Sadly, this is the opinion of most of the modern world about farming. Yet they depend almost completely on someone - someone else, usually, do the work.
Despise that which you rely on, and eventually it will not longer be there to rely on.
A very apposite observation, especially in relation to what is happening to agriculture across western Europe. We have diktats from the EU that are destroying farm livelihoods and food production, and outside the EU in the UK we have major insanities like rewinding projects taking large swathes of productive land out of use. For example, we have the Welsh Assembly demanding that farms surrender 20% of their land to reforestation even in areas where it is impossible, and at a cost that is bankrupting the farmers. I seriously wonder if those in power understand that there is a back story to food production that goes beyond the supermarket shelf.
Will - I have been following the ongoing "de-agriculturization" movement in the EU - and sure enough, it will be here in the US as well.
To answer your question - no, they do not understand. Or they do understand but feel they and their loved ones will be spared. If history has taught us anything, it is that dictators will happily sacrifice formerly useful tools at the drop of a hat.
When you have a French court issuing a ruling that "the state of cattle farming is not favorable for the climate." The size of the cattle herd in that country needs to be reduced by two MILLION in the next eleven years and another two million in the ten years after 2035. Western European farmers need to keep rolling their tractors en mass since their governments are betraying them.
Nylon12 - I am waiting for the protests (anywhere) to reach the point where farmers start uniting on a more regional or global basis and start to refuse to sell their food in the cities where these dictates are passed. They will change their tune quickly enough.
I'm not sure if it was the first half of this last season or the season before, but on the television show "Yellowstone", Kevin Costner's rancher character takes a vocal opponent onto his ranch for some time and slowly she begins to see things in his point of view.
As the son of farmers, I have often thought that can be the only solution to lots of disagreements over farming practices. People need to spend some time on a farm to see it from their perspective. That is why whenever I'm in a debate with someone else about any topic, I do attempt to put myself in their shoes and envision their perspective. Certainly not flawless but better than not attempting at all.
Ed - I concur that most people have no idea where the food comes from or how any kind of agricultural operations works.
That said, I also think that people are actively not interested in such things. Every agricultural person I have met is more than happy to discuss what they do and how they do it. But - and this is my unlearned opinion of course - discuss how grasses and cattle can help to store as much or more carbon than trees ever do and there is no interest. There is no longer interest in finding "solutions", just "the solution" that Our Political And Social Betters (OPASB) have decreed is the correct one.
Not only is is hard work, but even with modern farming tech there's still a lot of hands-on experience one needs to succeed - generational wisdom gathered the hard way, in many cases. Take a thousand urban families and demand on threat of pain that they take up the now-vacant role of "producers for us all", and I'm fairly certain the result will be, at best, lacking. City boy I may be, but my grandparents were farm folk. In that respect, I can at least understand on some distant, permanently-detached level, that farmers are doing the hard work so the rest of us don't need to.
Passing Peanut - I think that is one of the great dangers of the technology movement, that somehow "tech" can complete replace generational wisdom and experience. Any agricultural exercise exists within the context of the environment it is practiced in. Technology does not overcome that; in some ways technology creates more issues as the technology is dependent on things working (like fuel, parts, etc.).
One of the great foolish statements of the 21st Century that will come back to bite many was the assertion by a political pundit that people, when being pushed out of work due to government regulations, should just "Learn to Farm". As if merely putting a seed in a hole is the sum total of how it works.
Anyone who thinks farming is easy has never even tried to cultivate a TOMATO to the point of harvest! Farming is alchemy; part science, part art, part labor, and part generational wisdom. The amount of each needed to consistently produce food from the soil, whether it be meat or vegetable, is ASTOUNDING! And anyone who thinks farmers are "backwoods hicks" is completely detached from reality! Farmers have ALWAYS been quick to adopt new technologies and practices to make their labor less and their crops more! Say... did you know that the first radio station broadcasts in the US were crop and farm market reports?... that the farmers listened to... in Morse Code?...
Pete - In all of my years since we moved in 2009, I have been unable to get more than one or two tomatoes from my garden. Why? Because farming is hard, and requires a knowledge and practice of the plant, the climate, the soil - and sometimes just good luck.
The characterization (dare we say stereotype) of farmers as backwoods hicks who are too stupid to do anything else does not just seemed to be maintained, but actively encouraged by our society. Interestingly, writers on both side of the political spectrum have made this point, but the message never gets through. We value food; we do not value those who produce it.
