Living the Intense Dream

Wouldn’t it be easier to just get our food from the grocery store and not have a care in the world about where it came from, who it came from, or how it was raised? Of course it would! Ignorance is bliss, amen? There is quite a problem though – we are not ignorant. Upton Sinclair ushered in a new concept for Americans.  We were rudely awakened from our bliss and thrust into a world of knowing – knowing that perhaps the food industry (or any other industry for that matter) doesn’t necessarily look out for the “consumer”. Yet we were simultaneously empowered to influence what is brought to our plates. We raised a ruckus and the Federal Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 were born. 

It has been well documented by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture that our current methods of feeding ourselves are purely unsustainable. We are a society that demands evidence prior to implementation of any change. This is a reasonable request of course.  My professional organization’s (American Dietetic Association) “Evidence Analysis Library” was basically established in an effort to provide all practicing Registered Dietitians with a compass for critical decisions in practice. Now it seems as if the evidence for a total paradigm shift in our food systems appears to be sprayed in neon-green across the wall. 

The idea of “going local” (meaning purchasing what foods are possible locally) is quite admirable but should we do more? Is it truly enough to simply swing by the Farmer’s Market in the Prius to throw some arugula, heirloom tomatoes, fresh eggs, and maybe a leg of lamb into our cloth bags? This valiant effort may really only be a cortisone shot.  Everyone gets to feel warm and fuzzy, then we all head home to our water-saving showerheads, CFL’s, and solar panels.  The food will be stowed away in an “Energy Star” eco-fridge and then eaten with bamboo utensils on plates made of recycled glass. We are allowed to have our cake and eat it too – the harmony of a comfortable life and the mental serenity of knowing we “lived green today”. We rave about helping each other out and living in community and so forth, yet none of us has to do the actual work of providing the nourishment.

Well, the people standing behind that booth at the Farmer’s Market aren’t exactly growing younger. The average age of farmers in the United States is 60 and only 1-1.5% (depending on the source) of the United States has chosen the agrarian livelihood. Unless they have magically transported themselves from the world of Tuck Everlasting then that green cake might not be around too much longer. A colleague and young vegetable farmer, Zoe Bradbury, recently wrote a dynamite piece for The Grist that addresses this issue from a different angle – oil.

Why is it then that no one wants to live the glorious agrarian life and “return to the land”? Wasn’t the revolution ignited by the idealistic hippies of the 1960’s supposed to catapult us back into this harmonious agrarian life? Having interviewed those who lived and breathed the communal lifestyle, things didn’t work out so swell for a variety of reasons.  Who really wanted to milk the goats or make yogurt or weed the garden or can the beets when there was F-U-N to be had? Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll seemed to edge out self-sufficiency and never relinquished its edge.

In a sense, the situation has not truly changed.  We prefer our cush “8-5’s”, weekends, sick leave, vacation, health insurance, and general predictability.  None of that really exists when one “goes back to the land”.  Perhaps this is why no one wants to farm any more.  When one dares to sustainably farm on a small-scale (be it livestock or vegetable), they invite an entire platter of unpredictability into his or her life.  Predators (owls and coyotes), pests/insects, weather (consider the current flooding in Iowa and Wisconsin), equipment breakdown/damage (a freezer breakdown with meat in it may wipe out one fourth of a farmer’s expected profit for a year), the market (who will pay for the pricey goods on a consistent basis?), and all other “X” Factors.  An example of an “X” factor would read as follows: a torrential downpour comes and you are repairing the sheep fencing on your farthest pasture but before you can get to your baby chicks (several acres away) to put them back into the brooder house to keep warm, 10 of them have been suffocated to death as they were clamoring to find warm space.  That’s an approximate loss of $43.06 (assuming current feed and energy prices) and a whole heap of guilt for not fulfilling your duty as part of your role in animal husbandry .  Throw in the current array of farm policy that basically says to my generation, “Go big (i.e. corporate) or go home” and you have the ideal formula for extinguishing the small-scale, sustainable American farmer.

Small-scale, sustainable farming needs our help and this means going far beyond buying local. We all play important roles, however big or small, in this movement. We do need a massive influx of young and energetic people into the world of small-scale, sustainable farming but that most certainly does not exclude everyone one else from participating in other vital roles. It is absolutely essential to push boundaries in public policy right now that lure young Americans into the unpredictable, yet fulfilling agrarian life of a small-scale producer of food. The allurement of a self-sufficient, unpredictable lifestyle only sounds like an oxymoron until you experience it for yourself. Where are the gentle (or even forceful) nudges that say to young Americans, “Come make a living growing good, clean, and healthy food for your fellow man while saving the planet and being self-sufficient!”  Unless these nudges (from government, the media, and the general public) are imminent, then we’ll be driving our hybrids to the local “big box” to procure a delectable selection of produce and meats shipped from somewhere and grown somehow by somebody.

