Leave the culture in agriculture

 Some of us on the MN350 Food Solutions Group have been discussing a Minneapolis Star Tribune article from last month announcing that Cargill was going to promote regenerative agriculture on a large school. A couple of other article were circulated as part of the discussion. All of them referred to growing food as “ag” rather than agriculture.

I objected, saying we should not take the culture out of agriculture if we wanted a truly regenerative agriculture. One member of the group reminded me generative agriculture was part of indigenous cultures agriculture prior to European colonization.

Here is my response to her and, following that, further thoughts about taking the culture out of agriculture. 

Thanks Margaret.

This is such a huge subject, isn’t it! Yah, I think the culture of agriculture from indigenous people’s perspective is mighty important. But of course there are many indigenous cultures. I once had a conversation about growing potatoes with a Honduran peasant-farmer. We both raised smallish plots of potatoes differently and how we learned to do so was based on different stories and histories of potato growing which were inextricably linked to the places where we grew them. You can’t separate our growing of the potatoes and our understanding of how to do it from our physical place on the planet. That would then include how we ate our potatoes and how we got our seed and what our relationship was with those we shared our potatoes.

I could go on but the point is that all those relationships describe, in part, the culture in agriculture. If you take the culture out and just leave the ag you’ve scoured it of the relationships and what you’ve got left is a dehumanized system of passive consumers and corporations like Cargill trying to grow food as cheaply as possible for the greatest profit possible.

Best regards,

Tim

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I met the Honduran farmer at Refugio del Rio Grande, in the Rio Grande Valley near McAllen Texas. It was a safe long term haven for refugees from Central America. He told us soldiers had come to his farm and chased his family from their home. The family crawled through their young corn trying to save their lives as the soldiers shot at them. He never saw his family members again. When he arrived in Texas his spirit was deeply wounded. Planting, caring for, and harvesting potatoes in the Honduran way was a balm for the spirit.

These potatoes from southern Chile figure in the local mythology. - Wikipedia

The Honduran farmer’s culture, which had its origins in the earth and was thus agriculture, was violently shattered by some rich and powerful men who wanted his families land for a Big Ag project. A project to sell commodified food such as beef, sugar, or soy. They wanted profits and more power.

In another valley in the north of the United States, the Red River Valley, Ricardo Suarez works on a Big Ag project growing potatoes.

Ricardo grew up on a farm in Zacatecas, Mexico. His dad raised a large flock of sheep and goats for milk and meat. His mom, an astute business person, ran a small store in town. Ricardo, his four sisters, and his parents lived a rich family, community, and agricultural life. Due to deteriorating economic conditions in the Mexican countryside, brought on in part by NAFTA, Ricardo and his sisters all left their parents and the farm and came north to Minnesota.

One of Ricardo’s jobs is to drive the tractor to cultivate and plant the vast potato fields. He told me that the massive machine is controlled by a computer and GPS so little work on his part is required. The tractor even turns itself when it finally reaches field’s end. In the winter, Ricardo drives a skid steer loader moving potatoes in a heated warehouse. His work is specialized, largely lonely, and involves only a culture of efficiency, capital, profit, and paychecks.

His employment is, in my mind, a type of bloodless violence that sucks the culture out of agriculture. A systemic violence that industrializes and degenerates, not regenerates, the vital human act of producing food. 

If we truly want a regenerative agriculture we must not separate it from the culture.

Tim

Central Minnesota Political