Farm and Community

So far so good. My project seems to be coming along quite well. I, for sure, am learning a lot and my respect for farming is growing as the time flies by. I have started to research things I hear both people in school and in my community say about farming. I am able to look into the facts and statistics before asking those who live this life first-hand. This style of research has enabled me to learn a lot, fast and efficiently.

PC: Jaksen Curtin

Something I have realized it that family farms are extremely important to the community, livestock, and wildlife. Small family farms provide fresh produce and locally-grown food, fresh from the farm straight to their community. Many small towns’ schools purchase their produce straight from the farmers. The farm and local schools are able to build up a partnership that benefits both of them. These farms are able to provide animals and crops that they have worked hard to raise and grow.

Farmers’ stands line the roads with “pick your own produce” signs in front of an acre lot that has grown crops of many kinds. It’s interesting to see neighbors and regulars stopping to buy fresh-picked corn right from a stand and slipping money into a jar. “There's a unique kind of assurance that comes from looking a farmer in the eye at farmers' market or driving by the fields where your food comes from. Local farmers aren't anonymous and they take their responsibility to the consumer seriously” (Grubinger).

Families’ farms also offer experiences for local community members to be employed. Just by hiring one or two local community members, those teens and adults now have a steady income and work experince. Farmwork shapes and strengthens the worker both mentally and physically. This type of work prepares the work hand for real world scenarios and crafts a human in a way that only working on a farm can. The farm is able to teach these employees self control, hard work, and leadership. “Communities that lose family farms lose a core of skilled producers with exceptional experience and practical insight. They lose a base of committed employers and consumers, causing more businesses to shut their doors, shrinking the local tax base and ultimately leading to population loss” (Farm Aid).

As family farms, both big and small, start to disappear at a drastic rate communities members are being forced to either move away or try and enlarge their town. It’s a heartbreaking thing to watch and read about. Family farms keep people humble and knowledgeable about food, nature, and livestock, all things that are taken for granted by many people.

PC:Hannah Hoffman

Family farms are able to provide large areas of open land, preserve forest lands, and leave natural landscape for their livestock to forage over. Many times natural resources as marshlands, rivers, and forest portions are left alone in order to keep the family farm as it always has been. These natural occurring curves and bumps in the land let the farmer utilize the land to what they want. Natural rivers, ponds, and lakes can be very beneficial to the farm itself for they can be used to feed livestock and irrigate the crop land. Forest portions leave shelter from rain, snow, and storms for the livestock that have access to them. They also provide natural diet and foliage for the animals to pick through.

Other amazing things happen when there is farmland in a community. These open lands and natural landscapes leave room for wildlife like deer to have a place to live and raise their young. They also allow for other smaller wildlife who can’t live in urban areas to have a place to live and grow. By having wildlife present in an area, it allows the lands to be shaped and nourished just as nature intended.

Local and family farms are very important to their communities. They are able to provide an environment like none other for both human and animal.

“Agriculture is not crop production as popular belief holds - it's the production of food and fiber from the world's land and waters. Without agriculture it is not possible to have a city, stock market, banks, university, church or army. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization and any stable economy.” - Allan Savory

What else do farms do for the community?

-Jaksen

Resources:

The importance of family farming. (2014, January 14). Retrieved May 17, 2017, from http://rustikmagazine.com/importance-family-farming/#.WRxJfkubTwI

Grubinger, V. (2010, April). Ten Reasons to Buy Local Food. Retrieved May 17, 2017, from https://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/buylocal.html

Rebuilding America's Economy with Family Farms. (n.d.). Retrieved May 17, 2017, from https://www.farmaid.org/our-work/family-farmers/rebuilding-americas-economy-with-family-farm-centered-food-systems/