Is it possible to farm without exploitation?

I've spent a decade working all over ag looking for the answer to that question.

The world is littered with evidence that it is not possible. I've found one "Yes," in all my obsession searching. And I'm betting career on it. THREAD

I've traveled around the country and lived around the world. I've met and spoke with hundreds if not thousands of farmers. I've read and researched, I've hunted down experts and challenged their every conclusion over Turkish food. I've been proven wrong many times.

Today, I just want to talk about one small element of this question. The exploitation part.

Here's what I've learned (so far) about the key ways that farms can exploit, and what's needed to avoid that exploitation (in no particular order):

Farms exploit farmers: physically, mentally, and emotionally, cultural expectations around farming often encourage farmers to "do it all" by themselves. This is exploitation. Complex businesses require multiple employees with various expertise to succeed.

Farms exploit farmworkers: for a widely debated array of reasons, farms largely don't pay workers live-able wages, nor do they protect their health or wellbeing or provide opportunities to grow. There's evidence that farmworkers with an ownership stake in operations fair better

Farms exploit families: for a combination of the above, families of farmers are often called to make sacrifices in the form of time, labor, or life experiences (like a parent never around or always stressed). Farms that are run by "families" and not employees are exploitative.

Farms exploit the environment: modern farming in almost every incarnation, is by definition a taking of something from the environment without compensation. This is by definition exploitative. "Regen" etc. practices largely fall short. A different worldview is avoids exploitation

Farms exploit other species: from livestock to plants to wildlife and insects, improved yields in recent decades have levied a significant cost on the wellbeing of other living things. Non-exploitation requires care for quality of life and longevity of non-human species too.

Farms exploit rural communities: farming and rural are synonymous to the point that many consider them one group-- despite growth in farm size being a primary cause of rural decline. In consolidation, wealth and power concentrate, leading to more opportunities for exploitation.

Farms exploit public funds: because of overproduction, the market price for many crops is below cost of production. Billions of taxpayer $$ go to fill the gap and keep farms viable through a wide variety of programs. Vertical integration and market orientation avoids exploitation

Farms exploit public perception: hundreds of years of amber waves of grain lore has inextricably tied family farming to patriotism, self-reliance, and the American dream. This has provided cover for inaction and poor practices. Goodwill and trust must be earned, not expected.

This system of farming *is* exploitative. Which is hard. I love the farm and ag world (they are my people), and I don't want to believe that much of our food, fuel, and fiber is grown through a system that leaves people, families, animals, plants, and ecosystems broken

But confronting the reality is a vital first step to seeking out alternatives.

I take these realities with me now, when I talk to farmers, when I process and seek to understand ag issues, to evaluate farms and solutions that make claims to be non-exploitative.

Almost four years ago, I found someone who seemed to have an idea that didn't check any of the exploitation boxes I'd identified. But I was weary. It was a new, small farm. There was still time for things to go wrong. Because that's what usually happens.

When things get hard, a little exploitation looks easy. "Tight on the mortgage payment this month? Tell the workers we'll pay them when we can." "Can't hire the help I need? I'll spend 22 straight hours in the planter and skip my kids baseball game." etc.

So for four years or so, I've been watching, mostly from afar. I've watched @SylvanaquaFarms grow from a porch to a backyard to a back 40 to full fledged farm with 1000+ customers and a passionate following. I've watched a business, an idea, and a person, grow

Three years to the day after my first visit, I went to see Chris again. And despite the many trials and tribulations, the enormous and exhausting challenge of starting a farm from nothing, his determination to build a non-exploitative future for his farm had only grown.

That visit was a lightbulb moment. His vision, which to me, someone jaded by too many years looking for The Next Best Thing in farming, seemed almost impossible. But it was somehow coming to fruition. Because sometimes a good idea is just too good to die.

In my calculus to take the wildly unadvisable leap to become a freelancer, the possibility of getting to work, in whatever capacity, with @SylvanaquaFarms weighed heavily, but...

...I knew if I really want to have an answer to this question that might be "Yes," that if I was going to spend the rest of my life searching for a non-exploitative future for farming, and I didn't do everything I possibly could to make this transformative idea succeed

... then I'd always regret it.

So.

All this to say. I'm betting on a future for American agriculture, with my time and my money and my passion, because there's no time to lose. I've done the due diligence, years of it. I've seen the other options. This is it folks. @SylvanaquaFarms is the best Yes I've found.

So if you want to do something about it-- join me. You can either donate to or invest in the future of Sylvanaqua right now:

http://sylvanaqua.com/invest 

And if you're in the Capitol region, you can shop there too: https://sylvanaquastore.square.site/ 

And Happy Juneteenth!

FIN.