Marilyn and I holding up a “HEN 4 Life” sign. : )

A most bizarre coincidence took place here at Sap Bush Hollow Farm on Monday, June 2, 2008. I had just concluded the daily morning ritual of milking Trill (the farm’s Jersey cow who so graciously provides 2 gallons of milk for us every day), which happens to be the last chore for the morning chores.

Making my way back to the house to filter the milk and then to get my grub on (i.e. eat breakfast), I noticed that we had a visitor. This is somewhat common as Jim and Adele maintain a genuine philosophy of transparency. After all, visiting and seeing where one’s food produces is likely going to provide far more insight into what it’s in that chicken, egg, pork, beef, veal, or lamb than any certification – wouldn’t you concur with that? If not, let me just throw a random thought out…pull a Michael Pollan and go hang out at a local farm for an entire day. Work one day at the farm for some food if they’ll let you. Take eggs for example – go to the farm that sells you your eggs and check it out. If you don’t purchase eggs from somewhere local, then do some research on your current batch of eggs. Where do they come from? How were they produced? What kind of hens lay them? Pasteurized or no? What will pasteurized do to your eggs – good and bad? See what YOU think about the whole operation. Maybe you dig and maybe you don’t. Either way, you know what goes into that carton of eggs and there ain’t a soul out there who can take that away from you. Pretty empowering, eh?

Wowee…all apologies for that spiel right there! Back to the point of this particular post (though that tangent could have been part of it).

So. This farm visitor’s name was Marilyn Pasierb (pictured with me) and she is from downstate in Long Island. By the way, Marilyn knows about this post and I did obtain her permission so no worries for all of the finicky, rule followers of the world! ; ) So Marilyn and I get talking and dig this friends:

-         She is a Registered Dietitian as I am soon-to-be

-         She did her undergraduate at the University of Arkansas as did I

-         She is a member of the Dietary Practice Group, Hunger and Environmental Nutrition (HEN – www.hendpg.com) as am I

-         She was at the very same talk on September 29, 2007 at the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo given by Mary Jo Forbord, RD and Shannon Hayes, PhD…mind you this is the talk that introduced me to the wonderful world of HEN and where the agrarian seed was first planted

-         Not as striking, but her son attends the University of Virginia as I just completed my dietetic internship at Virginia Tech

Now is that bizarre or is that bizarre? Bizarre I know. : )

So it gets even better…Marilyn and her husband are about to begin leasing 13 acres down in Long Island (yep, there’s still land there and it’s surprisingly affordable for those looking to lease) and they want to become more connected with their food. Imagine that. They plan to start with 50 laying hens and then gradually incorporate more layers as they endure the inevitable growing pains. More importantly, they will utilize sustainable practices mimicking the Polyface Farms methodology (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0963810901/piggybackcom) that Joel Salatin proselytizes incessantly. They will only be doing layers until they can get ahold of more land so it won’t be the complete Polyface picture. Regardless, Long Island currently does not have a provider for pastured eggs and this is a dynamite opportunity for Marilyn and her husband to create a niche market for themselves while sustainably introducing good food to the good people of Long Island. Sounds pretty swell to me.

I had the privilege of giving this fellow RD/HEN/Arkansan the lay of the layers’ land while elucidating on how the whole process works here at Sap Bush Hollow. Now this was quite special for me because it proved to me that I am starting to understand all of this idealistic food-producing fairy tale and may just be able to do it myself. Uh oh. : )

If you’d like to do layers yourself, I’d check out this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chicken-Health-Handbook-Gail-Damerow/dp/0882666118

It’s a spring-well of basic, yet detailed information on chicken health to keep you rolling in your endeavor.

Synergistically,

Andy

From Mother Earth News:

Retired animal science professor Jim Hayes, who holds a doctorate in reproductive physiology and animal science, and manages grass-based Sap Bush Hollow Farm in Warnerville, N.Y., puts it bluntly: “A high grain diet blows out their livers.” To keep the calves alive and gaining weight, they must be given a steady diet of antibiotics.

Dr. Jim Hayes – one fourth of the leadership here at Sap Bush Hollow (www.sapbush.com) was quoted in a dynamite article about the meat industry on pages 74-84 of the February/March 2008 issue of Mother Earth News.  “What You Need to Know About the Beef You Eat” was authored by the great Jo Robinson, founder of EatWild.com – a tremendous resource for those interested in extricating themselves from traditional supermarket meat and learning about the beauty of pasture-based meats and how to locate local producers.

Here’s the link for the article: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2008-02-01/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Beef-You-Eat.aspx