GOOD WORDS.
We are headed to Bugtussle tomorrow...to make and install a door jamb, to build a staircase for the porch, and to water the lettuce and swiss chard in the high tunnel. It is still amazing to me that Bugtussle is actually our home now. Eventually, we are going to live there. As Jesse and my first anniversary is coming up, I can't help but think about our insane past year. I saw this on pinterest today - it might just be the most appropriate way to illustrate the lessons we have learned (and are still learning!) about all that we have gone through. It is a good bit of wisdom to remember - especially the next time we hit a bump in the road or an unexpected turn.- Hannah.
AND.... ACTION.
Photo of Jeff Poppen by Tim Harris.
As we mentioned yesterday, Jeff Poppen is closing down operations at Long Hungry Creek Farm––after 40 years of organic farming––because the pollution from a neighbor's chicken houses has started to leak into his farm, his water, his air, and the integrity of his vegetables.To a small farmer, this is horror story, and everything about it scares me––for Jeff, for us, for everyone.But there are plenty of things we can do to change it! First, we have to stop eating commercially-produced chicken. Period. There is no greater protest than eliminating demand. If there is no market for factory food, there will no longer be factory farms. If the market continues to grow, however, and millions of chickens are still processed every day, Jeff's story will become an increasingly more common one. Maybe become ours.Commercial farmers are generally not bad people either––quite the opposite really––but if the demand is there, they will work to meet it. We determine where the money is every time we eat.Next, share Jeff's story. I've already seen how galvanizing this story is and we need to sustain that momentum. Please blog it, Tweet it, Facebook THIS picture and get the word out. Make shirts with the photo, posters with catchy lines (my obligatory and free examples: "Chicken Little Meets Chicken Monster"; "Tyson KO'd my Farmer"; etc., etc., etc..), hand out fliers, postcards, and send letters to important publications and people. Make videos, make art, appeal to every possible personality. Anyone could care about this if presented in the right way––use every way you can think of.Those little things could make a world of difference. Those little things could simultaneously save the world, and one very special small farm.- Jesse.
WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.
The effect of conventional agriculture––the erosion, the pollution, the long-term soil wounds inflicted by factory farms––is hardly contained by the old fence rows and barbed-wire standing between small and large farmers. It spills over and burrows under our land and into the water supply. It is in our air, and in our bodies - this is the true cost of cheap food.The latest casualty was the farm of our friend Jeff Poppen, now forced to leave his home of forty years due to the pollution caused by nearby commercial chicken houses (C.A.F.O.'s)Below is a picture of Jeff's farm taken by Alan Messer, followed by Jeff's statement. Our heart goes out to Jeff, his community, and all small farmers facing giants. Jeff has been an invaluable source of advice and inspiration for Hannah and me, and Long Hungry Creek is just down the road from us in Red Boiling Springs. This could just have easily been us, and one day it just might.- Jesse.
“As I can no longer guarantee organic quality standards here, my business at 2307 Long Hungry Creek Road has been terminated. A few workers, hundreds of customers, thousands of visitors and hundreds of thousands of our broader audience will be affected.One picture is worth a thousand words.The decision was made by Cobb (owned by Tyson’s Chicken) to violate their respectable restrictions on the location of their houses. Macon County’s legislature also violated their honorable laws regulating the location of confined animal houses. In both instances, a 1500 feet minimum from a business, public area, or residence respects the rights of neighbors. For some reason, I am an exception.On a 300 acre farm with ample level land elsewhere, why did they build within 300 feet of my only water source, and 450 feet from my home, my gardens and cave? I made it clear to both Cobb and our commissioner this would be unacceptable and force the closure of my business.The outpouring of support from the local community for my position humbles and encourages me. No one, or should I say very few people, want me to close down and leave. I not only feel accepted and liked by our community, I feel loved. I cannot thank you all enough.After our community group’s research, Tyson/Cobb’s behavior did not surprise us. But the special interests of a few of our elected officials are in direct conflict with the sentiments of the vast majority of Macon County citizens who do not want the chicken industry here, and their secrecy and disregard concern many of us. This makes me reluctant to rebuild and start anew on my Heady Ridge property.The economy, environment and social life of rural America have been seriously damaged by the removal of small independent farms, strengthening many people’s conviction that agribusiness seriously threatens democracy and its tenants of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A giant corporation simply won’t care about what happens in a local community like a small farmer will. In the picture, the juxtaposition of two types of food production could not be more clear. Although we both produce a similar amount of food, the affects on the local community of the chicken industry and a small farm could hardly be more different. These differences include; where our money comes from and where it goes, the environmental effects, the kind of food we each produce, aesthetic qualities in the landscape, community dynamics and neighborhood interaction.Friends, neighbors and visitors come here on a daily basis to get food, admire the gardens, learn techniques and enjoy a beautiful local log cabin (circa 1871) and homestead. They love the spring water, the cave which cools and stores our vegetables and the pristine Long Hungry Creek. I’m proud to say this farm is in the hearts of many people in middle Tennessee and elsewhere. But because of how close they built it, there will be no more gardens here, no more T.V. shows filmed here, no more church and school tours here, and my family and I are moving. Other families in the neighborhood have moved or intend to. For the first time in the 40 years I’ve lived here, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Agribusiness has been destroying agriculture in many places for many years and I am not alone in this predicament. Actually, we are all in it together. I look forward to continue working for a just and sane agriculture, where people matter. I’ll probably move back after they’re gone.”- Jeff Poppen
EARLY CHRISTMAS.
Jesse, being the wonderful human that he is, gave me my Christmas present early this year - knitting needles and yarn and this book! I have been wanting to learn how to knit for a long time, and since I have had an abundance of free time here in Nashville while he is at work, Jesse decided not to wait til December 25. Bless him.I have only been at it a couple of days, but I love it so much. I am still learning (a.k.a. messing up often and accidentally letting the stitches slide off the needles and having to start over) but I am excited about the possibilities. Besides just wanting to knit for knitting's sake....this is also an investment of sorts. Jesse and I dream of raising fiber sheep (and possibly angora rabbits), and we want to be involved in that entire process: raising the sheep, shearing the sheep, dyeing the wool with our own handmade dyes, spinning the wool, and then the knitting! Whew! It is a dream that seems a little far off, but sitting here with my blistered fingers and my first half-finished scarf beside me - it feels one step closer.- Hannah.