What is the Culture in Agriculture?

I thought I would share some images from the farm this week. 

Of course, it has been, as my friend Vickie would say, bee-utiful. Just so you know, as surly as I get in July, I enjoy every moment of Spring days. This is very unusual. Often during bloom there is rain and wind. This week you could stand in the orchard and hear the bees a-buzzing all day long. What a delight.

I know some of you are concerned that I am allowed to wander around the country side without adult supervision. Well, now you know who keeps an eye on me. 
     While I was working on the power steering for Ruben's truck I hear this deep sigh, I look over and there is my faithful hound completely relaxed. 
     Next you see him inspecting the trees with me. A few years ago we were doing this and all of a sudden he ran over a few rows. Next thing I know he is on his back doing his Happy Dance. He had found a dead bird to roll in. The hurt look on his face later told me he couldn't understand why I didn't want to let him back in the truck with me. Stinky Boy.

We don't grow grapes, but there are times the geometry of the vineyards is stunning.

What is the Culture of Agriculture?

By Paul H. Betancourt

February 2016

Recently I was reading a book by a chef who critical of modern agriculture. I like what he had to say about flavor, but some of the other stuff was trite. He did have one question that got me thinking- what is the culture of agriculture? That’s a good one.

One of Merriam Webster’s definitions of culture is- “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations”

That definition fits farming. In a world of specialists the farmer needs to integrate a vast body of human knowledge to succeed. I need know as much about taxes as my accountant and as much about fixing tractors as a factory mechanic.

           

If you want to know what the culture in agriculture is, here are some of the ingredients-

Family- There is nothing like family when it works. There is nothing like family when it doesn’t work. I have seen it go both ways. There is nothing like it when you see a healthy family working together; sometimes two or three generations living and working on the farm. It is a thing of beauty. Of course, I have seen families grenade apart. In one sense farm families are like any other families. The same fragile egos and petty jealousies can exist on the farm too. But, I suspect there are more family businesses in farm country than there are in town.

Ethics- the farm may be the last place in America where a man’s handshake is his bond. We rented houses the first ten years of our marriage and never signed a rental agreement. A handshake was enough to seal the deal. Now we have to read pages of fine print to use a free app on our phones.

Hard work- I remember reading James Herriot’s books about life in the English countryside when I was a kid. At funerals the common compliment was, so and so was a “hard worker.” Being called a hard worker was the highest compliment. Hard work is a prime virtue on the farm. Laziness is scorned.

            Farm kids learn early. They often have chores at a young age. It is not a form of child abuse. They learn the value of work early on.

            A friend once told me a professional is someone who works until the job gets done. We not be members of the ‘professions’ like doctors and lawyers. But we are professionals. Farming is not a 9 to 5 kind of job. You work until the job gets done.

In farming, unlike perhaps other areas of our society, there is a direct line between hard work and success. You may still fail if you work hard. Hail falls on the just and the unjust alike. But, you will not succeed if you are not out there every day pushing to get the job done.

Outdoors-Farmers love being outdoors, but we do not romanticize Nature. Perhaps this is because we work in the natural world, we don’t just play in it. That working relationship with Nature tempers my view of Nature. You bet I appreciate the glory of a beautiful sunrise, then I saddle up and get to work.

            In addition to working outdoors we also work within in the rhythms of nature. We plant cotton in the Spring and harvest in the Fall. You can’t so it the other way around. We prune trees in the winter and irrigate in the summer. There is a natural rhythm to each day and to each season.

Food- We can get as lazy about food as anyone else. But, you cannot get fresher food than you can get from the farm. Especially in California, we have the freshest and most varied food around us.

            Farms are known for having big feasts. One of the highlights on our ranch is the harvest bbq when I cook for the men who work for us. It’s some of the best food you can have all year and it’s served with a side of satisfaction for bringing in the crop. I can’t help but think of Cookie in the movie “City Slickers”; “It’s hot and it’s brown and there’s plenty of it.”

