American agriculture is viewed by many people in the world as the shining example of successful agriculture. With our countless acres of grain in the Midwest, our California valleys bursting with vegetables, our feedlots full of beef and our barns packed with pigs and poultry, we seem to be on the cutting edge of food production. Especially when you compare us with places like Africa, where people are starving amid plentiful resources because of poor farming methods.
The American consumer shows that they trust in the current system of agriculture by risking their survival on the fact that there will be food on the grocery store shelves tomorrow. Normally only buying what they need for the week, the average person puts their faith in the integrity of American agriculture by never even questioning its ability to provide the food they need. But is this an educated faith, or an ignorant one?
When I first began to pursue being a farmer, I quickly began to discern the unrecognized obvious: that behind modern agriculture’s smiling, glowing face, there are many glaring problems. Problems that, foreign as it might be to our thinking, could lead America into a food crisis and famine in the not too distant future. And problems that, though we might not be starving yet, are already effecting the health of most American’s today.
Unprofitable Farming
First of all, government intervention and industrial farming methods have made it very difficult for farmers to make a living. When the government helps keep unprofitable farmers in business it makes it almost impossible for the profitable farmers to compete with them. The best thing the government could do for farmers is stop helping them and let the bad ones go out of business so they can be replaced with better ones. Government support of industrial farming practices have resulted in the necessity of huge farms and large machinery in order to be somewhat profitable. And this scale of production takes a huge investment of capital to get started. I was talking to a retired extension agent and he said, “If someone wanted to start farming today they would need a million dollars. And if I had a million dollars I wouldn’t be a farmer!” A recent study touted the fact that the income of the average farming family is now the same as for other occupations. However, the study admitted that eighty-seven percent of their income came from off-farm jobs!
No Replacement Farmers
Because of the lack of profitability and our culture’s low view of hard, manual labor, few young people are drawn into farming and the current farming population is aging. Since 1830, America has gone from around 70% of its workers being farmers, to 0.05% in 2008. That’s two-thirds to one-two thousandth! And very few of Americans who do farm are young people, the average age of the farmer being over 55 years old. Of all U.S. farmers only 5.8% were under the age of 35 in 2002.
Unhealthy Food
Most American farms don’t seek to produce healthy food. It’s not that our agriculture tries to produce bad food. We have entire government agencies that try to prevent dangerous foods from entering the market. But just having food that doesn’t make us sick or kill us immediately doesn’t mean that it is good for us. You can have perfectly safe food that is devoid of any meaningful nutritional value. Studies have shown that almost all common illnesses and diseases can be traced back to a lack of nutrition and trace minerals, rather that the presence of toxins. And the methods of large scale industrial agriculture deplete the soil of nutrition by using chemical fertilizers that add nothing to the soil and Roundup which ties up the few nutrients that are in the soil!
Unsustainable Farming Methods
The industrial methods that are used to produce most of our food are unsustainable. This means that eventually there will come a time when we can no longer farm like this. Greed and a disregard for God’s design in creation have caused the erosion of our soil and depletion of its nutrients. We are also totally dependent on imported oil for crop production. Oil to manufacture the machinery, oil to run the machinery, oil to fertilize the crops, and oil to harvest them and transport them. Such wasteful system will eventually run out of resources and we could easily be faced with a food shortage.
Fragile, centralized Production
Years ago most local regions produced a lot of the food they consumed. Nowadays in the U.S. hardly any region produces the food they consume. Even if a region primarily produces food, they normally export it to another region and buy their food from yet another. I just read today that Iowa is considered the nations breadbasket and is the nation’s leader in production of major agricultural products such as corn, soybeans, pork, chicken, etc. However, the state imports eighty percent of the food they eat! This dependence on transportation and specialization results in a fragile system of food supply that could easily be interrupted by the slightest disturbance.
Idolatrous Agriculture
As a Christian, I believe that the root of the problems with American agriculture isn’t industrial agriculture. It’s not government intervention. It’s not imported oil. No, the problem with Agriculture today is sin. Specifically, idolatry. Man’s worship of creation, rather than the Creator has resulted in the judgment that is promised.
Modern Agriculture is based upon pagan worldviews. If you go to an agricultural college today the methods that are being taught are developed primarily by those who deny God or act as though he doesn’t have anything to do with farming. The worship of creation and an evolutionary bias effects the thinking of practically all farming research.
As Born Again farmers we need to realize that agricultural problems we see are only symptoms of the root problem, which is idolatry. We are not ultimately going to fix them with better science, improved management, and different farming methods if they are based only in man’s wisdom. The only way we can hope to fix them is by repenting of rejecting God as owner and ruler of our agriculture, and dedicating our farms to him. Then, by trusting in His wisdom as revealed by the Holy Spirit in Scripture and Creation, our agriculture can be redeemed from the curses of sin to the blessings of obedience.
