The farmer in the dell

[Just this minute realized I have been producing this blog for exactly a year. Haven't set the world on fire with it, but it has more or less served its purpose from my viewpoint – i.e., it's kept me writing – and people do seem to drop in from time to time. So perhaps I'll try for a second year.]

Passed a lot of farms on my trip, first in Maine, then in New York, finally in Pennsylvania. I had thought that Bucknell University, my destination, was deep in the Pennsylvania mountains, but what it's deep in the heart of is pretty, hilly, farm country. It would seem that farming is still alive and well, or anyway alive, in the United States, even though, as I asked my little tape recorder, "Why would anyone want to be a farmer these days?" Besides the time-honored draw-backs of being at the mercy of the weather and the market, it's hard to take a vacation, can't call in sick, if you have animals you have to get up at an ungodly hour to take care of them, every single day, and it's all gotten so much more complicated than it was in the good ol' days.

You work hard, and you don't get rich, in a nutshell.

But luckily for all of us who like to eat, some people still do want to do it, want to live the life, and are willing to endure the difficulties. I have to admire them, and it has only recently occurred to me that it might be a good thing to support them, as well. Buying locally-grown produce, if that's indicated as such, at the supermarket is obviously one way to do that. But it's now possible to interact even more directly. There's actually a site online, www.LocalHarvest.org, that tells you, and shows you on a map, where all the farms are. Or at any rate, all those that have registered with the site.

And what a great idea! You feel like some free-range chicken eggs, or some raw milk, or honey, or maple syrup, or apples you pick yourself, or something called "sustainably grown heritage vegetables," or even grass-fed beef, you can find the closest farm, and get in touch, perhaps drive on over. Or for that matter, order stuff from a farm in the next state, two states away. You can, in other words, support local farms, or small family farms in general. The little guy struggling to maintain both a way of life – the absence of which would leave this a poorer country, in more ways than one – and to supply his fellow human beings with that which is truly the staff of life: food. And not just food – the great big, heavily-mechanized, corporate-run farms supply that – but food produced in ways that are more environmentally sound than those used by the big guys.

Convenience has generally been my god in such matters, and there's no denying the local supermarket is convenience writ large. And cost is always a consideration for Starving Librarians, and other low-income types. But I may, I just may, make more of an effort to step outside my convenience zone, and Support My Local Farm.

Somebody's gotta do it.