Farming 101

One of the reasons that I started this blog was at the urging of an editor who liked how I could explain modern commercial agriculture to him. He lived in a large city and was as about as far removed from his food as possible. Because the general media is in the same boat with him I have never felt that people get an honest view of agriculture in this country. Either you hear that everyone is being poisoned with pesticides and some Hollywood type blames her latest divorce on genetically modified crops or you read some latest and greatest from huge conglomerates like Monsanto where their new technology is going to save the world and all the starving children in Africa will at last have access to a Bic Mac. Neither one is the truth. The editor understood this but wanted to know why the real story wasn't out there. It is really simple.... American farmers are just too damn busy to bother cluing you in on what they figure you should already know. They don't have time to fully engage in a debate on whether the system we have is "right" or "wrong." It is what it is. It will evolve as needed. The Midwestern corn farmer is not shoveling all that high fructose corn syrup down your throat, America. That is the funny thing about agriculture. We like to grow what sells. If you were crazy for bean sprouts we'd figure out how to get that to you with record production levels.
So my editor friend suggested a blog where I could explain some things to the average reader that will help you learn more about where your food comes from. I don't know if it will do any good but if maybe one person develops an appreciation or understanding of the industry it will be something. So occasionally I will touch on that subject and try to explain things from our persepctive. Not that I think it will change much but maybe we'll all learn something.

Bittersweet

June 28th is a day that always saddens me as it was my dad's birthday. He would have been 63 and he would have been crazy for his grandson. He died of cancer back in 1989 when he was only 44 and I was only 13. This day doesn't sadden me for the reason you might think but for the simple fact that my dad has been gone so long that some years his birthday or the date of his death, June 10th, sneak past me. It seems like as the years go by alot about him has faded into a blur that I will never get back in focus. Some years I have been writing a check and will suddenly realize the anniversay of his death was the day before or will make a note that it is in a couple days and then promtly forget. I have always admired the people who make a proper effort in memorializing a loved one on an important date. Maybe they always visit the cemetery or something along those lines. He was not someone who would have cared one way or another, frankly.

I have been without my dad a lot longer than the 13 years I had him. In that blur of time I have forgotten how he moved and lost the ability to recall what he sounded like when he laughed. I don't know hardly any stories from his childhood and have very little of him to pass along to my son. A few years ago I was given some cassette tapes that he had made. I am not sure why he chose to do them. It seems a little out of character. It appears he wanted to capture a moment such as a Christmas morning or me singing my ABC'S. They are brief and of poor quality after all these years but I am so grateful for them because they gave me back his voice. While coaxing me to sing or giving the date of the recording or even once giving a fake commercial on a tape sent to my grandparents...("Brought to you by The Concerned Citizens for Jodi Leigh's Daddy to Get New Boat Seats") he left behind his voice. For the few seconds that I hear him across all these years parts of who he was shimmer into focus. Never for very long but for a few moments I am back with him.

I do not delude myself in thinking that my father was a great man. He was an alcoholic, a Vietnam veteran, and came from a screwy family. He had the obvious issues that come from those sorts of things. I am not someone who elevates the dead to instant sainthood just because they are dead. Personally I would find it refreshing if at the next funeral I attend someone said, "Larry was great and I loved him. But you know he had these moments where he could be a real asshole. And he still owes me fifty bucks." So I know my dad had his bad moments but there was a lot of good too and I guess they kind of cancel each other out and leave me with a lot of questions. Questions that will probably never get resolved which I am okay with. Mostly. I wish he could have known my husband and my son. I mainly wish he had had a happier ending.

So this year I actually caught June 28th and sometime today I am going to sit with my son out on our front porch and tell him about his grandfather. I will show him the couple dozen pictures I have and tell him how in Vietnam he was a door gunner and that when he gets a little older he can have one of his grandfather's fishing poles. To my son he will just be a character in a story and this to me is bittersweet.

A Reluctant Blogger

I find it incredibly hard to believe anyone will want to read this. That what I write and think will matter or be of interest to anyone out there in the world. But I was given the advice by a former editor to start up a blog. Blog. I don't even like the word blog but here it is. Happy Mr. Former Editor? So I have no idea how often I will write here or even what I will write. I've christened it Rurality as that is the type of filter I generally view the world through. I live in a rural community in Indiana and we farm. Not the warm and fuzzy organic farming or the back to the land delusional kind but the "Hey America this is why your food has been so incredibly cheap that you can afford flat screen TV's wider than most shacks in the slums of South America" kind of farming. (Can I get a Amen up there in Heaven, Earl Butz?) We farm several thousand acres of grain but we are still a "family farm" which is a term that gets thrown around a lot in an election year. I have subscriptions to Top Producer and Successful Farming that are tempered with Vogue and Vanity Fair. I once particularly enjoyed the confused look of my mailman when they came on the same day. I have a four year old son that I promise not to write too much about even though he is pretty great. I also have a husband of almost seven years who is better than I deserve. So ultimately I don't know what this is going to be but it will be organic and evolve on its own. Maybe some farming. Maybe some fashion. I am obsessed and interested in a lot of things that will probably surface but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. America, I am just sure you are breathless with anticipation.