Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Blindspot

Ok, so let's talk about farming and farmers. Picture "farming", hold that concept in your mind. Do you know any farmers? Anyone that farms? Probably not. Farming's one of those cute old-timey professions that some people still do, like blacksmithing or tailoring, but it's not really anything to do with anything important, right? Cities, and business and cars and Iraq and iPhones and computers and Deadwood and social justice and such. Farming's all tractors and "yup" and overalls and red barns and hay bales and gingham and root cellars, right?

So, you eat anything today? I mean, you know, intellectually that it came from a farm, yes? Maybe it was all processed and manufactured and packaged up, but the raw material came from a farm. Sometimes there's two farms. Corn (and, for reason's I'll detail later, I hate corn) is grown, processed in to feed, then sent to another farm where it's fed to cows and pigs and chickens, and then you eat them.

Think about that. Everything you ate today came from a farm. Everything everyone in your city ate today came from a farm. Everything everyone in New York, Los Angeles and Boston ate today came from a farm.

My point is that there's an awful lot of farming going on here, and most of us don't think much about it.

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