Beth Hoffman, journalist and author of Bet the Farm, writes the story about caring for the soil, family arguments, and the people and land at risk all across rural America. Jane Smiley, the author of One Thousand Acres, reviewed Bet the Farm for the Washington Post. Reading the book reminded Smiley of how enraged she was when writing about many of the same problems she wrote about twenty years ago.
Smiley says she used to think that no one cared; now she realizes that plenty of people care, but no one of authority listens.
I join both Hoffman and Smiley in their anger. As a former Iowa farmer, I can testify that no one listens. In the beginning, farmers began using all those chemicals that have ruined soil and water because the USDA Extension Service taught them to do so. The “teaching” started in the ’60s and continues today. Early on, the father/son arguments had the sons arguing for chemicals and the fathers in opposition. Now the arguments are in reverse, but the land — no matter who uses the chemicals, continues to rebel; it stops holding water as well as it used to; it stops producing as many vitamins and minerals as before. Quite simply, our country’s best land and water are exhausted from the continuing attacks USDA’s practices have wrought.
My life moved forward from the years my husband and I were Iowa farmers to USDA, where under President Clinton and Secretary Dan Glickman, we started the original research on organics and regenerative agriculture. I returned to USDA under President Obama and Secretary Tom Vilsack. There, I fought to restart the organics research, which resulted in the first 20+ organic crop insurance products in those first years, and now is a much larger program. Still, we also saw USDA leadership continue to promote farm chemicals, sign off on Bayer’s purchase of Monsanto, and, worst of all, blame the farmers for the soil deterioration that requires the use of cover crops. These Obama/Vilsack years were where I learned Smiley is right, “No one listens.”
It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. But it is time, past time, to listen to author Beth Hoffman,
- “We need to move away from the romantic tales of farming to understand that while farmers feed people and take care of the land, they also need to be able to take care of themselves and their families. … Instead of idealizing the self-reliant, self-sacrificing farmers toughing it out in the field alone and beating her competitors, farmers have to know we can work together — perhaps even to limit our output — for the benefit of the land and each other.”
I would add that consumers must learn how food isn’t free and should not merely be cheap. Indeed, food is a treasured commodity, costing labor, financial investments, and land while also facing many weather-related risks. In reading Hoffman’s book, readers will learn the struggle of Hoffman and her family and an essential lesson about the necessity of learning to grow sustainable food:
Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America by Beth Hoffman
The author of this Opinion is Barbara Leach, a skilled political leader and the Founder and President of My Rural America Action Fund.