I learned something today. Looking up Holodomor and doing a little reading of it, I am shocked I'd never heard this term before. Stalin's brutality was (very) briefly learned about in history classes, but this term completely escaped my notice of it until now.
Becki, the reign of the Communist Regime largely goes unexamined in modern History. It is a shame: the actual story is horrifying and should be an object lesson to everyone about the dangers of collectivization, totalitarianism, and Communism.
Communism is truly evil. We forget that at our peril.
We will solve our human problems, or Nature will. And her solutions are not pretty. Ignorance can be cured; stupidity, not at all. I take my heroes in people like Joel Salatin and Victor Davis Hansen. Professor Hansen can read Greek and Latin like you and I read English. He is also a farmer, and can plant a fencepost or drive a tractor as well as anyone. He brings that perspective to his history of the Peloponnesian War: "One of the tactics of ancient warfare was to trash the enemies crops... But a grain field will only burn in a very short window of time. And have you ever tried to cut down an Olive tree? Now try cutting down 300,000 of them."
Greg, one of the most thought provoking quotes that change my perspective on this was from the late Gene Logsdon, who noted that Mother Nature could just as well be called Old B&*!& Nature, that those who see it only for peace and harmony do not understand the savagery and terror of it. Which, he theorized, was worse: a buck taken in the prime of life by a single shot, or a buck down, buckling under a dozen wounds from coyotes?
Salatin has sort of (but never quite) hit with me, although I did find "The Pigness of Pigs" to be our breakthrough communication. Hansen is a gem; my youngest got me his book (one of his first, I think) on the Classical Greek experience of war with that very quote in it. He has a very unique perspective on the nature of both armed conflict, societies, and how agriculture undergirds all of it.
Linda, things are going as well as can be expected. I think, like most things, we will get through this initial part now and then the real work begins.
Comments are welcome (and necessary, for good conversation). If you could take the time to be kind and not practice profanity, it would be appreciated. Thanks for posting!
A very apposite observation, especially in relation to what is happening to agriculture across western Europe. We have diktats from the EU that are destroying farm livelihoods and food production, and outside the EU in the UK we have major insanities like rewinding projects taking large swathes of productive land out of use. For example, we have the Welsh Assembly demanding that farms surrender 20% of their land to reforestation even in areas where it is impossible, and at a cost that is bankrupting the farmers.
ReplyDeleteI seriously wonder if those in power understand that there is a back story to food production that goes beyond the supermarket shelf.
Will - I have been following the ongoing "de-agriculturization" movement in the EU - and sure enough, it will be here in the US as well.
DeleteTo answer your question - no, they do not understand. Or they do understand but feel they and their loved ones will be spared. If history has taught us anything, it is that dictators will happily sacrifice formerly useful tools at the drop of a hat.
MUST REDUCE CARBON. Pity is once you dig a little deeper past the slogans. The Carbon they want reduced is you and me.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile they fly their private jets around the globe, eating fancy multi-course meals (no bug hors d'oeuvre I bet) to discuss how to reduce Carbon.
What's for breakfast? Nothing.
Google Holodomor for details.
Michael, I am at least passing familiar with the Holodomer.
DeleteOdd how much they seem to despise human life, yet never are the first to lead by example in reducing their own carbon footprints.
When you have a French court issuing a ruling that "the state of cattle farming is not favorable for the climate." The size of the cattle herd in that country needs to be reduced by two MILLION in the next eleven years and another two million in the ten years after 2035. Western European farmers need to keep rolling their tractors en mass since their governments are betraying them.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - I am waiting for the protests (anywhere) to reach the point where farmers start uniting on a more regional or global basis and start to refuse to sell their food in the cities where these dictates are passed. They will change their tune quickly enough.
DeleteI'm not sure if it was the first half of this last season or the season before, but on the television show "Yellowstone", Kevin Costner's rancher character takes a vocal opponent onto his ranch for some time and slowly she begins to see things in his point of view.
ReplyDeleteAs the son of farmers, I have often thought that can be the only solution to lots of disagreements over farming practices. People need to spend some time on a farm to see it from their perspective. That is why whenever I'm in a debate with someone else about any topic, I do attempt to put myself in their shoes and envision their perspective. Certainly not flawless but better than not attempting at all.
Ed - I concur that most people have no idea where the food comes from or how any kind of agricultural operations works.
