Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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5
Making It Work
[First Page]
[150],
(1)
The present scientific quest for odorless hog manure should give us sufficient proof that
the specialist is no longer with us. Even now, after centuries of reductionist propaganda,
th
e world is still intricate and vast, as dark as it is light, a place of mystery, where we
ca
nnot do one thing without doing many things, or put two things together without
pu
tting many things together.
- Wendell Berry, “
In Distrust of Movements
,” speech to the Tri-State Environmental
Educators Workshop in Evansville, Indiana, October 1998
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X
armers teach us a great deal about the complexity of
organic farming in the United States. Steve, Mary and
Rob, Joel, Phil, and Cliff, Naioma, and Allen represent various
geographic regions, manage very different types of farms, and
describe things in distinctive ways that relate to their individual
farms. Organic farmers are not all alike, but their common experi-
en
ces converge along several themes: economics, ecology, society, and per-
so
nality. Within these broad categories are specific traits and influences
th
at are often present among successful organic farmers (table 1). These
in
fluences come to life through quotes from the five farmers we know. They
de
scribe how things actually work on their farms, which provides a rich
un
derstanding of the geography of organic farming throughout the United
States. This helps us“map”organic agriculture and chart a path for its future.
[150],
(1)
E
CONOMIC FACTORS
Organic farmers most often point to the influence of economic factors in
determining the success of their farms. Clearly they must achieve economic
sustainability in order to remain in farming at all. The leading economic
