Food, Land, & Local Economy

I remember being struck by this idea when I read it in my American History textbook a couple years back: "[Thomas Jefferson] opposed industrialization in America...He believed that only America provided fertile earth for the true citizenship necessary to a republican form of government. What America had, and Europe lacked, was room to grow. Jefferson envisioned a nation of small family farms clustered together in rural communities - an agrarian republic."

How far we've gotten away from that vision! Today, we face a growing global economy that thrives on destroying local economies. Most of our food comes from distant places, and too often the people on the other end of our food transactions get screwed. Cheap imported food undercuts local prices, which means local farmers get screwed too. At the same time, we become overly reliant on technology, fill ourselves with foods containing unhealthy preservatives, and continue to maintain minimal involvement with the food supply, the growing of it, and cooking. A favorite author of mine, Wendell Berry, says it this way:

The food industrialists have by now persuaded millions of consumers to prefer food that is already prepared. They will grow, deliver, and cook your food for you and (just like your mother) beg you to eat it. That they do not yet offer to insert it, prechewed, into your mouth is only because they have found no profitable way to do so.

We and our local economies have become dependent slaves.

Berry, among others, says our goal should be to have stable, sustainable, and self-sufficient local economies. In a city such as Phoenix, this is impossible with our current population. We simply don't have a countryside around us or near us from which we can be sustained. But in Rochester, on the other hand, this self-sufficiency is entirely possible. When Sarah & I move in December, we really want to invest in the local economy through the way we live and the choices we make. We want to participate in food production to the extent we can. We want to grow some of our own food (even if it's just a little bit), buy local produce, deal as directly as we can with the farmers, and prepare it ourselves.

If you're interested in some of these ideas, check out these resources:

Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire
Sojourners May '06 Issue
Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community