, but could find again... turn off your TV and radio!
What we need is Revolution. Trying to change things for the better when the government is totally corrupt cannot work.
Ralph Nader said it years ago-"The problem is the sun is free-
When Big Business figures out how to make a PROFIT on it, then we will see sudden breakthoughs in Solar Energy.
Capitalism is the problem. And my two boys-now in college- do now understand the value of vegetable gardens and goats and free range chickens and their wonderful eggs-
McDonalds and Computer games lose their appeal pretty fast when you have been raised on your own Garden and Books.
Hey Garvey,
Not too sure about the conncetion between small farms and larger families. With the right tools a couple can farm on five acres and make a very good living at it. No need for extra kids to carry us into our golden years (if that is what you are implying with the small farms=larger families logic).
When you think about small farmers, try to think about small craftsmen and small merchants too. The entrepreneurial culture in the USA has long illustrated how the smaller enterprises produce the better innovations. Capitalists might have claimed that it was the big carrot that motivated them. It might have motivated a few, but it doesn't motivate the majority. Also, the smaller enterprises tend to be much more efficient over the long run, despite the "efficiencies of scale" myth. It's certainly possible for a large enterprise to be run effiently and responsibly. But we believe that generally, a large number of small enterprises much better suit the people than a small number of large enterprises.
This is the whole purpose behind "Lawns to Gardens". Here is a sample post: http://lawnstogardens.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/small-scale-farming-is-becoming-sexier-every-day/
May the small-scale relocalization revolution go smooth and peacefully!
I was thinking more that with rising fuel costs, those tools may very well lay idle.
If that happens over a long time, people will need more labour to plant, maintain and harvest their crops. Assuming they remain small farmers, they would not realize the kind of harvest they need to hire new field hands.
As such, within a few generations, family sizes could increase. I figure this would be small to begin with (if the average family has one or two children, this may climb to two or three).
Even if we don't use mechanical tools that need energy (i.e. oil) and use animals instead, the need for more labour would still be present because more food production would be needed for those animals.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that small-scale farming is beneficial for the environment and the family (my rural-based family, having worked together, tend to be closer than my own, who go our separate ways every morning). I just think that if we are advocating small-scale farming and a rural lifestyle, than we should be aware of this possible consequence (if for any other reason than to develop a a way to mitigate that consequence).
Garvey, in the new small farmer/craftsman/merchant economy, i.e. localism, the society will value independent small scale production such that it becomes economically feasible for individuals to pursue. So a sweet potato produced by an independent small farmer is worth enough on the market to sustain the farmer while one produced by an industrial farm is worthless. The society's value system is changed. The people no longer think any old sweet potato tastes good. Only the ones that sustain the small farmer, the way of life, the culture, taste good. Similarly, when the local repairman fixes your motor, that's valuable to you, while a new motor from the far-flung capitalist who plots to enslave you to his empire is worthless to you. It's a change of values, and values are what ultimately motivate people to get out of bed each morning. We're changing this culture so people get out of bed and go sustain the classless society, economic/political independence for all, and all the other benefits, environmental, social.
Jim Goodman___I have also, as yourself, been a small farmer all of my life. I have done the dairy thing, which turned out of necessity into a cow-calf operation, also hogs, chickens for eggs, corn wheat, and gardening.
I do not understand why we must single out the agribusiness corporations as the primary bad guys in this economy. We have many other types of businesses that contribute to pollution, waste of resources, excessive trash for landfills, etc.
As to the statement that 50% of rising food costs are due to ethanol, there are other studies that put most of the increase onto the rapid rise of fuel costs, which are the fault of our unfortunate escapade into Iraq. I was not happy with the ethanol idea either, but what do we expect many farmers to do if they can get a more favorable price by selling to that market?
It sounds like a very wonderful life style, to go into small farming, but I have been there and also have taken part in the newer developements and would never go back to that hard existence again. We do enjoy gardening and some small scale farming, but the majority of our land is taken care of by a young man with the latest in equipment, thanks to the large agribusiness companies who developed the newer methods.
If we end up in a depression, thanks to an administration that had no idea what they were doing, and people that thought they could do anything they wanted with no thought for the risks involved, we may see the return of small everything, not just farming. I seriously doubt everyone will be enthused by their new lifestyle if that happens.
"The International Monetary Fund estimates that 50 percent of the increase in food price was due to ethanol production"
The IMF = Big Oil.
My group of friends is making ethanol for about 50 cents a gallon right now - with ZERO impact on corn or food prices. Don't demonize ethanol - demonize the WAY ethanol is run in this country. Big, BIG difference.
www.acbagnetwork.ning.com
It all sounds good -- like the old days. Bring back the "bangboards," against which the reapers threw their ears of corn which would then fall into the truck and pile up. Learn to reap wheat with a steam combine, stack the wheat in the fields like they used to, and the witches will come back in the autumn, etc.
