A couple of years ago I attended an international conference of people working on social issues. The conference was in my rural New England area, and it was great to see how they viewed it.
One of the side trips for the attendees was a visit to the Community Supported Agriculture farm (CSA) my family has belonged to for over ten years now. It provides us with raw milk and vegetables throughout the year. Eggs, homemade yogurt and other processed goods are available to buy.
The area of New England where I live is rocky and sandy and difficult to farm. Using the methods of Biodynamic agriculture, the farmer feeds over a hundred families. In earlier times, settlers tried to eke out a living from the land, but many had to leave. We now have stone walls in the middle of forests and "Old Home Days" designed to lure the wanderers back, as reminders of those harsh times.
Now agribusiness has taken over much of the food supply. Mechanization and the use of pesticides caused the cost of running a farm to be prohibitive, necessitating debt. Also, farms gobbled up other farms in order to stay afloat. Like a factory turning out widgets, farmers were expected to produce ever increasing yields, whether they be grains, vegetables,or milk. Middlemen, from food processors to supermarkets demanded rock bottom prices to ensure big profits.
We know from the diaries of OrangeClouds115, Asinus Asinum Fricat and others that the food supply in the US is in crisis. We don't really know the effects of the many chemicals involved in food production and processing on the human body. We may know about individual chemicals, but not how they interact as a group. Also, the US, unlike Europe, assumes a product is safe unless proven otherwise. In Europe a food product must be proven safe, first. As it is more difficult to prove a negative, things are released into the food chain that may not be safe for human consumption. Large scale farming causes pollution and diseases of humans and animals. Migrant workers, who labor under slave-like conditions are used to keep costs down. They are also exposed to many chemicals. Like the military industrial complex, the food industrial complex is a megalith of powerful economic interests that have cut us off from the very thing that sustains our lives: food.
Our community farm feeds the member families from a few acres of cultivated land and a herd of 15 dairy cows. The farm is structured so the farmers are neither employees nor owners, but independent contractors. Each year we hold a budget meeting whereby the farmers present a detailed budget for the farm's operation. The costs are divided among the members, although not always equally. There is a suggested pledge amount, but some cannot pay the full amount, while others can afford to pay extra to cover the difference. This is done voluntarily.
Shares in the farm-the bounty- are not divided and distributed. Two days a week, known as "store days", members go to the farm and take what they need. Nothing is measured or doled out, but freely given. It's all on the honor system.
Vegetables are grown without synthetic pesticides. The cows keep their horns and are not artificially inseminated. They wander freely outside in their pasture. There is a bull, usually a Jersey, in the herd.
We are very fortunate to have access to the food this farm produces. Yet we forget and take it for granted sometimes, so it was good to see things from the visitors' eyes. To see how radical this farm really is. Food isn't sold, it's shared, and the costs are also shared. The farmers are guaranteed a certain wage no matter what the harvest is or how much milk the cows produce. The land is held in trust through a group of nonprofit organizations, the town and the state. This farm is the only working farm in a town that once had many, and the residents recognized this and voted to support it.
For more information, check out the book Farms of Tomorrow Revisited (unfortunately expensive because it's out of print. Maybe inter-library loan?)