Well said, sir. Of course when discussing these issues, one runs into the problem of perceived Ludditism (sp?). Are all technological breakthroughs evil? We may bemoan Industrialism, but does that mean that all manufacturing is wrong?
Of course the answer to both questions is no. If all industry and manufacturing were wrong, we’d still be digging in the dirt with sharp sticks in order to plow, cultivate, etc. (and even the production of the digging stick requires some industry, manufacturing).
As I’ve read Wendell Berry and others, I glean from their ideas that it is Industrialism as opposed to industry and manufacturing that is the problem; for the implications of Industrialism seem to be summed up in one two words: systemetized theft. And, gosh, didn’t I read somewhere something about, “Thou shalt not steal”?
For example, the very farm subsidies you cite are based on theft. Our government, doubtless citing so-called empowerment from the Commerce and General Welfare Clauses in the Constitution, will levy taxes on all of us for the sake of the few. A legitimate reading of the original intent of our founding document will show that the government has no business picking winners and losers in the marketplace and it is nothing other than theft to effectively put a gun to my head in order to take the fruits of my labor and give them to someone else.
Idolatry? You bet! I worship comfort, security, and I’ll minimize and degrade manual, hard labor as beneath me. I fear we have been on a seventy or eighty year vacation from reality. It’s probably longer, but I’m thinking particularly of the real beginnings of farm subsidies pre and post-WWII, along with the advent of Social Security and a host of other government programs that slowly but surely have lulled us into slavery and away from our God-given responsibilities to eat by the sweat of our own brows, take care of each other and nurture the very earth He gave to us.
This isn’t leftist romanticized nostalgia; this is as hard-headedly realistic and conservative as it gets. God still has a garden for us to tend!
Once again, thanks for a great post and a great blog!
Mr. David,
Thanks for your comment. I appreciate well thought out responses.
As far as technology and Industrialism goes, I agree that they are not at all the same thing.
Technology is wonderful and very helpful to us in our work God has given us. And the technology in creation is astounding! I mean, photosynthesis, sonar, leverage, data storage, etc. Man’s development of technology is a way that we can reflect the image of God. However, technology isn’t spiritually neutral. If it is not developed to do the work God has given us, in the way God intended, then it is distracting at best and destructive at worst. Plus, it is many times a lot more effective to use the technology that God has made available to us in nature than to come up with our own to replace it. For instance: feeding grass to horses vs. trying to grow and process our own bio-fuel for a depreciating tractor.
I view Industrialism as the result of humanism. The worship of man as the source of knowledge and truth. Because of the resulting greed, disregard for the design of creation, and lack of generational thinking most industrial practices end up being unsustainably fruitful. Of course the other end of the spectrum is radical environmentalism, which results in sustainable unfruitfulness! What we should be shooting for as Born Again Farmers is sustainable fruitfulness, which is true fruitfulness.
I think a great many of my objections to technology, especially as it pertains to agriculture, is summed up in the following: “If we can do it we should do it.”
As we would all agree, just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s right. And have we adequately and responsibly foreseen the second, third, fourth, etc. order effects of our decisions to boldly go forth with our new developments to improve mankind’s lot (e.g. tractors, combines, petroleum based pesitcides, fertilizers, etc.)?
I believe we’ve been motivated out of a desire for profit first, the quickest way possible, without due regard for outcomes, and founded on a confidence in that abstraction of abstractions, namely, “progress”.
By the way, the whole idea of progress would be a wonderful topic of discussion all by itself!
Once again, good stuff!
Both the post and David Smith’s comments are excellent and I concur with you both that idolatry and theft along with some good old fashion laziness has lulled us into an alternate reality that really is a shell game. Eating local should first and foremost be from one’s own backyard, supplementing it with food from “afar” (traded or purchased). I could comment on and on, but I’m speaking to the choir here. Thanks for some good thoughts.
Thank you so much for what you are doing with this blog! Looking forward to continuing to follow your blog. I enjoy the mix of the theological, philosophical and the practical. Many blessings to you.
At the risk of stirring a hornets nest, I for the most part enjoyed and agreed with this post, apart from the analysis and parts of the resulting comments. The arguments seems to stem from a particularly American view point that focuses on idolatry and not on God’s heart for the poor. It raises the individual above the corporate, by requiring that all look to themselves before God and yet we are required to work together as a body. Much of the social system in Europe is not based on communism as many American’s think, but on Christian principles on sharing wealth with those less fortunate and as such is not necessarily to be so feared. I am not an American , I am British, but spent two years in the US, so learnt a lot about how different our viewpoints can be.
