Untruths and Food Security

Tomatoes come in all shapes and colors.

Hello Moon Bears!

Farm Update: 

The bee hedge is laid out and ready for planting on 4/22. It is a five hundred feet long with stakes for trees set six feet apart in three rows.

We're taking reservations for the Summer Moon Bear CSA. Only $300 if you let us know by May 1. More after May 1. That's 12 bushels of fresh, fun, flavorful food through the growing season. Email us.

Onions, lettuce, chard, spinach, rhubarb and garlic are all making their spring time appearances in loam.

And now for the Moon Bear diatribe:

Something to consider: 

Here are some untruths that the dominant paradigm has literally fed to us about agriculture:

You cannot produce much worthwhile if you’re small:  We are only 2.86 acres, with a production area of 1.25 acres. We are registered as a farm. Last year we produced about 350 bushels of fresh, tasty food. A bushel is about the size of an orange crate. All around us are acres and acres (miles and miles) of nicely mowed grass. What if we, as a society, reclaimed that land for both agriculture and wild areas? Next time you drive through the outskirts of town look at all the green wasteland used mainly as a personal buffer to stay separate from one’s neighbors. Or think even broader. While in town look at all the lawns and median strips. What if these produced food?

Micro farms in the US are mainly a hobby of the rich and idealistic: Nothing wrong with being rich or idealistic. I would like to be both. For me, micro farming is a way to be a positive influence in the political-social arenas. It’s a way to provide a needed service. It’s a way to pay the bills. It’s a way to be part of the local community. What can be ungrounded about working with the earth, producing food and meeting with the public? Isn’t America built on independence and security through hard work? Perhaps the old idea of food security coming partially through producing one’s own food needs to be revived.

You have to be against something to be for something. I see this in how people garden and live and vote. Most define themselves as being against _____ or not like ______. You fill in the blank. This us and them mentality also manifests itself in the agricultural system. As a farmer I can be against weeds and pests and competitors… right? Being reactive to bugs and weeds has led to genetically modified corn that contains Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) and remnants of glyophospahate. And we end up eating these substances unwittingly, all in the name of “combating” weeds and bugs. Also, what kind of psychic energy is in our food when it is produced with the attitude of killing all that lays in the path of the crops? . What are we FOR? And how does this manifest in our everyday choices? We're all on this little planet together.

Organic is costlier. The hidden, societal, environmental costs of chemical based, factory style farming are astronomical for the planet and the health of the people. We sell for the same price as the local big chains, sometimes less. The soil is a living community of organisms not a factory for producing perfect looking food.

Machines out produce humans:  Perhaps in quantity, but not in quality. Did you know that most baby carrots are simply large carrots cut in into pieces in a factory and then shaped to look like small carrots? Some are soaked in sugar. Many have spent weeks in storage. They look nice in the plastic wrapped colorful packaging. And you pay a premium for a lie. What about the farmer that grows genuine carrots of the small variety and pulls them the morning of the sale? Who produces the real product?

Farmers market vendors are all the rage and they are making decent money. Yes, it’s nice to be admired as a small farmer. And customers are so appreciative and friendly and wise. Thank you. But market vendors reach only about 2% of the population. Almost all local market vendors I know have another person in the household that supplements the farm with a regular job. And almost all I know are on the margins of financial sustainability.

Thank you for reading.

See you in the Garden.

Rick

(c) Rick Sievers, moon Bear Produce, March 2014