Do you have a relationship with the farmer that grows your food?
Currently, for most people, the answer to that question is no.
They get their food from a supermarket. Food produced by some nameless, faceless farmer, producing food on an industrial scale (and getting paid an hourly wage competitive with an employee at China’s Foxconn).
Within a decade, the answer to this question will be yes.
If pressed for details on the type of relationship they have, people will say they…
- Grow it themselves (all, if you are an ambitious homesteader, or partly if you are an avid gardener).
- Own a share in a local organic farm (or multiple farms) and get weekly deliveries.
- Have a subscription to a multi-farm distribution service that provides weekly deliveries (on the rise!).
In all three cases, you will know where your food is grown. How it is grown.
You’ll know and contribute to the reputation of the farmer. They, in turn, will know and contribute to yours as a supporter, partner, and customer. Trust forms.
You’ll get higher quality food you can trust and your farmer will get a steady income that can support the farm.
In some cases, you’ll travel to the farm you support, to participate in doing the work: a harvest, planting or ongoing maintenance. In others, you’ll participate in annual celebrations of a successful year’s harvest (dinner picture from Oak Grove Plantation, Pittstown, NJ).
Why will this occur?
There will be two big drivers of the switch. One is that it’s just a better way of life.
The second is that it will become a necessity as the global economy continues its plunge into a deep and dark depression.
As that occurs, the lucky people who have a relationship with local farmers will be able to quickly bounce back from disruptions to the food supply.
Transportation disruptions that can empty supermarkets in a few short days. Currency disruptions that can make remotely produced food too pricey to buy or unavailable as it is diverted to wealthier portions of the globe (we saw that recently with rice and other commodities and historically in Ireland during the potato famine). Famines caused by blights and droughts that ravage the mono-cultures of industrial farms.
In short, it’s important to have a relationship with the person the person that grows your food.
To both live your life to its fullest and to provide you with the food security you and the people that depend on you need.
Resiliently Yours,
JOHN ROBB