Just don't expect that a small farmer can buy a $400,000 combine or an automatic milker or a 300 hp tractor.
Figure 100 bushels to the acre of corn instead of 200 because you have to plant with 1950 equipment. You can't afford the new stuff. And don't forget to detassle by hand. It is romantic stuff, though, especially if you use a hand churn to get your butter and kill your chickens by wringing their necks. Oh, for the good old days.
All this bringing up old memories at only $5,000 an acre.
Good idea. Won't work.
Some people were responding to (Robert Conklin) getting enough people interested in small farming again. Well, there is A LOT of interest- not just in the small-farm-movement, but people who used to be farmers but got pushed out of business, or farmers who do industrial crops and would like to return to small-scale diverse crops.
Yes, there are real people who actually want to be farmers, and don't go in for the glitz of Paris after all!
There are many things needed (I agree that diverse, local, "small-scale" farming is in the best interests of the World) and there are many culprits and many wrongs to be righted.... but one of the most important things not yet mentioned in article or discussion is.... wit for it.... A PRICE FLOOR FOR FARMERS! (just think- farmers don't have minimum wage! what a crime!) This allows farmers to grow what they want, not just what Agribusiness favors. Instead of just growing corn or soy, and driving prices down.
My hat is of to you Mr. Goodman. My grandfather bought a dairy farm around 1915 and my cousin still owns it. He doesn't milk any more, just raises calves.
That busting your hump, two milkings a day, keeping everything running and the cattle healthy 24/7/365 lifestyle isn't for everyone. And you're very skilled (veterinarian, millwright, carpenter, electrician, mechanic, agronomist, accountant...)but cheap labor for the Co-op or dairy that buys your milk.
But I disagree. Too many people to feed, here and abroad. We need the economy of scale to feed almost 11 billion. My grandfather was very proud he had 75-80 cows and mechanical milking equipment around 1960 or so. He always told us there was no going back to the small farm, and realized his operation would also be too small some day.
Regarding ethanol from corn, its a huge waste brought about by greed and unthinking lawmakers.
Small is the answer, but I am very doubtful that it is the future. Corporate agribusiness has its hand so deeply embedded in taxpayers pockets that they are not likely to concede the land back to small farming... and what's left is less than desirable.
Perhaps if we run out of gas long enough we can start uncovering all the productive land that has been paved over with asphalt and concrete.... and plot a course for sustainability.
That Americans embrace the criminal ethanol charade, is just one small indicator as to how difficult it would be to go back to small farming.
When you stop thinkimg of food production as a business and start thinking of it as survival, it changes your perspective. I live in a typical bedoom community where people have three bedroom two bathroom houses with a front and back yards mostly filled with lawns and decorative shrubs.
The dirt, water, and sunshine is wasted. If everyone with a front and back yard started a 10 foot square plot dedicated to fruits and/or vegtables how many millions of acres of crops could that add to our nations food production?
Instead of oaks, willows, magnolia, or pine, we should plant peach, pecan, walnut, apple, cherry, or some other kind of fruit or nut bearing trees. (Be careful with walnuts however because their roots produce certain compounds that can be deadly to other plants).
The victory gardens promoted during WWII were credited with substantial supplementation of the diets of Americans who were put on rations due to the emergency.
I have been saying all of the above article for the past 5 YEARS!
"But we believe that generally, a large number of small enterprises much better suit the people than a small number of large enterprises."
Good point.
Checking the price of organic food lately, you might actually make some money with a small, labor intensive organic farm.
There won't be any future for any type of farming if the bees don't stop dying off.
Where we live, we rely entirely on wild bees, and there are over 20,000 specie of wild bees. We had none last year or this year, until last Friday we had a small bunch arrive for one morning. We've seen no wasps, few birds, no hornets, butterflies, lady bugs, etc. Hardly any house or horse flies either and we have horses and a house.
Small farms will be back because mega-farms are a product of capitalism + cheap oil and gas. We face a food calamity because at every step of the way from fertilizer to distribution of the processed packaged food industrial agriculture consumes huge amounts of oil; and that oil is running out. But for millions to remember and relearn how to do small-scale farming without petroleum will be a huge challenge. But this will be a high-stakes venture; it will be a race against mass starvation!
Capitalism will adapt and find a way to make money without cheap oil; but we have a window within the huge dislocation that's coming to reclaim the countryside, and maybe even some of the commons, and to reclaim our lost natural human culture in the process.
Chris___The only way I know how to do small farming without petroleum is to get a team of horses or mules and you are welcome to enjoy that. I grew up in those days and I will keep using my diesel tractors as long as I can beg, borrow, or buy fuel to run them.
