The Truth About Farming

What seems like a more natural cycle than farming? For centuries farmers have sown in the spring and reaped in the fall. It appears as an endless cycle of growth and harvest that creates a world of abundance. In many cultures this is true, for example Japan has used the same growing space for centuries and has become an expert at returning essential nutrients to the soil.

However, the farmers in our own country are not masters of this cycle. In our country it takes 10 calories worth of oil to create 1 calorie worth of food (Biomimicry, Janine Benyus). What that means is that for every calorie of corn we have we have sprayed, fertilized, and used herbicides that equate to 10 calories worth of oil. (many of these chemicals are petroleum products that have been engineered into other products.)

The problem is that more and more the farmer is not the one who is calling the shots. After all if the farmer is just 1 input and the chemicals are 10 who do you think is going to want to be invested in our food? That is right, oil companies. I think that we all know their reputation. We are left with a sick cycle in which farmers are being forced to buy more and more oil products to grow food. Small farms are going out of business and in 1992 85 percent of our food was coming from 15 percent of farmers. This is a terrifying cycle that will leave big oil in charge of your dinner. Do you really want that?