You've Got the Power
I am a child of the 60’s. A time of political unrest, leaders being openly assassinated, an unpopular war waged halfway around the world, overt animosity between culturally, politically, racially, sexually and economically diverse demographics. {kind of sounds eerily familiar} It was the generation of children growing up in the wake of World War II, whose parents had experienced rationing of numerous items, especially food.My generation and those subsequent have never experienced food rationing.I’ve never thought much about it until my long-time friend and food blogger came for dinner a few weeks ago and we discussed one of the recipes he’d come across in a treasure trove he’d inherited from his mother-in-law, a woman who had lived through the Depression and WWII. The recipe was for War Cake, a gooey cooked concoction made without refined sugar, butter, milk or eggs—all rationed items from 1942 to 1954.“The recipe called for two tablespoons of fat”, he said as we wondered what type of cake would result from the different types of fat that was not rationed—lard, tallow, goose, duck and even fat from hunted wildlife such as bear which provides copious amounts of harvestable, usable fat which was coveted by our frontier predecessors not only for calories, but waterproofing and equipment grease.We contemplated what it would take for food rationing to happen again. “If that happens, we’re coming to live with you!” the couple joked.Although the conversation has long passed, the question lingered in my mind in the wake of events unfolding, most notably the Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s comments at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin last week where he said, "In America, the big get bigger and the small go out. I don't think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability."That’s pretty demoralizing for all small farmers, not just dairy farmers. Being a small farmer is hard work fraught with an assortment of risks, but when examined from the point of risk, small farms mean more resiliency when misfortune strikes. I like to use the comparison of small ruminants (goats & sheep) versus cows. Five small ruminants use approximately the same amount of resources that a single cow consumes. If I invest in raising one cow and it dies, I have nothing. If I invest in five smaller animals, up to 80% can die and I will still have something to eat or sell.Now, let’s apply that to farms. Should we be putting all our eggs in mega-farms? What happens when outbreaks of diseases, natural disasters or trade sanctions strike? That last one can turn a successfully functioning farm belly-up just as fast, if not worse, than the former two as many mid-western crop farms are finding out.But each time you shop at a farmers market, roadside stand or purchase direct from a local small farm, you buy yourself a bit of insurance against someday going without. Don’t believe me? Consider the fact that the Dollar Store sells more food that Whole Foods in America. If you’ve never been in one of the discount chains prolific across the country, especially in economically depressed areas, here is the sad truth—there are no fresh fruits and vegetables, only frozen, canned and processed shelf-stable foods. Most carry a limited supply of dairy items such as milk and butter, but I’ve been in a few stores that only carry ultra-pasteurized (UHT) milk that requires no refrigeration until the carton is opened. The closest customers will get to butter is butter flavored vegetable shortening. Try spreading that on toast.There are many types of thinly veiled rationing of food in America, from onerous regulations for small-scale processors to municipal zoning changes that discourage small farms and personal production. There are plenty of places where homeowners have been slapped with fines from their planned communities governing bodies for planting basil and other flowering herbs among their professionally groomed flowers. And heaven forbid anyone tear up one of the largest monocultures in our communities—lawns—and replace them with gardens that produce food. During the rationing years, they called that Victory Gardening when people were encouraged to grow food for themselves and their neighbors. I do not need to sell what I produce to people in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia, nor do I want to.If you really want to talk farmers market history, speak to those who helped build the robust market systems in the mid-Atlantic, like Mark Toigo of Toigo Orchards. When the government opened up the domestic market for overseas fruits, American farmers saw the prices for their own products plummet. Gone were the days of selling to large packing and processing companies that dotted the region and making a worthwhile living. In order to stay in business, Toigo Orchards focused on selling directly to customers within a few hours of where the products were grown.Despite a vote of no confidence in small farms at the federal level, I know that on a local scale my customers have faith in the local food system. How do I know? It’s getting to be that time of year when those new to the market ask the annual question: How long does this market go?At which point, I get to smile and tell them that as long as the customers show up to the market, the farmers will be there…except at Bethesda on Sunday, October 13th (Pike and NoVa are still open this weekend) due to the Bethesda Row Arts Festival and the Sunday after Thanksgiving when all the markets are closed to offer the vendors holiday time with their families.Let’s show Sonny Perdue and the rest of this administration hell-bent on making America hungry again how very wrong they are about the importance of small farms, food security, healthy soils and strong communities. You have the power.