If you can figure out a machine that will run on solar power, water, or some other non petroleum source, let me know, as I am not going back to horse farming.
I am not sure why so many folks seem to think the big problems in this country are all related to commercial farming operations when our cities are just about to collapse and are full of people that are ill prepared to survive in a crisis situation. It is true that many should be out in the country instead of being packed into cities like sardines, but it took many years to get them there and it will take many years to put them back in the country, if it were even possible.
PissantNobody__Good name for anyone willing to trade our capitalistic system where hard work and ambition will eventually pay off for socialism or communism where everyone shares what the big boys toss them and there is no incentive to work as you get your pittance anyway.
We have a good enough system with a mix of capitalism and socialism already. The problem is the criminals, warmongers, and fools that manage to worm their way into power, and that happens with any kind of system. Rather than constantly bitching about the system, better to get involved in getting honest, intelligent people to run the one we have. Does the name Obama ring a bell for anyone?
Third generation farmer from MT. Olivet KY talking here. A LOT of facts are wrong in the article. As stated before, it romantic to think of ma and pa smith and there 40 acres feeding small town USA with fresh produce and livestock --- but it aint gonna happen. Farmers, like my self, are required to feed the world, and for the past 50 plus years we have been making those who can't feed themselves dependent on US agriculture for there nutritional needs. I hat eto say it, but without all the modern techniques, and machinery and even the CME (the the chicago mercantile exhange for you lay people) alot of folks would go hungy. Just as an aside, the Soviets had some of the most productive famland in the world (ukraine) yet never managed to produce enough food to feed there own people. I remember kansas wheat farmers sending sacks of wheat to Breshnev in the late '70s. I think the problem was the lack of effeciency, modernity and ..... oh yeah, theye did not make any money! Its best for some of you folks with strong opinions on this farm subject to leave us alone and let us continue to do what we know best - how to feed you and the world.
There is a little bit of a learning curve involved, but if everyone would lay off the poisons and begin even container gardening (a small plot is better, if you have a lawn)- I do really well using some of those plastic storage containers. It is great to have lots of veggies and herbs all summer & you will love it when you can waltz by the pseudo-food in the produce isle at the supermarket! I also have wren houses up and a bird bath - the birds eat the bugs and I never see any on my plants. I also have a rain barrel catching water from the roof ... We would be well served by "growing" fewer people and more of the "instead of lawn" garden goodies
Do to the decline of large scale Agribusiness from free market competition....
Bush will pass a law outlawing small farms/gardens, the small farmers/gardeners will then be be considered "Enemy Combatants" flown to Gitmo etc. to be TORTURED, some thrown out over the Ocean to their death before arriving. John Deere and Monsanto will live on.
Marc- You must be one of the remaining two percent of the US population that is still farming. At the turn of the last century (1899-1900) the vast majority of the population was farming in some manner, just to feed themselves.
Now we are beholden to large corporations that abused the so-called 'Green revolution' to create immense profits while driving small family farms out of business by shipping food grown in the third world to our tables, while simultaneously driving the foreign farmer out of his own crops by forcing him to grow crops not local to his land or culture. Have you seen the suicide rate among farmers in India for instance?
It is well past time we re-enact ALL the statutes and laws that curtail corporations and their actions. Break Monsanto, Cargill and Dow Chemical. And how about granting tax breaks to the average family that digs up it's lawn and plants a garden? How is that for an Idea?
Ky is one of the few states that has a lot of family farms left. Its hard to get kids interested in pig slop and timothy grass seed these days. Why stay on a boring old farm in a run down homestead when you can make more money and work less doing anything else. The big outfits bought up farms because the kids of farmer brown went to work in des moines or minn/st paul or topeka. My daughter loves to watch what I do and she is the wiser for it, but I don't know if she or my son will want to do what i do. Already there is talk around the kitchen table of vet school or teaching... every day it changes. One thing is for certain, we sure do know how to produce food in this country and thank God for that!
I grew up in a community of small farms. Most people worked a farm AND had a second job. Most people barely got by. A few lived very well---they were not rich, just prosperous.
One farm is left. Its owner works very hard but makes a good living raising a variety of livestock and grain crops.
I believe it depends on the society, the market, the values of the people, but small farms that raise a combination of livestock and feed grains will eventually be forced onto us.
These monster agribusiness farms that raise the same crop year after year are poisoning the land. Too many chemicals, too much fertilizer.
Take a look at what used to be called the fertile crescent. And they had nowhere near the chemicals we use.