Independence and Interdependence- I love the image of the lone farmer standing against the odds. It does take a strong individual to make a farm go. There is no one out there by your side before sunup when it’s time to milk the cows. Folks from the government aren’t out late at night when you are pushing to get the crop in before it rains. Farming is also done in community. Roundups and barn raisings are done with the help of the neighbors.

When we lived on the ranch in the Coast Range behind Coalinga the nearest neighbor was waaaay down the road. But, we had a complete sense of security and we knew we could count on them any time. We took care of them and they took care of us.

You need a sense of freedom to be out there on your own and knowing that the responsibility rests on your shoulders. You also need to know you are counting on others.

A sense of humility- I have seen great looking crops evaporate before my eyes. But, I have never seen a crop get better.

            Planting a crop will create a sense of humility in a fellow. I can go through all the work of preparing the ground, choosing the seed and waiting for the right moment to plant with all the skill and experience at my command, but the seeds sprout because of the miracle of life within them not anything I have done. I could do all the same work and if I planted pebbles or jellybeans nothing would happen would it? My ability to make a living is rooted in the life in those seeds of which I had nothing to do. All my skills and ability cannot make on seed sprout, and that gives me a sense of humility.

            I recently found a passage in “Nectar in a Sieve” by Kamala Markandaya about a farm family in rural India.

Nature is like a wild animal that you have trained to work for you. So long as you are vigilantly with thought and care, so long will it give you its aid; but look away for an instant, be heedless and forgetful, and it has you by the throat [57].

That makes sense to me as a farmer. Just about the time I think things are OK and here come the bugs.

Farmers are the original do-it-yourselfers. DIY is real popular in some circle these days. Perhaps it’s another fad. On the farm it is a way of life. When you live out in the country, it’s the middle of the night and it’s calving time you can’t call for help or wait til morning, you have to know what you are doing and do it then. So farmers learn to weld and wire, fix and mend, all the skills need to get the job done.

The self esteem movement has been popular in some circles for thirty years. But, they have missed something. Self esteem doesn’t come from someone patting you on the back and giving you a ribbon for showing up. Self esteem comes as you gain greater and greater skills, greater and greater mastery of the details of life.

Knowledge- When our Pastor’s wife learned I was going into farming she said, “You can’t outsmart a smart farmer.” She was a Midwest farm girl herself, so she knew. But, farmers cannot survive with the niceties of theoretical knowledge. Reality on the farm is very Darwinian, if it doesn’t work you will not survive no matter how high your intent.

Faith and Tradition- Yes, farmers tend to be very traditional. If you want to see people with pink hair and the latest fashion you go to the big city. Farmers tend to stick to the tried and true.  There is not a margin for trying the latest fads. You tend to stick to what has worked for you. You keep pushing for improvement, but you can’t get too crazy because you have to survive too.

There is not a lot of margin for luxury on the farm.

I also suspect the percentage of people who go to church on a regular basis is higher in farm country than in the cities. I think it goes with the job. That sense of humility I mentioned earlier makes you realize we there is something out there big than we are. With that humility comes some gratitude. And, if you didn’t have faith you wouldn’t have a prayer on the farm.

            I think I have only scratched the proverbial surface. These are some of the common dimensions of culture in agriculture. I think most farmers in most places would recognize these values. Yes, I know that many of these are good city folk values too. But, there is a culture that is distinct to agriculture.

Oh, there is one more characteristic of agri-culture. Pride- I am proud of what I do growing food and fiber for a hungry world. There is deep satisfaction bringing in the crop. Farming takes everything you’ve got-heart, body and soul. So there is a deep sense of pride when it all comes together, knowing you have done something important.

            I don’t think there is one agri-culture. But, I think farmers all around the world would recognize these dimensions of the world we live and work in. These form that “integrated pattern” that makes up the culture of agri-culture.