“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” couldn’t be more descriptive for the 2022 growing season here at Cold Brook Farm.  In the end we got 95%+ of our new permaculture plantings into the ground including fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, native plants for pollinators and we even managed to harvest an extraordinarily high-quality (albeit painfully small) crop of Glenn Wheat that’s currently being featured on the Winter menu at one of the country’s finest farm-to-table restaurants,  Blue Hill at Stone Barns.  Unfortunately, all of this took place during a severe labor shortage and the fiercest drought our area has seen between late April and August in over twenty years (“Worst of Times).  If newbie farmers were looking to be tested, 2022 came through in spades!

There’s no question in my mind that our modern society takes many of the necessities in our lives for granted.  I certainly know that Deborah and I often do.  Flip a switch and we have electricity, put our garbage out by the curb and it disappears, when we want food there are grocery stores.  Other than a clean source of water (provided to most of us by simply turning on the tap), arguably nothing is more vital to us than food.  But how often do we stop and think about the choices we make regarding the food we eat and how these choices affect those who grew and raised it for us? 

Farming is back breaking work.  Farming is expensive.  Farming is full of risks from things outside of one’s control.  Although most of us know these things, even if we grew up in a city or the suburbs (as Deborah and I did), how many people have you met recently who think that food is too cheap?

There was a time when most people in the United States either grew their own food, or had direct, personal relationships with the people who did.  And, as a result, consumers could make decisions based on a deep knowledge of the foods they ate – “Ann’s tomatoes are always sweeter than Ralph’s,” or “when I bake with Mr. Jenkin’s flour my bread tastes better.”  Over time this allowed pricing structures to develop (i.e. those who produced better goods could charge correspondingly more) and, since customers were often buying directly from the producer / grower, the lion’s share of money (or bartered services) was kept by the farmer.

Contrast this with today where according to a recent article published by the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, American farmers currently receive an average of just 7.6% of every dollar consumers spend on food (see graphic below)!  Furthermore, our largely industrialized, international system of agriculture often purposely hides the people (farmers) and the unique geographical attributes of the food they grow (the French call this, “terroir”) from consumers so that corporations can both “buy low and sell high” and “offer a consistent product year after year.”  These market dynamics are especially true for cereal grains, such as wheat, which have long been traded as commodities and where consumers have been led to believe that flour comes in just a few “types” – All Purpose, Baking, Whole Wheat and possibly the organic versions thereof.