The Agricultural Crisis as a Crisis of Culture
In recent years, a major shift in agriculture has resulted in the decline of farmers and farmland. Small farmers have been replaced by large-scale farms run by money-driven farmers and run on expensive machinery. The local markets and self-sufficiency have been replaced by global markets and dependence on these larger, more global, markets for survival. In short, our culture has changed in response to a distinct change in society’s values.
People are moving away from the land, not only physically but also mentally. Cities are expanding as people focus their efforts on consumerism and business and industrial related professions. Therefore, values associated with achieving an expendable income and a prestigious career are often considered simple compared to the values associated with the farmer. A farmer relies on experience, independence, authority, endurance, and personal judgement related to tasks necessary in the running of that farm to make a living. Overall, fragmentation, or the separation of the component parts of our culture, such as separating agriculture from technological and economic disciplines, creates competition, a lack of cooperation among people, and a reduction in the shared unity, or idea that we are all part of one creation, in our society.
All of earth’s systems are interdependent, and therefore competition, for example between agricultural practices and economical pursuits, may negatively impact our society. Farmers provide the raw resources for the industries to manufacture and process into select goods. These goods are then sold by companies in a market. This market then dictates the demands of the consumers, thus telling the farmers what to supply. Hence, our society working together and promoting cooperation will allow agricultural practices and economical pursuits to work hand-in-hand. Since each individual is part of the whole, unity in our cultural values is crucial for the maintaining of agricultural practices that do not simply exploit the planet, but rather use the resources in a sustainable, efficient manner.
Growing up in a farming community, I have been a witness to some of the drastic changes surrounding the loss of smaller farmers and the rise of large-scale farming. When farming becomes unprofitable because of increased taxes on the land and decreased grain prices, many small farmers have sold off their land and moved elsewhere. Very few small farmers remain, and those that do are not self-sufficient. Milk, eggs, and meat are often purchased in stores rather than produced by the farmers themselves. Even large-scale farms are not self-sufficient. Larger farms are often specialized in one area, such as just livestock production, as in cows and pigs, or just in grain crops. Hutterite colonies are the only farm-based communities that appear to have maintained self-sufficiency from produce grown and nurtured by their own land.
Easton T. Classic edition sources: environmental studies. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2009. pp. 137-40.
