As you will know, I am passionate about food and farming. I defend anyone’s rights to eat what they want, how they want to. I have been fortunate that, although I wasn’t raised on a farm, agriculture has always been a part of my life. I have been equally fortunate to have always seen the positive side of agriculture–the profitable small, family farm cleanly run with minimal environmental impact. In all my farming jobs and farm visits I have rarely been turned off by what small, independent farmers are doing. I guess like seeks like. This is how I choose to farm myself. Small, diversified, as free from environmental impact and unsustainable imputs as possible and profitable whenever possible. I farm realizing there are environmental and personal gains to agriculture as well as financial. I endevor to keep my farming small enough to be within mine, and my families, scope of management.
Perhaps this is why I find industrialized agriculture such an anathema. To me, it is so unsustainable, so unsupportable, and so unprofitable–remember, I make a profit on my agricultural endeavors without subsidy–that I have a hard time being objective about it. Perhaps this is also why I defend small scale agriculture, like I practice, so vehemently against those who view Industrialized Agribusiness as the only way to go. We are equally wrong in some regards. While Agribusiness does its best to hide behind walls of obfuscation I am all too open about how I farm. In blog posts and videos I open myself up to criticism and show how I raise pork. While the other side also is open to criticism, the way they react to it is more like a rattlesnake disturbed from basking in the sun, than anyone who is open for debate and a mutual learning experience.
And so, I weighed in on a supposed attack against Sustainable Agriculture–Free-Range Pork rearing in particular–when perhaps I should have waited for the dust to settle. Certainly, a number of great writers picked the piece apart far better than I did, all for valid reasons I think. Here is a run down of links to articles which I have read:
My friend, Carrie Oliver, has a very balanced view on the issue. This week,however, the author of the inflammatory piece, James McWiliams, has offered a rebuttal of sorts. While a further, more open, discussion of the topic is welcome, he might have saved some trouble by stating a few things in the first piece like, he is a vegetarian and doesn’t feel animals should be killed for meat and that he is a friend of sustainable agriculture seeking to improve it by pointing out its flaws…Ya. Sure. To me, any Devil’s Advocate in the realm of sustainable eco-agriculture is welcome as long as they can further the discussion by offering some experiential solutions to the problems they present. But here is where I still have my doubts. Saying you are among the choir of supporters of Sustainable Agriculture is one thing, but actions speak louder than words…. This latest controversy isn’t the first of its kind Professor McWilliams has been entangled in. It would seem that a campaign of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) is being launched against Sustainable and Eco-Agriculture from all sides. To what extent Mr. McWilliams is involved in this, time will tell. With an upcoming book being published, with the sensationalist title, “Just Food: How Locavores Are Endangering the Future of Food and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly” the good professor has a lot of work to do to show he is firmly on the side of advancing Sustainable, Local, Seasonal, enviornmentally friendly agriculture. His previous mis-representation of the facts surrounding Organic Agriculuture and soil toxicity are the sort of help and support the cause can do without.
While my own writing and style may be filled with the problems of the overly enthusiastic, cult-like, religiosity of my beliefs I try to develop my view point from experience and practice. I openly admit I have no academic credentials to hide behind. I’m the one in the choir singly loudly, and ever so off key.
Technorati Tags: sustainability, eco-agriculture, James McWilliams, Free-Range Pork, pasture raised disease
Neal, this is a great debate and I’m enjoying the back and forth on your blog.
Thanks for noting that Professor McWilliams is a vegetarian. I found it rather interesting that this, along with the comments I left on my own post, was getting a bit lost in the overall dialog.
I feel that we spend a lot of time dickering over the process of raising food.
I try to set a minimum bar and then celebrate the taste, texture, and story that fits my personal taste buds and palate.
Okay, that last word in my post was meant to be “priorities” not palate.
I think any time you’re saying what’s wrong with how things are being done, you should back that up with what you think should be done differently. Love your description of yourself at the end of the post!