Farming and the Global Economy by Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry argues that American agriculture after World War II abandoned a promising, largely solar-powered farm system for dependence on fossil fuels, machines, chemical fertilizers, and toxic chemicals. Earlier farms relied mainly on human and animal labor fed by energy grown on the farm, though many had failed to replenish the natural fertility accumulated in their soils. Established agricultural communities had developed local knowledge and practices suited to their places, and the proper course would have been to strengthen those connections to solar energy and restore fertility. Instead, industrial agriculture displaced farmers, damaged soil, depleted water, and made farms dependent on costly purchased supplies. Corporations supplying machinery, fuel, chemicals, and food marketing benefited, while farmers became a small and endangered minority. The claim that this system has delivered cheap, healthful food is misleading, because its social, ecological, and economic costs are great. Food dependent on massive drugs and chemicals cannot be pure, and agriculture marked by erosion, depleted soil, wasted water, and the destruction of farm communities cannot be sustainable. Reform must make farming answer to the health of ecosystems and human communities rather than to industrial standards. Yet the loss of farmers creates an urgent problem: skilled farmers cannot simply be replaced, because they must be raised to their work. Farmers face overproduction, low selling prices, and high supply costs, while controlling neither the markets in which they sell nor those in which they buy. Berry proposes that farmers reduce their dependence on industrial supplies by diversifying crops and animals, generating as much fertility and energy as possible on their own farms, and substituting natural health, diversity, and intelligence for purchased goods and services. They must also rely less on global economic forces that profit from their failure and more on local nature and local knowledge. A sustainable food economy also requires cooperation between farmers and consumers. Farmers need local markets, and towns and cities must restore their broken connections with their surrounding countryside. Local food systems should be cooperative rather than competitive and may require rational control of production. A city’s most reliable source of safe, sustainable, reasonably priced food is its productive surrounding land, maintained by prosperous farm families and communities. Though national political leaders and parties do not represent this goal, Berry maintains that national organization is unnecessary. Local food economies can grow through cooperation among conservation groups, churches, neighborhood associations, consumer co-ops, local merchants, independent banks, small-farmer organizations, and individual producers and consumers. By shortening the distance food travels, communities can return power, wealth, and health to local people. The preservation of land and of the people who work it can ultimately be achieved only by skilled local farmers serving informed local consumers as directly as possible.
By Wendell Berry · First published 2019 · Genre: Agricultural Essay, Environmental Nonfiction, Agrarianism · 1,914 words
First lines
WE HAVE BEEN repeatedly warned that we cannot know where we wish to go if we do not know where we have been. And so let us start by remembering a little history.
As late as World War II, our farms were predominantly solar powered. That is, the work was accomplished principally by human beings and horses and mules. These creatures were empowered by solar energy, which was collected, for the most part, on the farms where they worked and so was pretty cheaply available to the farmer.
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Farming and the Global Economy is listed on Textopian as an essay by Wendell Berry, dated 2019 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Essay
- Author: Wendell Berry
- Date: 2019 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Agricultural Essay, Environmental Nonfiction, Agrarianism, Political and Social Commentary, Economic Criticism
- Length: 1,914 words
- Structure: 1 section, 18 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Farming and the Global Economy by Wendell Berry
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Genres
- Agricultural Essay — The work is a sustained argumentative essay on farming methods, soil fertility, farm labor, food production, and the conditions necessary for viable agriculture.
- Environmental Nonfiction — It critiques fossil-fuel dependence, chemical fertilizers, erosion, water waste, and ecological damage while advocating farming governed by ecosystem health.
- Agrarianism — Berry defends small farms, skilled farmers, rural communities, local knowledge, and a land-centered economy against industrial agriculture.
- Political and Social Commentary — The essay assesses how government policy, corporate power, global trade, and market structures have harmed farmers and rural communities.
Tags
agriculture · globalization · economics · rural communities · sustainable farming · industrial agriculture · local food systems · environmentalism · food sovereignty · agrarianism · corporate power · small farms