Sasa Hadrovic PADM627 11/10/11 Paper#4

Bringing it Back to the Table

Bringing it back to the table by Wendell Berry is a book by somebody who is not only writing about organic farming and a more sustainable agricultural way of life, but also practicing it. In an age of bigger and bigger corporations, and bigger and bigger genetically modified agricultural products, this book is calling on people to embrace smaller and more diverse ways to bring the food on to the table. The basic premise of the book is that we have come to value quantity over quality and that in the end we are doomed to lose fertile lands and poison our streams if we continue on this path, and by eating food treated with pesticides and injected with fertilizers or hormones we are actually poisoning ourselves. Before starting to summarize Berrys book I have to mention a great introduction by Michael Pollan who declares that Wendell Berry was talking about sustainable farming and organic food way before it was trendy and cool to do so. According to Pollan he was telling us that we are on the wrong path in our food production, way before organic farming was on the list of solutions main stream environmentalists would promote as part of the drive to save the environment. In some sense he was the godfather of the modern sustainable agriculture movement. Throughout his book Berry claims that in order for agriculture to remain productive the land has to be used well. In order for that to happen, the fertility and health of the land have to be preserved by abstaining from the use of pesticides or fertilizers, and the fields have to grow perennial instead of only annual plants to prevent soil erosion. It is impossible to prevent soil erosion with the use of monocrop culture, growing a single crop on the same land year after year which damages soil ecology and makes the soil less fertile. Consequently it requires the use of fertilizers because the soil needs nutrients and pesticides because of the lack of

bio-organisms (as a result of monocropping) which fight diseases. The vicious cycle comes into being where the amount of fertilizers in the soil changes its texture making it less able to contain moisture and so promotes soil erosion. The only way according to Berry to make sure land is used well is if the people who use it know it well. Only on small family farms is such a constellation possible because people are highly motivated to take care of that which is providing their livelihood. In order for younger people to stay on farms and not to go live in the city and work for peanuts, the farmer has to be able to afford to use his land well. In Berrys view that means stopping federal agricultural subsidies for industrial agriculture which makes the prices of their products artificially cheap and makes it harder for small farmers to compete with those prices. In this book Berry connects the inner-city troubles with the flight of farmer population to the city. Writing an essay in 1970s he declares that the problem of unemployment, crime, and drug abuse in inner cities wouldnt exist if there was not such massive rural emigration as a direct result of industrial agriculture. Devastated communities throughout rural America are unable to sustain healthy families which are a pre-requisite for sustainable agriculture. But how is it possible even with all the agricultural subsidies that tomatoes from California shipped from thousand miles away are cheaper in Kentucky than organic locally grown ones. In Berrys eyes it is all because of petroleum which is subsidized as well, and which is the main reason the industrial agriculture is able to function. Just like the soil erosion and poisoning of streams are not included in the price of the final product, so the impact of the use of petroleum is absent from the final price. According to Berry if we include all those things into the final price of the industrial farms product, its true cost would be much higher than the regular organic ones. We absolutely need to include the degradation of the nature into the price of the product according to Berry, for farming cannot take place except in nature; therefore if nature doesnt thrive farming cannot thrive.

Another aspect of industrial farming are what Berry calls animal factories, which he says operate on three principles: confinement, concentration, and separation. Confinement is connected to efficiency and the author claims that the designers of such places had in mind examples of concentration camps. Its goal is to house and feed the greatest number in the smallest space at the least expense of money labor and attention. Because of such a large numbers of animals confined in such small places its excrement which if properly dispersed is nourishment for soil, becomes poison.

Such a setup invites disease organisms which then require continuous use of antibiotics that we as consumers are getting in the meat we buy. Furthermore an animal factory according to Berry becomes a breeding ground for treatment-resistant pathogens, exactly as large field monocultures become breeding grounds for pesticide-resistant pests. Another thing about animal factories is that all those animals were made for grazing in open pastures foraging mostly for their own food; instead they are now fed almost exclusively with grains. Going back to petroleum those grains are shipped and transported over large distances, making Berry to conclude that animal factories are energy wasting enterprises in time when we need energy conservation. Because of these ways there is over production driving down the price, separating more farmers from their farms. Furthermore in case of industrial agriculture the cost for human health and the ecology is not included in the price of the product. All of these practices according to the author are based on the prevailing form of modern capitalism which he calls short-term economics. It is the practice to make as much money as you can while ignoring the long term effects; consequently it is the economics of self- interest and greed accumulating large externalized costs, which are being charged to the future generations. As an example of successful sustainable farmers Berry names the Amish of northeast Indiana. Living on small farms no more than 100 acres they grow variety of crops which are interspersed with pastures and hayfields. Their communities look healthy and lively and it is a pleasure and pleasing to eyes to drive

through them. In Berrys eyes it is the opposite of what is mostly happening in the rest of rural America. He retells an encounter with his host who works on a farm, is a successful horse breeder and carpenter. In other words he is self-sufficient, born in the community he now lives in; he has grand children who will also probably live there their whole lives. Four of his sons own farms as well and it is this type of a farmer that Berry hails as an example of rural virtue. The author then in few more essays gives individual examples of ingenuity of successful sustainable logging for example by portraying individuals such as Charlie Fisher. He wasnt born on a successful farm had to work his way up as a bull rider, hired hand, dairyman, logger, horse trainer... Later he owned his own dairy farm but the love for logging prevailed and eventually he ended up opening a company with a partner. It operates a logging operation and a saw mill consistently employing 9-12 people. His son works with him and he has formed permanent connection to his forest, without even mentioning the economic interest to preserve the productivity of his forest. In such cases a small local forest economy will always act naturally as a conserver of local forest ecosystem. The last part of the book is dedicated to food itself, and it is the view of the author that the meal is a communal event bringing together family members, neighbors, and even strangers. Even at its most ordinary it involves hospitality, giving, receiving, and gratitude. Especially recognition there goes to women and even though Berry praises the movements that brought more justice to women, he is a little disappointed that the side effect has been the belittling of womens work when it comes to traditional farm housewifery. Those women are not consumers or openers of cans, heaters of frozen dinners etc. They perform managerial work of domestic economies that are complex practically and culturally and are not getting the credit they deserve. In this part of the book the author explains food preparation and cooking through fictional stories, talking about old ham, fried chicken, hot biscuits, corn pudding, boiled cabbage, fresh cucumbers soaked in vinegar, tomatoes stewed and sliced, watermelons, muskmelons, and many more things which in his poetic language really made my mouth water.

In conclusion this is a book that really brings to life the plight of the traditional way of life and illustrates things that we are losing in the name of technological progress. The side effects of it are many fold: devastated rural communities, poisoned streams and rivers, unhealthy food, unsustainable soil erosion, air pollution, and global warming. The good news is that there has been a back clash. As Michael Pollan explained in the introduction when Berry was writing about those things in the 1970s there were not many listening to it. Today there is a whole movement dedicated to sustainable ways of life which have to include sustainable agriculture.