Carl Russell on VPR

[jen judkins]

@Robert MoonShadow 8007 wrote:

I agree with Carl’s point on defining what a farmer is; my experience in this regards: last summer, while selling at the new farmers’ market in the next town over (the county seat), I was asked by an aspiring market-gardener, what was it that made someone a “real” :confused: farmer & not “just” a gardener. My reply: the intent. I grow & sell my products – produce, herbs, goats, & rabbits – intending to make a profit. The two ladies who shared my booth, on the other hand, were there only to sell off their surplus (perhaps at a great enough price to pay for their overall seeds used) while socializing with friends & neighbors. They saw it as a social event – which is great.

I don’t know, Robert. I suspect your friends could be considered farmers as well. The word ‘profit’ as you use it, implies that one has to make a living growing and producing to be considered a farmer. I don’t think that is true. Even if one grows only enough food for their family, there is profit…though it is less obvious.

I think there is a whole lot of room for the small scale farmer with a surplus of whatever. Just think of the community of food you could develope if everyone purposefully grew a surplus of just one type of produce or protein. Could create a very sweet and diverse exchange of product without much money changing hands.

[Robert MoonShadow]

Jen ~ I agree with you; I reread my posting, and realized that I omitted the important detail that I originally gave that lady: I was describing my own personal definition of a farmer as an example and that she could – and should – reach her own definition & understanding of what a farmer was. However, I think even with your example, my point is valid: growing solely for one’s family is gardening; growing an intentional surplus with the intent to profit – whether the means of exchange is barter or money – is farming –> in my opinion, in my definition. I use this definition for my own personal understanding to deferentiate between when I personally grew gardens to feed my family and when I intended a surplus to sell at profit; which was started last season. I at times grew about what I grow now – not quite an acre – intending on giving away the surplus to friends, neighbors & foodbanks… with no profit motive. As I said before, though; the labeling & definitions have merit & meaning only as much as one chooses to impose or accept. If it empowers you, embrace it – whatever label or term is used. My boss in the trailwork I do considers what I do with the animals & produce to be “peon” work – and of little value. However, over this Christian-holiday weekend, he brought his entire visiting clan of family & inlaws down to see my goats, rabbits & newly sprouted peas – and again today, he brought down the visiting federal HUD zone inspectors (who must re-certify that he actually lives within a “Historically Underutilized District”), because these two ladies wanted to see the “darling little animals” –> which, of course, made me feel validated, to a small degree. And proud of my herds of kids & bunnies. 😉 So, to my landlord/boss, I’m a “peon”… I consider myself “in transition”… and the kids in the area & at the farmer’s market call me “Mr. Pirate-Farmer”… guess which label has most meaning for me? :p

[Carl Russell]

Well, not over emphasize my own point, but I really believe after years of practice that “farming”, is a bundle of land-use and animal husbandry practices that are not dependent on scale to be validated.

If you want to use those practices to make commercial, or economic profit then so be it, but I have been farming between pasture, hay, gardens, and woodland, nearly 200 acres for twenty-two years with as much emphasis on developing a functional land-base and infrastructure as any inclination toward financial profit.

I take my profit in the early morning twilight watching the ravens tumble in the sky over my barn, in the smell and feel of soil on my hands, in the bright eyes and smiling faces of my kids and wife when they are there working with me, and in the notion that I have been accruing significant assets in material, equipment, skill, and in productivity that I can pass on to those who will need that more than any money I could have saved in the bank. I keep as much of my “surplus” as possible by rolling it back into the operation. Our farmers marketing, and milk, egg, and meat sales are really only ways for us to engage with our community.

People are always saying, “but you and Lisa both make incomes from off the farm”, and that is true. So what, we still are supported in our off farm work by the on farm work we do to feed and provide for ourselves, and it is our own decision how we want to use our land as a farm. I see no reason to off-load energy and nutrients, plus my own ingenuity and physical effort, to an unappreciative public, losing money, just to say “I’m farming”.

Farming like the future mattered. I see my farm feeding five families. Not only will it feed them, but it will employ a good portion of them, and it will give them a safe place to live, play, and learn. Farming is not an economic process unless you chose it to be. As long as we perpetuate that concept we will limit the degree to which we reclaim an agricultural community, and we will continue to under-utilize and under-value our land and environment.

Carl

[Gabe Ayers]

I would just put a comma or “and” on the last sentence and add the words “our selves”.

The point is often made here that we shouldn’t let others define ourselves. Others definitions always reduce and marginalize us. I think that is exactly what Carl is saying and doing…

Great job on VPR Carl.

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