Food ethics have become big factor in shoppers'
decision-making. What they buy is informed by how land and animals are cared
for, how farm laborers are treated, and if companies profit off of questionable
technologies such as Genetic Engineering. As Michael Pollen and other food
writers have hit bestsellers lists, these habits are increasingly a part of the
American lifestyle.
This month's article about food ethics is the third in a
series this summer about the motivations behind edible landscaping. Food ethics
not only determines my three meals a day but also has helped shape my edible
landscaping business. While I'm delving into a heavy subject that influenced my
life's direction, I rarely feel the weight of it now that my daily routines
address it. My hope is that my business will help others do the same.
 |
| Organic sweet corn at M R Gardens |
In one article, I can barely scratch the surface of the
myriad of issues entailed in the agricultural system or the complexity of what
it takes to improve it. Nor can I properly depict the plight of well-intentioned
farmers who have gone into massive debt for equipment and land to keep up with
the changes in agriculture, making a solution to the modern food dilemma even
more complicated. It's not unheard of for large farms to owe a million dollars
or more. They are heavily invested in the way agriculture is as it is today.
I'll attempt a brief synopsis of how we got here. After War
World II, farmers were pushed to get bigger and more efficient in an effort to
make food inexpensive. They were promised this route was the best way for them
to turn a profit, support their families, and keep their land farmland. This
strategy also tended to benefit the agricultural supply companies.
However, "going big" came with sacrifices—often to
the quality, nutrition and safety of food, to the treatment of animals, to
environmental health, and to workplace standards. Genetic Engineering is the
latest offshoot of the go-big strategy, as the aim is to manipulate plants so they
can better survive in a monocrop system when in fact plants need a diverse
ecosystem to thrive without pests and diseases.
While affordable food is an important goal, I have concluded,
in my 15 years of studying and working in agriculture and my lifetime of
exposure to farms, that the numbers don't add up. The cost of infrastructure,
labor, and resources entailed in food production, not to mention distribution, rarely
gets lower than the price we want food to be.
If we want a sustainable and just system, we need to be
prepared to pay for the true cost of food, or we need to find other ways to
make food affordable. The main reason why we have cheap food is because
something or someone is exploited in the process. On some of the larger farms, the
weight may fall on migrant workers. On smaller farms, owners exploit their own
labor. Perhaps their compensation is in other forms than monetary, but it still
doesn't seem right that the people doing the most important jobs are paid the
least.
 |
| Photo of M R Gardens by Vickie Burick |
With my hands in the soil and among veggies, flowers and
pollinators, I often wonder, how did we transform food production so that such
an enjoyable activity became one of the most avoided? In the large field, farm
work may be monotonous and laborious, but in the garden, the activities are
diverse and ever-changing and the motion is therapeutic. Why do we designate
only a small percentage of people to do this work when if we all do a little, our
system is not only more fair and less taxing on a few but also actually fun and
supportive of our health?
This thought was one of the inspirations for my garden coaching
program. If more people are involved with growing their own food, then perhaps
there'll be less strain to produce food cheaply. While I always aim to make the
landscape low maintenance, and to create a realistic plan that beginner
gardeners can implement over time, edible landscaping will always require at
least some knowledge and work on the part of the homeowner. They are continually
interacting with the land because they are eating from it.
In fact, this interaction often ends up being the most
important piece. In changing our surroundings, we end up changing ourselves. Learning
about plants and the ecosystem, and playing a part in its restoration,
transforms the way people live. The product—the food—is often the side benefit.
It's great to have a vision shaped by what we think is most
fair or sustainable or harmonious. As we move forward on realizing that vision,
we can continually review our actions and see if we're getting closer to that
original goal. Eventually we don't have to include ethics in our daily
decision-making. Our lifestyle is the solution. It's nice to not have to think
about who or what was hurt every time we put food in our mouths.
It's also nice to wake up and do what we do simply because
we like the work of it, the beauty of it, the challenge of it, the taste of it
and the way it makes us feel. This is how edible landscaping is for me and I
hope it can be that way for you.
I started working in sustainable agriculture because it was
a hands-on, practical way to help heal an ailing Earth. But I stick with it
because gardening gives so much back to me.
---
This article was originally printed in the August issue of WNC Woman.