I do agree that we need to dedicate what we are doing to God, we need to be in touch with the Creator who designed our land and work with him and with the land, not against it. I do agree not all subsidies are useful and agriculture is too expensive these days. Europe also had developed a love for the big equipment and funded that. They are beginning to realise it was a mistake and destructive to the environment and now seeking to address the problem. It has, however, left us with a legacy of readily available large equipment and very little small scale equipment to manage smaller lots, particularly here in Latvia where I now live.
Joanna,
Thanks so much for your insight! It is nice to get another, non-American, viewpoint.
I’ll admit, I do often overlook God’s command to care for the poor. I am trying to find ways to do it better in our community. I have been convicted that three of our immediate neighbors are widows, and I haven’t done much to try and help them! I was also convicted by reading David Platt’s book Radical. I would highly recommend it.
I do agree that we in America are very selfish, materialistic, and individualistic. I do agree that we need to seek to help the body of Christ, which is our first priority, and others as God gives opportunity. However, I believe we need to be careful to use the means which God has given us to do that.
The duty of helping the poor was never given by God to the Civil Government. It was given to the Church. It is the responsibility of His people. And it is voluntary. In Acts when it talks about the Believers sharing their possessions and giving to needy, they were not forced to do so. They did it of their own accord. And when Ananias lied about the field he sold Peter said, ” Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?”
The role of the government as I see it in scripture is to punish evil and commend good. (Romans 13:3,4 First Peter 2:14) The problem with subsidies is that they take money from one person and give it to another. And that is theft. Regardless of how good the cause is, it isn’t the way God intended it to work. Because of man’s sinful nature that type of system becomes corrupt, gives the government power, and leaves the taxpayers with little left over to share voluntarily if they wanted to. At least that is what has happened in the U.S.
The extreme that many of us fall into, and that I appreciate you pointing out, is that we can easily denounce the government’s involvement in trying to help the poor and not act upon the fact that we claim that it is our responsibility. May the Lord help us to return to true religion:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
Thank you for your kind response. I think I disagree on the input of governments and how they are run, but I can see how your system would work, as long as everyone shares the responsibility to the poor, it fails miserably if they don’t. That is what I saw in the two years in America and something I hadn’t understood before.
I do understand where you are coming from with those verses and wondered where the verses were that people were using. However I would interpret them in a different way to you and I feel many other societies would do the same, purely because we have different perceptions of what “good order” is. To me the fair distribution of resources for education, pensioners and what we would call public services such as refuse collection, water supply etc are all part of ensuring good public order, but from what I feel you are saying, public order is to do with the implementation of law and order which to me is a narrower interpretation.
I have been mulling over the idolatry in the agricultural colleges over creation and I was wondering how much teaching is done on evolution in agricultural colleges? I would have thought the biggest focus of teaching is actually on making money from the land by increasing productivity, often at the expense of the land, as you mentioned – something that Christians and non-Christians alike have adhered to over the years.
I would just like to add though, keep pushing and exploring the subject. It is so important that we move from the narrow, resource intensive societies we live in and find our rhythm in God.
This is totally false and absurd. I run a family farm and I find your post lacking in fact and insight, logic, and scriptural merit. . To say that I’m sinning because I am a “modern” farmer is insulting. Let the fear mongers start posting….I’m done.
Terry,
I am very sorry that you were insulted as a “modern” farmer by my post. I highly respect you for what you do as a farmer and am grateful for all the sacrifices you make to provide food for our country. One of my concerns about putting up this post was that it would be viewed as judging people for the way they farm. For that reason I followed it up with a post entitled, “The Process of Agricultural Sanctification”, which I hope you read. None of us farm perfectly, whether we are an industrial farmer, organic farmer, Amish farmer, etc., and we need to be on a journey of pursuing God’s best in our care of the land. However, the goal is to all be heading in the same direction (which is Christ), and we shouldn’t judge someone else just because God has them on a different stage of the journey. My objective in writing the post you commented on was to show people the need for the journey because we aren’t where we should be.
My concern is not so much with how Christians farm, as it is with encouraging us to seek to ever be reforming our farms so that they better glorify God. God can use us wherever we are, and I know that he can and will use you for his Glory on your farm if you seek to reflect Him in the way you farm, as I pray he will do with me.
If you would be willing, I would love to send you a complementary copy of my book, “Born-Again Dirt”. If you read it you might be able to better understand my heart. I don’t expect you to agree with all my conclusions, but I hope it will encourage you to do your own research and find out what God says about how we should farm. I look forward to hearing what He teaches you! If you are interested, just send me a shipping address and I will ship you a copy.
May God richly bless your harvest this season!
Your Fellow Steward of the Soil,
Noah Sanders