“Eating is an agricultural act.”
-Wendell Berry
There’s a certain smell produced when unencumbered sunlight hits a fresh tomato. The UV rays penetrating the thin skin and stirring the juicy insides create an aroma so pleasant and unique, it must be the olfactory expression of a perfect summer’s day. On summer Saturdays at the Chapel Hill Farmers Market in North Carolina, I would stand guard over a host of tomatoes lined up like a battalion of soldiers ready to boldly sacrifice their lives for the sake of a sandwich, salsa, or bisque. As the only employee of Dig It Farm, besides the rather resolute owner of course, I knew the story of each tomato there from seed to salad. I mixed our soil and delicately placed each individual seed into our soil trays. The owner, Dave, and his shining orange tractor tilled and shaped our rows when the weather permitted it. We both pounded metal bars into the ground and wound trellis twine around them in a labyrinthine fashion, trying in vain not to get tangled in our own web. Eight hundred tomato plants meant eight hundred squats to place them in the ground. Who needs a gym then there’s food to grow? I listened to an audiobook of “The Tale of Genji” to distract my mind from the searing Carolina sun and heavy humidity. My fingers would stain with a strange dark green pigment as I trained the tomato vines up our trellis twine and relieved the plants of unnecessary suckers. Picking the tomatoes was always the most satisfying step in this arduous process, although sometimes my prying thumb or finger would sink into a putrid and decaying tomato that smelled like the nightshade version of rotten eggs. The hours of diligent work, profuse sweat, sticky fingers and mosquito-induced madness would all pay off, however. The warm and comforting smell of a fresh tomato ready for the cutting board was absolutely worth it.
“Four dollars per pound!? No tomato is worth that!”
-Shocked customers at the market
Perhaps no voice resounds as strongly within the local food community and small farm movement than Wendell Berry’s. At a time when the farming practices in the United States were transitioning from a centuries old art to a mechanized industry, Wendell Berry staunchly opposed this change through his lifestyle and his words (Dunn & Sewell 2016). When agricultural focuses shifted towards quantity, Wendell Berry focused on quality. When the former Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Earl Butz, told farmers to “get big or get out,” Wendell Berry insisted that farmers are not mere components of an agricultural machine. Agricultural machinery continues to dominate the furrows and fields of the United States. While agricultural machinery can certainly help with agricultural drudgery, these titanic machines are not cheap. Farmers can expect to pay between $330,000 and $500,000 for a single combine at list price (Dodson 2014). This does not include the pesticides and fertilizers that go hand in nozzle with large scale monoculture projects. In Missouri, Clarence Cannon Wholesale Water Commission spends about $130,000 per year to buy activated carbon to filter the pesticide atrazine that flows from large-scale farming operations into rivers and streams to make it suitable for human consumption (Swanson 2013). How do the fish fare without carbon filters? If a farmer went back to the horse and plow, however, they certainly could not compete with the automated mega-farms receiving government subsidies. Farmers are compelled to take on the debt associated with this mammoth machinery if they want to continue the work that they love. Since 2013, American farmers and ranchers have witnessed a 45% drop in net farm income (Harvie 2018). As the price for milk in the U.S continues to decline, some farmers have received resources for suicide prevention from their dairy cooperatives in an attempt to prevent them from escaping their debt through death (Smith 2018). While the missives were well meaning, they certainly portray the dismal state of American agri-business.
“It all turns of affection.”
-Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry’s ethos could not be any more different. He understood that “eating is an agricultural act,” and all sedentary humans have a duty to connect with the land and the hard-working farmers that allow our agricultural societies to function. Human beings are not separate from the land that provides them with food, and these forces must be reintegrated. Ethical farming is a compassionate act that not only feeds people but rejuvenates the soil, and the soul. Most customers at farmers markets can certainly pay $4 for a mega tomato, however, this is certainly not in the cards for every consumer. Perhaps the government should subsidize mega tomatoes over mega industry.
Works Cited
Dodson, D. (2014, November 2). How much is that combine in the window? Retrieved from http://www.news-gazette.com/news/business/2014-11-02/how-much-combine-window.html
Dunn, L., & Sewell, J. (2016). Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry [Motion picture].
Harvie, A. (2018, February 20). A Looming Crisis on American Farms – Farm Aid. Retrieved from https://www.farmaid.org/issues/farm-economy-in-crisis/looming-crisis-american-farms/
Smith, T. (2018, February 27). As Milk Prices Decline, Worries About Dairy Farmer Suicides Rise. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/586586267/as-milk-prices-decline-worries-about-dairy-farmer-suicides-rise
Swanson, A. F. (2013, July 05). What Is Farm Runoff Doing To The Water? Scientists Wade In. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/07/09/199095108/Whats-In-The-Water-Searching-Midwest-Streams-For-Crop-Runoff
