Why....?

I’ve met a lot of beautiful people this summer, especially in the past week while living on the Land Trust. Karin took me into Syracuse on Wednesday night and I got to hang out with her friends. In meeting and conversing with all of these strangers, I have shed light on something about myself. Something that I guess I’ve known all along, but was never really forced to verbalize, and therefore never could really pinpoint. The question I get from everyone I've met recently is, “Wait, so, why are you in a po-dunk town in the Middle Of Nowhere, New York, living in a tent, rolling in the dirt, working for free?” Pretty much verbatim, that’s how most people have asked it. Well, um, because it sounded like a good idea? I wanted to get away from the Alabama heat? A couple of days ago, though, Karin asked the question differently, and I was surprised by the clarity of my answer. She asked, “Why farming? Do you want to have your own farm one day? Are you pursuing agriculture as a career?” I said no, I like cities too much to own a farm. I’m not really an animal person. I want to be able to travel. I don’t want to work 7 days a week and never be able to retire. I’m seeing the reality of it all, and I don’t want to own a farm. So, why farming? My answer to Karin was, “Because I need to be able to grow my own food.” I was shocked at how directly and candidly I was able to answer, without really knowing the answer before it was out of my mouth.

So I’ve been thinking about that in the past few days – about how important it is to have a basic knowledge of where food comes from, what it looks like as a plant, what climate it grows in. It’s our food. As in, the most basic necessity for survival. People know the ends and outs of the economy - this invisible, manmade system - but have lost that fundamental intimacy of what they’re putting into their body in order to sustain life.

If anything happens to our nation’s system of commerce, our food supply would be completely eliminated. It sounds obvious, but we need food to survive. But we’re blinded to this fact by the lack of seasons in the grocery store. Nothing is local anymore, and people have completely lost connection with the food. I guess in a way, the pessimistic side of me is scared of something catastrophic happening (which, honestly, is highly probable when you do the math). And the other part of me just likes to play in the dirt. So that is my answer to this question that I will undoubtedly hear many more times in the next month. Because I need to know how to grow my own food.

Radishes!