I am a farmer.
When I started my journey in Regenerative Agriculture I loathed that label. I am on the young end of the Millennial age bracket… just a few months shy of Generation Z. Despite my growing interest in regenerative agriculture, I did not want to be labeled a farmer.
The modern world has cast a stereotype on farmers. Small farmers are shirtless hicks who can’t spell, count, or latch their overalls… right?
So at the onset of my journey into farming and Regenerative Agriculture, I would introduce myself using a myriad of alternate terms.
“I am not a farmer, I am engaged in multi-species grazing management.”
“I am not a farmer, I am a sheep rancher.”
“I am not a farmer, I am a permacultural grazier.”
“I am not a farmer. I am a regenerative agriculturalist.”
“I am not a farmer, I am just into rotational grazing.“
While those are all accurate statements with respect to my role at Harmony Farms, they were really just covers for the reality that I was being jaded by modern stereotype.
Then I started farming. I started sweating. I began encountering firsthand the heartaches, the disappointments, the tremendous joys, and the need for relentless fortitude.
And then I realized…
Farmers are strong. Farmers put their life on the line every season in hopes of a blessed harvest. Good Farmers work night and day to grow healthy food.
Then the question hit me hard…
Why are we belittling an industry that every human being relies on for 3 meals a day?
Farmers work hard to create a product that is essential to the life of every human being: food.
By casting unappealing stereotypes on the agricultural industry, we have potentially turned away an entire generation of enthusiasm. Why would a 20 year old want to be a farmer when the spotlight is on the glamours of Silicon Valley?
In the 1950’s 16% of the American population farmed on one scale or another. Today that number is down to 1.3%. Yet our need for healthy food is growing fast, much faster than our need for iPads or software development.
Here is an interested excerpt from Living History Farm, from which I gathered my stats on the declining US farm population:
“Baby boomers born on the farm didn’t stay there. In 1900, more than half the U.S. population lived on farms, 46 million out of the 76 million total population. By 1950, only 16 percent of the population – 23 million people – lived on farms. By 1990, there were 3.87 million people living on farms, only 1.6 percent of the total population. Also, that farm population was getting older on average. In 1920, the median age of the farm population was 20.7. By 1940, it had risen to 24.4. By 1970, it was up to 32, and by 1980 it was up to 35.8. There were fewer young people left on the farms.”
LivingHistoryFarm.org
If you Google “US Farming Population Decline” and you will see a myriad of alarming articles regarding the massive decline in the US farming population. In the 1950’s, 16% of the US population lived on farms. Today, the number of farmers in the United States has dipped to 1.6%. In 1935, there were 7 million farms in the United States. Today that number has shrunk to 2 million.
But why is this when the US population has nearly TRIPLED since 1930? The need for food has only increased, yet the number of small farms is on the decline. What is going on?
The US food system has been centralized.
In the past year we have seen that centrality equals fragility. We cannot afford fragility when it comes to a system that 353 million people rely on.
Further expounding on the centralized nature of the US Food System is for another post, so I will leave it here:
I am a farmer by the grace of God. I’m working hard and praying hard to be a good one. I have the blessed opportunity of working one-on0one with the Lord’s creation. I am striving to steward it in a way that honors and points to Him while producing the healthiest food on the planet.
Maybe in the meantime I can help to reshape the farmer stereotype. Maybe I can make farming fashionable. But I won’t wait for any of that to claim my title: I am a farmer.
-The Millennial Shepherdess at Harmony Farms
“He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.” Proverbs 12:11
Further Reads and Citation:
9 Mind Blowing Facts About the US Farming Industry
