The Fields are Ripe but the Workers are Absent

Our farm landscapes are going ever quieter and ever more degraded from the absence of Good Farmers

Our fields are becoming increasingly silent — devoid not only of birdsong, but also of the sound of working men. We have modernism and its vocal proponents largely to thank for this. “There are too many farmers in our landscapes” they voraciously argue. “Dirty manual labour” they claim “is not fitting for the modern, sophisticated, and technologically orientated man”. Nature has been subdued and dominated by the machine, thus the original mandate given to man has been “fulfilled”¹. Now, they argue, “is the time to sit, eat, and be merry — there is nothing more we have to do with the ground with our own bare hands”. We are freed, finally free!, from having to make our living from obeying and following the rhythms and limitations of the land, and are now able to pursue “higher forms” of development and economy - such as limitless economic growth and mass consumerism in the urban, man-made domains…

Folly upon folly, delusion upon delusion.

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No matter what the enlightened modernists and industrialists may believe, instead of being freed from nature, we all — even we western inhabitants of the 21st Century — remain completely and inextricably dependent on soil, bees, grass, and trees (selecting just a few of the constituents of the wild that disproportionately influence agricultural production). The soil in the fields remains essential for our crops to grow. The bees work hard to pollinate our crops and trees so that they can produce their valuable life-giving seed and fruit. And the grass still feeds the cattle on a thousand hills who convert what is inedible to us, into nutrient rich protein and milk. For these life-giving ecological processes to function at their optimum, these plants and animals need to be nurtured, stewarded, and protected. It is our many, many Good Farmers who remain the best workers for these crucial tasks.

It stands to reason therefore, that those who work in our agricultural lands stewarding the life-giving capacity of the soil, should be among our most cherished and valued workers — seeing as they are responsible for providing our daily sustenance, without which there would be no economy. Instead, in the “developed” West, they are told in no uncertain terms “to get big or get out” and that there are “too many of you in the landscape”. In some influential circles, farmers are even collectively maligned as ecological criminals, solely responsible for the dire condition of the environment. Reducing the number of farmers is seen as a way to improve the state of our economy by the industrialists whilst a means of improving the state of our environment by the environmentalists. A coveted win-win “solution” in this age of efficiency.

This solution is anything but, and is instead a dangerous, even obnoxious delusion. For Good Farmers, using their deeply-attuned and locally-adapted skills and time-tested wisdom, are those who are best placed to feed well our growing populations, whilst providing a convivial environment for the diversity of species who call the farmland home. It is the agri-industrialists, with their mega-sized fields and input-drenched lands who are most responsible for the widespread environmental degradation observed in our farmlands as well as the proliferation of cheap, nutrient poor foods. They are the ones we need fewer of. But as Wendell Berry astutely remarks, we never hear it said that there are too many agricultural industrialists or too many middle men in the food value chain² (each creaming off their share of the profits). No, these individuals — self-bloated on their own perceived importance and high profits — declare to those lower down the food chain that “There are too many of you — we in our corporate towers armed with our statistics know best.”. “You would be better off in the cities” they say, “doing a job that actually helps economic growth. Never mind your lack of skills for urban work — there is always a need for low-skilled workers!”.

Folly upon folly, delusion upon delusion.