I don’t know about where you live, but here in
the Garden State, I see this misleading bumper sticker everywhere: No Farms, No
Food.
For the purpose of this discussion let’s define
a farm an enterprise in which one or more human beings plants, cultivates and harvests
food crops primarily for consumption by others beyond his household, friends
and family.
On the face of it, the bumper sticker is true
enough. If no one grew food for others,
most people in post-industrial America would starve. The question is are these human beings who
produce food crops for others going to vanish from American society? They won’t.
However, their numbers have diminished and may continue to do so. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
The flaw in the bumper sticker’s logic is that
it treats farmers, that is, human beings, as a fixed single purpose
resource. I would accept the logic of
saying “no apple trees, no apples” or “no pigs, no bacon”. If blight were to wipe out all apple trees,
there would be no apples as nothing but an apple tree can produce apples. Likewise a world without pigs must by
definition be a world without bacon. And
not a world worth living in, by the way.
Human beings, on the other hand, are most
flexible of economic resources. Chances
are that the guy playing guitar at your Friday watering hole night is a CPA or
computer programmer during the workday.
He may get up the next morning and coach his kids’ ball teams, then go
home to refinish his basement. Being a
modern guy, he might also help cook dinner and clean up afterwards.
The point is that humans can do a lot of
things. They can repurpose themselves to
different occupations if the spirit so moves them. The spirit will so move them if food is
scarce, other people are willing pay to have something to eat and a reasonable living
can be made by farming, which it can.
Agricultural science and technology have
progressed exponentially since this nation was founded. As of 1790 the U.S. population was only 5%
Urban with all others classified as Rural.
This aligned with the Jeffersonian vision of an agrarian nation comprised
of largely self-sufficient and self-governing freeholders. Improvements in agricultural technology and
distribution have made it unnecessary for the preponderance of people to
produce their own food.
As you can see from the chart below, a single
acre of ground could produce nearly 8X more corn by the year 2000 than when our
constitution was ratified.
Globally crop yields throughout the world,
measured in kilograms per hectare*, continue to improve at a steady rate.
Improved efficiency in food production fires up
the division of labor and exchange.
This frees up the majority of workers to produce the cornucopia of
consumer goods that modern civilization takes for granted. Although few if any middle class Americans
self-produce enough to food to live on, the wealth of devices and conveniences
in their homes and on their persons was unimaginable in Jefferson’s agrarian
utopia.
Stepping aside from mere increased production
efficiency, culinary trends are driving a new generation of Americans back to
the soil. The Farm
to Table and Locally Grown movements have enticed professional urbanites to try
their hands at growing fruits, vegetables
and livestock in an earth-friendly way for local green grocers, farmers’
markets and restaurateurs Theirs is an
entrepreneurial and Free enterprise ethic that Jefferson would surely
love. The explosion of local vineyards and wineries
in my home state is visible evidence of this trend.
A good number of existing farmers are also
catching onto this trend. They are
turning away from “commodity farming”, that is corn, wheat, soybeans, etc. for
industry. They are turning to boutique
crops – fresh vegetables and fruits – for local table tops.
Responding to this sea change, cities such as
Seattle are beginning to set aside urban agricultural zones. Forward thinkers are designing urban farm towers and other structures
that will redefine “farming”.
The reality is that food is always priority #1
for human beings. No matter what
technical gizmos, luxury items or fashions we may crave, we will need to feed
ourselves before we can enjoy any of the other frills of 21st
Century living. Consciously or
unconsciously, rational people will make food procurement the top item on their
value list. In turn, market forces will
profitably satisfy this need.
“No Farms, No Food” is propaganda on behalf of
sustained and increased government intervention on behalf of agriculture. Intervention distorts markets and leads to
malinvestment. It stifles innovation
and is a slush bucket for political cronyism. Agricultural
price supports helped to accelerate, aggravate
and prolong America’s Great Depression. Federal agricultural spending is an annual $156 billion income transfer from taxpayers to agribusiness,
farmers and welfare recipients. This
includes Food Stamps which are an indirect subsidy to farmers by helping lower
income people meet artificially inflated food prices. This must stop now!
*10,000
square meters
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Posts:
Green Takers
Bunker
Hill 2- The Bundy Ranch
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