Peasant

~ This article first appeared in the Leader Vindicator newspaper. ~

You’re a human being living in a society that’s existing well beyond its means, and you’re influenced by money.  Wealth is associated almost exclusively with involvement in science and technology, both concepts too narrowly focused and too unanimously accepted.  For decades the promise of affluence was convenience and a better life; unfortunately, contentment seems yet to have arrived.

This trajectory has a negative influence on nature, farmers, food, and consumers.  The act of turning raw material into useable good via human effort has lost its power.  On one hand, society’s technology obsession turns our interactions with the landscape into all-consuming industries; on the other, the knowledge economy perceives rural life as a neat little foray into la-la land, visiting, but never really believing that anything necessary comes from the homestead. 

Retail farmers are stuck in the middle.  We’re asked to produce food on a small, responsible scale in such quantities that will fulfill unlimited demand.  As a result, there is an entire industry dedicated to selling yield-increasing products for minimalist farmers.  The whole concept is broken, yet nobody can fathom stepping away from financing and technology in order to make life easier.

Tribes in various environments around the world deliberately avoid the troublesome toil of modernization.  They prefer to hunt, fish, and gather when needed, and spend the rest of the day recreating.  Hazda and !Kung men reject encouragement to adopt ‘civilized’ agriculture because they see no reason to worry over tending something that nature accomplishes for free – this, coming from people living in a harsh, unproductive environment. 

Nukak people living in the Amazon move camp frequently, leaving behind a waste stream of seeds that sprout and grow into pockets of fruit and nut trees for future use.  Their strategy for living is to avoid ever using the same camp twice, thus protecting the groves of food trees they need for survival.  In this way the Nukak have ‘domesticated’ their environment without use of labor beyond the effort to clear a campsite.

Shepherds in France guide large flocks of sheep without the assurance of fences or modern convenience.  Skilled herders possess the seemingly impossible ability to convert stale brush into considerable weight gain, growing their sheep at a rate on par with those kept inside and tended by expensive feed nutritionists.

Ironically, when primitive people are ‘working’, they’re engaged in activities modern people yearn for as recreation: Hunting, fishing, picking fruit and berries, and traversing the countryside are all vacation activities highly prized.  It is interesting that survival skills are a novelty in our modern world.

In order to upgrade food production from novelty to necessity, consumers need to understand the entire process as it relates to their region.  For customers to understand the process, they need to become a part of a distinct culture.  A culture has definite boundaries that limit activities in proportion to immediately available resources, thus achieving the environmental – societal symbiosis that is currently eluding our grasp.

Strong cultures coalesce around meaningful work.  Many festivals began as activities based around necessary effort.  Eventually the necessity was stripped away, leaving only shallow entertainment as the modern objective.  I see it as vital to inject necessary effort back into farm gatherings, much like the transhumance festivals that celebrated the hard work required to bring sheep back from the mountains before winter.

Here we blur the line between work, education, and entertainment. 

Consider, for example, the difference between drilling a well, installing a pumping station, burying pipeline in a branching pattern across the property, and then placing hydrants and watering points for livestock versus the skills required to design and execute grazing circuits that fulfill the herd’s need for nourishing food and clean water.  The former is efficient, expensive, and not particularly thought provoking.  The latter is hard work, but requires almost no infrastructure, and so it can be accomplished without high capital expectations.

The grazing circuit method is also an interesting learning experience.  I find animal movement to be an intriguing topic, and I want to learn more about the nuances of herd behavior in order to enhance my own ability to steward livestock.  It is safe to assume that farmers and non-farmers alike would come to learn about stockmanship.  One person will work, others will learn from the work.

Certainly a demonstration of moving animals is entertaining, as well as necessary and educational.  Property owners regularly stop and watch me interact with the cattle, commenting that they cannot believe the animals will behave so well.  My work is entertainment for others.

If we can, like the peasants who had no option, forget the magnificence of money and accept instead the necessity and the wholeness of meaningful work, then we can create an environment for farm gatherings that is both real and gratifying.  As the old saying goes, “To be satisfied with little is difficult.  To be satisfied with much is impossible.”

Here’s to an era of little farms that are hugely satisfying.