I had the great privilege of spending a couple days on the Rebankses' farm during lambing season two years ago. If it hadn't been for the ATV and the plastic overalls I'd have sworn I'd traveled through time. James's family and their neighbors are carrying on traditions that have been part of the land there for well over a thousand years. (Some of the local language even comes directly from the Old Norse brought over by the Vikings—"fell," for example; compare with Icelandic "fjall.")
I have enormous respect for their way of life. It is backbreaking, never-ending work, especially during lambing season, and they wouldn't give it up for anything.
“We have all become such suckers for a bargain that we take the low prices of our foodstuffs for granted...”
This is spot on, but it elides the arguable good that low food prices bring.
For full disclosure, I grew up on a working beef cattle farm, and my side hustle is to raise a flock of twenty sheep with my wife, who is a veterinarian, in the Maryland suburbs. So I'm sympathetic to small farmers and local agriculture. But the story is more nuanced than that.
American agriculture, like much of American industry, has optimised for the highest possible production at the lowest possible prices. This has a lot of side effects, some good, some bad. The good, of course, is that food is far less expensive than at any time in history, and real famine is almost nonexistent - true, there are local famines, and those are horrible, but they're cause more by politics and war than by farming practices. Historically, people who weren't farmers soent something like 40% of their income on food. That number is now closer to ten percent in industrialized countries. Don't overlook that fact when thinking about hunger in America. It exists, to be sure - but it would be a lot worse without industrialized agriculture.
The downsides, of course, are numerous. You have to have massive economies of scale to compete, which means more and more farm land is in the hands of fewer and fewer farmers - who, often, are working land owned by investors or corporations. It not only encourages massive use of pesticids and chemical fertilizer, it actually demands it. It degrades the soil. It contributes to the existence of plant diseases, both by its focus on planting monocultures and by the pesticide use, which breeds resistant parasites. And it reduces genetic diversity in crops.
Animal agriculture is also affected. Corporate farming produces poor quality of life for livestock, reduces genetic diversity in livestock, increases public health hazards through antibiotic overuse and zoonotic disease outbreaks, and encourages overconsumption of meat.
And both contribute significantly to global warming.
But, unfortunately, most people vote with their pocketbooks most of the time. What would you do if your grocery bill went from $150 a week to $300 or more?
> What would you do if your grocery bill went from $150 a week to $300 or more?
It depends on why, and whether I could afford it. If one can afford a 100% bump in food expenses, and can effect it by choosing to buy better food, then it would be worth it in my opinion. The problem to me is that real, sustainable food is basically impossible to come by. I’ve tried farmers markets, etc, but those establishments aren’t about “real” eating either. Americans shopping at all tiers of the food system experience commerce that is entirely catered to a post-seasonal shopping experience. You go to a grocery store and 90% of the shelves aren’t food at all—in the sense that it’s usually some kind of starch and palm oil packaged with salt—then the rest is confused about what time of year it is. If I could spend 200% more on food I would, but seasonal, real food is nowhere to be found. What I want is a real Whole Foods. Such a store would not have shelves of boxed garbage. It would sell dry foodstuffs, out of season produce that keep well in low oxygen chillers (apples, etc) and whatever was in season and is practical for eating. All the food would be highest quality. But such a store wouldn’t exist because Americans must be able to buy rhubarb, salmon and kiwis any time of the year, and won’t come back unless you have them.
Greetings from MD too. MD sheep and wool is coming up:)
You can eat sustainably. It just takes a lot of work.
If you eat meat, buy half a cow or a pig (or a sheep!) from a local farmer. Have it butchered and store it in your freezer. This is actually cheaper than buying meat at the grocery store, if you can afford the upfront cost and have a chest freezer.
Buy your milk and other dairy from a local dairy. This is not cheaper, and will require either that you make a special trip to pick up the milk, or if you're lucky your dairy might have a delivery service.
Get your fruit from a local pick-your-own orchard. Can what you can't eat.
Get your vegetables from a farm stand. True, often this isn't actually local, but mainly that's because people want vegetables that aren't in season yet. So farm stands start stocking tomatoes in June, even though tomatoes don't ripen until July at the earliest. So do your homework and only buy what's in season and locally grown. Again, buy in bulk and can what you don't eat immediately. Supplement with a garden in your backyard. Ideally, have a small greenhouse as well so you can extend your growing season. Build a corn crib, buy a truckload of field corn from a local farmer and store it. When you need flour, seed the corn and run it through a grain mill.
In some places there are farm produce co-ops. If you have one locally, join it. They'll ship you a box of vegetables every week during the summer, whatever is in season.
Raise a small chicken flock in your backyard. Eat the eggs and feed them off the leftovers from your vegetables.
To be certain, this costs a significant amount of money and it's a ton of work. It also requires certain preconditions - that you live somewhere where there are local dairies and orchards and farm stands (although those are true in a lot of the world) and that you have enough land for a garden and chicken coop. And it will require wholesale changes to your diet. But it's what your great grandmother did.
Thank you for this very practical list of suggestions. Reading through them it’s clear they go a long way. We do some of these things already. I’m going to keep this list around for more to practical things to do.
Your list is missing one key point, although it is alluded to between the lines:
> American agriculture, like much of American industry, has optimised [a select number of food items] for the highest possible production at the lowest possible prices.
It should be a lot cheaper to eat healthy. The current market makes little economic sense: the prices do not reflect the resource intensity of producing meat vs the same amount of healthier plant-based foods (I'm not even arguing that we should all go vegetarian or vegan - there simply is a huge lack of leafy greens in the Western diets).
The Herdwick Shepherd is one of my favourite twitter accounts. How different our perspectives on life must be. Him outside dealing with the ups and downs of life, death and weather on a daily basis. Me, sat in an office reading a flexbox cheat sheet for the hundredth time.
Herdwick Shepherd
@herdyshepherd1
4h
"Mum, I'm in the @NewYorker" "Oh, that's nice" "Well er... sorry in advance for the swearing" Miss my dad, who wouldn't even have heard of it, and wouldn't give a F.
I have enormous respect for their way of life. It is backbreaking, never-ending work, especially during lambing season, and they wouldn't give it up for anything.