For someone who likes to eat and cook as much as I do, I admit I don’t know much about food policy. So today’s blog action day topic had me at a bit of a loss. But I do know that food impacts our society and cultural life in a very profound way, and we’re seeing changes now that I predict will have an impact for years to come.
Earlier this summer I read Melissa Coleman’s amazing memoir, This Life Is In Your Hands, about a family of homesteaders back in the 1970s. If you’re too young to remember this movement, back in the ’70s a lot of young people decided to ditch the establishment life of 9-to-5 and what they saw as a corrupting consumer culture and return to the land. They weren’t hippies, they were homesteaders, though I do believe a lot of our modern perceptions of the ’60s and hippie culture actually comes from this later movement. These folks were considered radicals but we have them to thank for the organic farming revolution, health food, alternative medicine, alternative energy, recycling and a whole range of once non-conventional practices that are now part of mainstream American life.
What I didn’t realize is that the homesteading movement was sparked by the global economic crisis of the 1970s and the oil crisis that started in 1973. Growing your own food became an economic necessity.
And oh my God but 40 years later, here we are again:
My turn with spade and hoe started a few years ago when I found myself divorced and flat broke. My livelihood as a freelance writer went out the window when the economy tanked. I literally could afford beans, the dried kind, which I’d thought were for school art projects or teaching elementary math. And I didn’t know how to cook.
Luckily, my late father had hammered into me that grit was more important than talent. So, when I couldn’t afford fancy food — never mind paraben-free shampoo — for my babies, I figured, if peasants in 11th-century Sicily did all this, how hard could it be?
I researched how to raise hens from chicks so we could get our omega-3-filled eggs. I learned to stretch a single piece of cheap meat into nearly a week’s worth of dinners. I made my own cleaning products. Not because I liked it. Because it was cheap.
Read the rest of Susan Gregory Thomas’ column. It’s the 1970s, homesteaders, back-to-the-land movement all over again, but on steroids. That generation laid the groundwork and now we’re seeing tons of new options. The movement has been transported to urban areas, for one thing: it’s no longer necessary to move to Maine for your self-sufficiency experiment. People are raising chickens in backyard coops these days, community gardens have sprung up serving those without yards. Information is available at the click of a computer keyboard. Buying shares in a CSA is another option bringing organic, sustainable produce, meat and dairy products to urban dwellers (and I was shocked at the large number of CSA’s in the Nashville area).
This is the homesteading movement transported into the internet age. And thinking about the major changes that last movement sparked, I can only imagine how these modern homesteaders will change American attitudes about food. I think the impact will be profound. I also think this is as big a threat to corporate America as any protest.
This has to send chills through John Mackey’s heart:
Even if things turn around financially, I don’t think I could stomach going to Whole Foods (except maybe for olive oil) because my biggest revelation in terms of self-sufficiency is this: It is no big deal. You can tell yourself anything is too difficult, or you can just do it. And you do not need to reconstruct your worldview or take issue with others.
Shhh… don’t tell SC Johnson and Procter & Gamble that we just need a $2 bottle of generic vinegar to wash our floors. Don’t tell Whole Foods that we can buy our organic garlic from a local farm, not shipped in from Argentina. (By the way, can someone explain to me why Whole Foods sells locally-grown produce, and organic produce, but rarely locally-grown organic produce? What’s up with that? We have tons of organic farms around here, is there some reason they aren’t buying from them?)
How all of this shakes out socially and culturally I have no idea, but it will be fascinating to watch.
Pingback: It’s Back To The Land
Yes, the people who “dropped out” back in the seventies were somewhat mocked (at least their motivations were) and so most Americans had no idea what drove these people to an anti-consumer lifestyle. These days, we have wonderful communication tools virtually anyone can use to stay connected and to share information. That is an important element that was missing 40 years ago,
I spent this entire on my tractor, cutting back the summer weeds and grasses and preparing that area for our horses. It is beautiful here, but all week I was troubled by a nagging feeling that all this land is here, and it isn’t being used to sustain anything but our abundant wildlife. I’m good with that, but I know most of the country will have to adjust their expectations about many things…what and how much they eat, how many people per square foot, energy consumption, etc, and I am tempted to sink a well in the event that my kids will have to use this land to grow food or sustain edible livestock.
I really like Joel Salatin’s ideas and practices, but I haven’t yet headed to his place to see how it all actually works. I just hope he doesn’t sell out and start selling books more than growing food and spreading awareness.
Anyway, this is an important topic, and it is difficult for me to write about as well.
You aren’t just preserving wildlife, Mack, you’re preserving land. The only thing they’ve stopped making, to paraphrase the movie “Gone With The Wind.” As long as you own that land, it won’t be churned and chopped into another subdivision — it stays preserved for the day when arable land is scarce and in demand to grow food.
Keep on, buddy.
My wife has kept a garden for several years now at our house in the city. Tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, peppers, broccoli and herbs (she just brought the basil, cilantro & parsley in for the winter – we’ll see how that goes, fingers crossed!).
Last spring while waiting at the deli counter, I got to read a poster about food stamp usage. Much to my surprise, I noticed that the program allows the money to be used to purchase seeds or live plants for growing food. I was dumbfounded that this isn’t publicized more widely (or really at all). I see what we get from the small plots we have and think how poorer households could be extending the assistance with growing their own food. I’m surprised greenhouses and such aren’t making this known and find a way to assist folks down this line.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1580728/food_stamps_cover_live_plants_seeds.html
Urban gardening is a good idea but would be Urban Cornboys (and girls) need to be sure that the soil they’re using is safe to grow things in.
I have a friend who shops at Whole Foods (he calls it “Whole Paycheck”) and when I occassionally see the inside of one of their stores while visiting him I am always amazed at seeing things like arugula for $9/lb. I can’t afford top sirloin at $4.99/lb and they want me to buy a fucking salad for twice as much?
I think that Whole Foods and other high end food purveyors exist for the same reason as that single people or couples, who don’t transport groups of other people or loads of material on a frequent or regular basis, driving huge SUV’s–status marking. My little roommate, Buddy, pisses on every tree that we walk past, as high up as his stubby legs will allow. I view paying outrageous amounts for food, just because someone says it’s “better” in pretty much the same vein.
When I go to the local farmers markets I buy veggies that look good. If there are any Amish farmers selling produce I buy from them. It’s not because I think that their religious practices or refusal to use power equipment makes their produce better; it’s because I know that they’re a tight fisted bunch who use natural manure and crop waste for fertilizer and don’t like to spend money for pesticides.
Urban gardening is a good idea but would be Urban Cornboys (and girls) need to be sure that the soil they’re using is safe to grow things in.
That column I linked to from the New York Times makes that point. They built raised beds and used purchased soil, since Brooklyn soil is likely to contain lead and other toxins. I wonder if food stamps would go toward soil as well as seeds?
There are a lot of Amish farmers around here. Even though they eschew motorized vehicles and such, their produce is not always organic. They may be a tight-fisted bunch on some things, but if you talk to people who work at the farm supply they’ll tell you they have plenty of Amish clients!