DeleteThat said, I also think that people are actively not interested in such things. Every agricultural person I have met is more than happy to discuss what they do and how they do it. But - and this is my unlearned opinion of course - discuss how grasses and cattle can help to store as much or more carbon than trees ever do and there is no interest. There is no longer interest in finding "solutions", just "the solution" that Our Political And Social Betters (OPASB) have decreed is the correct one.
Not only is is hard work, but even with modern farming tech there's still a lot of hands-on experience one needs to succeed - generational wisdom gathered the hard way, in many cases. Take a thousand urban families and demand on threat of pain that they take up the now-vacant role of "producers for us all", and I'm fairly certain the result will be, at best, lacking.
ReplyDeleteCity boy I may be, but my grandparents were farm folk. In that respect, I can at least understand on some distant, permanently-detached level, that farmers are doing the hard work so the rest of us don't need to.
Passing Peanut - I think that is one of the great dangers of the technology movement, that somehow "tech" can complete replace generational wisdom and experience. Any agricultural exercise exists within the context of the environment it is practiced in. Technology does not overcome that; in some ways technology creates more issues as the technology is dependent on things working (like fuel, parts, etc.).
DeleteOne of the great foolish statements of the 21st Century that will come back to bite many was the assertion by a political pundit that people, when being pushed out of work due to government regulations, should just "Learn to Farm". As if merely putting a seed in a hole is the sum total of how it works.
Anyone who thinks farming is easy has never even tried to cultivate a TOMATO to the point of harvest! Farming is alchemy; part science, part art, part labor, and part generational wisdom. The amount of each needed to consistently produce food from the soil, whether it be meat or vegetable, is ASTOUNDING! And anyone who thinks farmers are "backwoods hicks" is completely detached from reality! Farmers have ALWAYS been quick to adopt new technologies and practices to make their labor less and their crops more! Say... did you know that the first radio station broadcasts in the US were crop and farm market reports?... that the farmers listened to... in Morse Code?...
ReplyDeletePete - In all of my years since we moved in 2009, I have been unable to get more than one or two tomatoes from my garden. Why? Because farming is hard, and requires a knowledge and practice of the plant, the climate, the soil - and sometimes just good luck.
DeleteThe characterization (dare we say stereotype) of farmers as backwoods hicks who are too stupid to do anything else does not just seemed to be maintained, but actively encouraged by our society. Interestingly, writers on both side of the political spectrum have made this point, but the message never gets through. We value food; we do not value those who produce it.
That should work out well for us...
I learned something today. Looking up Holodomor and doing a little reading of it, I am shocked I'd never heard this term before. Stalin's brutality was (very) briefly learned about in history classes, but this term completely escaped my notice of it until now.
ReplyDeleteBecki, the reign of the Communist Regime largely goes unexamined in modern History. It is a shame: the actual story is horrifying and should be an object lesson to everyone about the dangers of collectivization, totalitarianism, and Communism.
DeleteCommunism is truly evil. We forget that at our peril.
We will solve our human problems, or Nature will. And her solutions are not pretty. Ignorance can be cured; stupidity, not at all.
ReplyDeleteI take my heroes in people like Joel Salatin and Victor Davis Hansen. Professor Hansen can read Greek and Latin like you and I read English. He is also a farmer, and can plant a fencepost or drive a tractor as well as anyone. He brings that perspective to his history of the Peloponnesian War: "One of the tactics of ancient warfare was to trash the enemies crops... But a grain field will only burn in a very short window of time. And have you ever tried to cut down an Olive tree? Now try cutting down 300,000 of them."
Greg, one of the most thought provoking quotes that change my perspective on this was from the late Gene Logsdon, who noted that Mother Nature could just as well be called Old B&*!& Nature, that those who see it only for peace and harmony do not understand the savagery and terror of it. Which, he theorized, was worse: a buck taken in the prime of life by a single shot, or a buck down, buckling under a dozen wounds from coyotes?
DeleteSalatin has sort of (but never quite) hit with me, although I did find "The Pigness of Pigs" to be our breakthrough communication. Hansen is a gem; my youngest got me his book (one of his first, I think) on the Classical Greek experience of war with that very quote in it. He has a very unique perspective on the nature of both armed conflict, societies, and how agriculture undergirds all of it.
Exactly, TB.
ReplyDeleteHope planning and moving are going as well as can be expected.
You all be safe and God bless.
Linda, things are going as well as can be expected. I think, like most things, we will get through this initial part now and then the real work begins.
Delete