I must admit I do other things to make two ends meet. I consider myself a farmer first because that it what I ID myself on my tax returns. Anything to make a buck. Pissant sounds like he is into the old quaker/amish/mennonite philosophy - the value of hard work is worth the effort, not what you recieve in compensation. I think now adays we call that the protestant work ethic - it has since fallen out of fashion much like the pet rock.
I grow about 50 different fruit and veg and something that I've not seen mentioned above (I haven't read all the comments) is the problems we have with pests getting to the produce before us. Squirrels, birds, foxes, rabbits, various flies, butterflies all take a toll of the plants and fruits. We have to use several types of netting and electric fences to keep at least some of the stuff for ourselves.
And another factor to be taken into account is the need to maintain the fertility of the soil.
It all tastes great when it is fresh ... I'm just off to check whether I've got a set on the gooseberry jam.
grow more than you think you can eat to offset crop failures. Get yourself a pellet gun and have fun with squirrels and crows - a couple of pumps only - or as Kirk would say "set your phasers to stun" I like to say "set your pazers to FUN" weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
marc melchiori July 29th, 2008 10:45 am
"Get yourself a pellet gun and have fun with squirrels and crows"
I have one, of course. The trouble is that you have to be there ALL the time - not just most of the time like I am.
Growing more than you need is not the answer because pests like squirrels just breed more and take more the next year and so on. Physical barriers are the only realistic answer. They don't just take a little, they will strip an apple tree in a few days and will take all the raspberries while breaking the vines. The only answer is to keep them out - either with netting (not bird netting, they chew through that) or with a sophisticated electric fence.
Hear, hear, from this gardener, orchardist, beekeeper and goatherd.
"Napoleon wanted France to be bigger" is not the best start, and it took me a moment to recover and continue. Napoleon started in the revolutionary army, protecting newly "democratic" (and I use the word liberally, so to speak) France from all the other reactionary monarchs who didn't want the disease spreading to their subjects. Like us, he was a complex person in a complex world, but one might say he got into the habit, or character, of fighting, winning, conquering, controlling and rising, and began to see himself as France.
I mention it because it's like today—royal confusion between the person of the king and the country, not just in the king himself but in the entire subject population, and not just in the king himself but in all symbols of the king-within-us—father, CEO, pope, minister and institution. To "defeat' empire, by which I mean make it ours—or make it us—we need to look within, and then embrace our impulse toward the archetype of the king—order and well-being and overarching unity of purpose.
Of course there are examples of ways it can't work. the USSR didn't, among other reasons, because Stalin and Lamarckian (read 'creationist' for a modern equivalent) head of agriculture Trofim Lysenko executed and exiled all the Darwinists, destroying the scientific basis for ag for decades. It's a lesson our own Lysenkos should learn.
As people are showing, all over this country and the world, from Wendell Berry in Kentucky to Wes Jackson and the Land Institute in Kansas to the many splinter operations from the New Alchemy Institute and homesteaders and communities all over, it not only can work, it does work. Every country in the world produces enough to feed its people, many people can change their houses and lawns right now to produce their own heat, power and food. What can't work is business as usual, and feeding 11 billion people with ever-worsening soil and global climate catastrophe and social and ecological blowback and ever more resistant pests and no honey bees because we refuse to give up oil and meat and pesticides and plows.
The kingmakers believe in the market; we need to replace it with the farmers' market and our own belief in ourselves, as well as political and economic structures that support smallness. We do need a revolution; we need to consider every fruit tree planted and turn of the bicycle pedals and song played on our own violin and corporate purchase not made a revolutionary act.
Well, I think one great thing abt the collapse of the housing market in the US, is that no more farm land will be "developed", and maybe some of these suburbs where people are abandoning their houses can be returned to a more useful situation, such as small farms..
i was just trying to have fun. Aint no harm in that.
Small scale farming is *extremely* difficult work.
Garvey
Can you please explain: "If Small Farming is indeed the future, then an increase in birth rates will follow."
I know of no research to back your statement. I am amazed at the fixation with population growth, research shows better living standards and better education bring down birth rates.
You can select and train dog/cat breeds to keep critters out of the garden. To make the little guards efficient make them rely on the critters for their food. We need flying cats (kind of like flying squirrels) to keep the birds off the cherry trees.
Re : Shakker's 'perfect' solution of 'genetically modified farmers' who will 'labor until they wear out'
Um, actually, that seems to be what we already are, only the original model was destined to mine gold, not farm.
The farming came later, to feed the gold miners. Then, voila, civilization !
It's all explained very thoroughly in 'Slave Species of god' by Michael Tellinger. Check it out.
The only food plants I've successfully grown so far are herbs. My composting is more successful, my compost bins are roaring nicely, turning veggie scraps into beautiful soil for more herbs. Not bad for a second floor apartment with no balcony, porch, or other outdoor space.