Earlier today, my friend Polly, wrote a post with this same title on her blog and I thought I would borrow the theme and give my perspective, with apologies to the original author. If you're still reading you may want to jump over and look at the photo she's posted.
One of my favorite authors, Gene Logsdon (who is my neighbor one county up and one county over) wrote in one of his books that some people are born to be farmers and he equated a farmer with a nurturer - a nurturer of the soil for sure and in many cases a nurturer of animals. I apologize for not being able to quote which book this was written in as I've read them all (in most cases more than once).
In modern America, there are two distinct types of farmers. Agribusinesspeople run factory farms according to an industrial model of food production and distribution. I live on the eastern edge of the corn belt (where Round-Up is considered a vital soil nutrient). While most farmers in my area (and the USDA) would consider themselves small to medium sized family farmers, they are full participants in the industrial, factory-farming model. For example, under this model, a calf may be born in Ohio. Upon weaning at around 6 months old, this calf may go to Kansas and spend 6 months on pasture as a stocker. When he reaches a year old, this steer may go to a feedlot in Texas to be fattened on grain and then shipped to Iowa to be processed and packaged for sale in Florida. Not much nurturing going on here.
The other type of farmer operates according to a pastoral model of food production and distribution (borrowing from Gene Logsdon again here - see The Contrary Farmer). I believe it was Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (another favorite author) who wrote about bio-regional economics. According to this pastoral, bio-regional model, food is produced, processed (minimally), sold and consumed locally - using natural, ecological, grass-based practices. Whole lotta nurturing going on here.
The first type of farming (industrial agribusiness) is petroleum-based and has been steadily depleting soil fertility and, through erosion, soil itself for for over a century. Not nurturing.
The second type of farming (pastoral, bio-regional) builds soil fertility and is sustainable over the long term. Nurturing.
Which if these two models do you consider a farm?
Weather today: 25°F/48°F partlycloudy
tags: farm, farmer, nurture, Logsdon, soil, livestock, agribusiness, factory farm, corn belt, USDA, pastoral, bio-regional, Salatin, ecological, grass, sustainable, Polyface
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