It was the Amazon "Customers who bought this item also bought..." section that led me to this book. In fact, it just kept "popping up." In reading the summary of the book's thesis, I was embarrassed that I had not already read it: it was published in 1977. Furthermore, and with much regret, I had never heard of Wendell Berry. He lives on a farm in Henry County, Kentucky, not that far from Louisville. He is a social critic, in the tradition of Vance Packard and Paul Goodman. While he certainly criticizes consumerism, as well as education, his primary focus is on agriculture. As he notes, in some 70 years, we went from having 60% of the population engaged in agriculture to less than 2%. And he asks one of my favorite questions: so what does everyone else actually do with their new-found time? His critique of current agricultural policies and practices is insightful and scathing; again and again there are original "bon mots": "And it is one of the miracles of science and hygiene that the germs that used to be in our food have been replaced by poisons."
It was jarring to read: "Earth's numbers now stand at 3.6 billion, and could double in 35 years..." And, of course they have. So, how much worse are the other negative issues that have impacted agriculture. Certainly corporate power, and it narrow, "fundamentalist" approach to the "bottom line," which necessitate, and Berry has mastered the economic lingo, shoving the total costs "off the balance sheet," and they have become "externalities." So what if the management of the fertility of the land is not sustainable? Contour plowing and crop rotation have passed out of fashion. And someone else is required to clean up the poisons dumped into our water sources. And then, what of the true nutritional value of the food being produced, not to mention the taste? (When is the last time you ate a tasty plum?) Indeed, how America became fat.
Berry devotes one chapter to debunking a futuristic farm model produced by South Dakota State University. Much is "under glass," there are control towers, and push buttons, and virtually no people. So, in addition to agriculture per se, the author is focuses on the way the education establishment has become such a willing handmaiden to the objectives of corporate power in agriculture. The author notes that the Morrill Act in the 19th century set out "Land-Grant" colleges to help the farmer, but a few "corporate grants" have had an amazing impact on the nature, and outcome of "academic research. As Berry says: "Professors might again become people of experience rather than experts. They might again be able to apply their learning to the small problems of ordinary people and to recommend means and methods not profitable to the suppliers of `purchased inputs.'" Or, in terms of a liberal arts education in general, the following Goodmanesque quote: "And the so-called humanities become a world of their own, a collection of `professional' sub-languages, complicated circuitries of abstruse interpretation, feckless exercises of sensibility...the specialist professor of one or another of the liberal arts, the custodian of an inheritance he has learned much about, but nothing from." Or, in terms of society as a whole: "Can we degrade all forms of essential work and yet expect arts and graces to flourish on weekend? And can we ignore all questions of value on the farm and yet have them answered affirmatively in the grocery store and the household?"
Berry devotes another chapter to analyzing the
The Odyssey
, one of the West's first epic tales, and demonstrates it applicableness to modern agriculture. Again, like Goodman, he examines the very nature of work and contests the idea that if we manage to avoid all the "drudgery," for example, by having someone else cook all our meals, that we actually benefit. He identifies the helplessness so many of us feel in a "specialist" society. I can't say that I agree with all of Wendell's ideas. Although concerned about population growth, he seems to advocate bringing back the rhythm method, or even abstinence (gulp!) in sexual relations. And he sees considerable upside in returning to the use of plow horses (and in limited cases, there might be.)
I truly regret having missed this book while the world's population was doubling. His critiques have been amazingly prescient. It remains an essential read. 5-stars, plus.
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little eagle
How the industrialization of food production has ruined agriculture!
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