Get to Know a Farmer
I was on the way back from @goodlocalmarkets in Dallas to our farm this afternoon and I pulled over at a Buc-ee’s to jot some thoughts down. Here is what came out. Please read them. They are important to me…..
In human history we have never been more disconnected from our food sources than now.
Most Americans have never bought anything from a farm and most of your local grocery stores are filled not with farm food, but with food-like substances we affectionately call “processed food.”
It’s food with fifteen ingredients that we can’t pronounce and therefore have no idea how it is made. One thing you can be sure of though, is that one way or another “refined sugar” sneaks it’s way into most products. That refined sugar takes an immense toll on the human body as well as our entire health care system.
The vegetables on the outside aisles of the grocery store which we consider healthy have traveled many miles to get to you. They are not raised locally and they are not fresh. You can tell that with your tastebuds.
The food is often grown in a “monoculture.” Food grown as only one crop with no thought of the land as an ecosystem. Machines and chemicals are then used to control this monoculture.
Eventually the land gives out under this pressure of unnatural inputs and then another monoculture crop is grown there and another and another, until the ground is completely broken down. When have you ever seen a crop grown alone in nature outside of an ecosystem?
Almost all crops are grown commercially, sprayed with synthetic chemicals on tilled ground that creates run off, enhancing drought, creating floods and eventually the chemicals run off into the ocean causing great harm to the fish.
On the other outside aisles of the grocery store, you will find the meat, over half of which is imported from other countries traveling long distances to get to you.
Meat that is grown in the U.S. comes from animals who are fed corn and corn-like substances spending significant time standing in their own excrement in a feed lot.
In 2017 a truck carrying skittles candy slid off an icy road in Wisconsin. Red skittles spilled out everywhere. It turns that they were skittles candy rejected by candy stores but on the way to feed cows.
It’s a practice that goes back decades because the skittles provide “cheap carbs” for the cows. The practice really picked up steam in 2012 when corn prices were surging and cattle farmers were looking for a cheaper way to keep their cows fed. One farmer said “it’s cheaper and creates fat quicker than straight corn”
This is just one example of countless ways the farming industry has tried to provide cheap food with unhealthy farming practices.
We are at the point now, where half of our agricultural counties were declared natural disasters between 2012-2016.
There is good news. Mother Nature is incredibly forgiving and you as a consumer have a crucial role to play.
My modest proposal is that you simply get to know a local farm/farmer (it certainly doesn’t have to be us) Ask two major questions:
1. What are you doing with your farm to heal the planet?
2. What are you doing with your farm to heal my personal health?
There are many secondary questions if you want to dive deeper—
Tell me about your farm/ranch as an ecosystem?
Are you trying to mimic nature in anyway on your farm?
Does you farm support biodiversity or monoculture? Do you have any examples?
Till or no-till? What do you do to supply nutrients to your crops? Any synthetic chemicals?
Are your chickens on pasture all day/every day?
Are your cows and sheep fed on grass only, even at the end of their lives?
Do you have any animals that have genetics dating back to prior than 100 years ago before industrialization came about?
Do your farm animals have access to their manure from days gone by making them more susceptible to worms or do they get opportunities on fresh grass?
How often do you move your animals? Ok, how long do you let the ground rest before you bring animals back to it?
And a big one—What are you doing to create soil health on your farm?
There are many more questions. But the reason that last question is so big, is that I believe that the farmer of the future will be a soil farmer.
If the soils are healthy, then the earth will be healthy, the animals and crops will be healthy, and you will be healthy from eating them.
You carry incredible power as a consumer. If you take the lead with your buying power, there is still a chance for our planet to get healthy. There is still a chance for you to get healthy.
Please, get reconnected to your food source. Get to know a farmer.
