As most of you are now aware, our homestead is shutting down soon. Our livestock are being moved out and the gardens are already shut down. Out plans to develop an "eating local" licensed kitchen for products and classes has been shut down. Rare and valuable animals are going in the freezer because we cannot afford to feed them.

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Why? Because society takes our needs for granted. Not just the needs of farmers, but the things that society - and individuals - requires to function.

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People will spend money on expensive coffees, cars and cell phones. Farmers, however, are supposed to work with thinner and thinner margins each year. While our costs increase, the public outcry if groceries increase is overwhelming. Think milk is expensive now? Consider that if milk prices had increased since the 1960s as much as everything else has, you'd be paying about $26 for a gallon of milk. Instead, people complain about buying a $10 gallon from their local small farm.

 

Society ignores that a huge percentage of our food comes from overseas, and that middle men are most of the reason for cost increases. Instead, they rage at farmers for being "greedy." They complain about subsidies from the government and ignore that only a tiny percentage of farms actually get those subsidies. I've been told I should be offering all my time and classes for free - so that others can make money off our knowledge - because... I just should.

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Remember, the United States has about 3.4 million farmers. In 2019 it was reported that about 1/3 of them were 65 or older. Another million were between 55 and 65. Young people don't want to farm because of the hours, workload and abuse they take. So who will grown your food in another ten years? Twenty?

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This is how we end up with a future made up of imported, processed foods, insects and lab grown meats. Not because there is some secret agenda, but because there isn't anyone to grown the food anymore. People were so busy worrying about living wages for waitstaff and line cooks that they forgot that farmers need to live too. But who makes the food that gives them jobs? Who feeds your children, supplies your restaurants, schools and hospitals. Who grows the ingredients for your soy latte?

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Support the base of your food production, or forget the luxuries - watch the whole society fall.