my
daughter. We started with Little house in the Big Woods, then went to
Little House on the Prairie and then we are re-located with the Ingalls
family to the Banks of Plum Creek.
At
the same time that we were reading these stories we read Farmer Boy and
I was totally amazed about the life of 10 year old of Almanzo Wilder,
the future husband of Laura Ingalls. We are present in is life for about
1 year and a half; through winter and its tasks of ice cutting, through
spring cleaning and planting, through summer plowing and town holiday
celebrations, through fall harvest -- and back to winter preparation.
Some
of his experiences made me think twice about our current experience for
our American children. He was kept home from school when his family
needed an extra two hands. His farm chores started at daybreak and ended
at dusk. At the end of the book when offered ad an apprentice position
for a wagon maker his parents explain that as a specialized trade worker
he may not work many hours (like a farmer) but he will always be
dependent on someone else to pay him so he can buy food. A farmer is
independent and doesn't go hungry. It is in fact Almanzo's mother that
adamantly opposes Almanzo's offer for a "good trade" and has Father
Wilder explain the importance of freedom to him.
Again
I think of the shift from these independent, product-diverse family
farms to specialized "seed-dependent" mono-agriculture farms. Large
family farms beaten down by loans must focus on corn or soy because of
guaranteed government price and with the use of proprietary seed by
agro-industrial corporations, the whole industry becomes government
sponsored and corporate controlled.
Family
farms that are part of CSA model or provide produce for farmer markets
or marketed to local communities must be patronized. Food security has
been transformed to food control as we know less and less of the seeds
used (GMOS or otherwise), pesticides spread on the land, or hormones
added to the livestock. We are outsourcing too much of our essential
control for convenience and proce.
More
than any other journalistic book could have proposed, the book proves
the saying from Wendell Berry that "eating is an agricultural act."
