Asking For Help
March 5, 2013
Tags: family farming, sustainable agriculture

Bob and I acted as though it were completely natural when Sara and Raymond, friends of ours with a CSA about 30 minutes from here, wrote about a month ago and asked us if we’d assist them with a barn-raising at the beginning of March. Nothing could have been farther from the truth.

Let me start by explaining that Raymond and Sara are not from here. Okay, maybe that’s what they’d like you to believe, but as a lifelong resident of Schoharie County, I can assure you that from here is a distinction that must be earned with a minimum twenty year residency. They’ve been here less than ten. And it shows — Because farmers don’t ask farmers to donate a full day’s labor for a project. At least not anymore. I’m not saying it’s wrong. Indeed, I think there is a lot to recommend the practice. But, well, it’s just not part of the code, which is, quite bluntly, “Don’t ask for labor for free. And then you don’t have to give it.”

It is surprising to see myself write such a thing. Growing up here in the hills of West Fulton, where our local farms were shut out from nearly all of the modern industrial developments in agriculture, asking for a full day’s work was the norm. But farms surrounding our little hamlet didn’t qualify as true production enterprises. Heck, according to county records, our farms shouldn’t even have existed – our steep hillsides and frost pockets and rocky soils designated us as “non-viable.” We were, as a result, more of the subsistence ilk. While West Fulton farms’ net profits were probably the same as many of the larger production ventures scattered about the county on the better land, our gross receipts were significantly smaller. We simply couldn’t take advantage of the newer technologies. But we maintained a perfectly decent quality of life, free of debt and full of good food and very low expenses. And even without the aid of big machinery, we still got a lot done. We worked the hayfields together. We helped take care of each other’s livestock.

But as I grew into adulthood, I learned differently about farm-to-farm cooperation. While my parents were nursing Sap Bush Hollow along on the path toward greater profitability, I was in graduate school, cutting my teeth in social science research by studying the agricultural social landscape of Schoharie County. And through interviews and focus groups, I got the chance to witness first-hand the effects of industrialization on the broader Schoharie County farming community.

“We wait for one another to go out of business and then feed on each other’s carrion,” one farmer colorfully explained to me back in the late nineties. He was commenting on the culture that emerged among the county farmers following the post-World War II push for farmers to modernize and “get big or get out.” Prior to that time, farming had been largely a cooperative venture within communities. It was common for folks to share equipment, to work neighborhood-wide to harvest crops, to assist each other with major projects, such as house-building and barn-raisings, or to cover for each other in the event of illness or injury.

But with the scientific wisdom that emerged in the era of agricultural industrialization, this began to change. Machinery could replace labor. Chemicals could improve yields. Production could increase, and cooperation became unnecessary. Not only did cooperation become unnecessary, as one farmer explained to me, it became a hindrance. If farmers cooperated in harvesting crops, then they risked missing out on the peak windows, the short period of time when any given crop would be at its highest quality and with its greatest yields. As the spirit of cooperation melted away, so did the spirit of community.

The remainder if this essay has been removed for editing and inclusion in Shannon’s forthcoming book, From Here.

Comments
March 5, 2013 6:26 AM EST
Absolutely! This is part of breaking the chain of an illusion that competition is better, more profitable. Really we are all in this together and I am seeing more and more of this attitude starting to blossom and I say “Thank goodness!”. We need each other and working together is how life is supposed to be!
– Becky
March 5, 2013 6:33 AM EST
its a shame that the capitalist mindset has roots so deep. I hope that mindful people are able to break those chains and we regain our humanity in doing so.
– Debbie Qalballah
March 5, 2013 6:57 AM EST
Self-imposed restrictions, I like that description – dealing with it myself with other people after being ‘away’ for 14 years.
– Katie MacGillivary
March 5, 2013 7:47 AM EST
Now it takes the strongest to ask for help. It is an odd mix of humility and courage to tell someone you can’t do it by yourself and ask for a helping hand. As newbies in the 1980’s we learned our most valuable farming techniques from farmers willing to share their knowledge and techniques. We also met farmers who wouldn’t even share a hello. It was a real transition time in agriculture with many family farms forced to change their procedures. The organic farmers were forming groups and an ‘us’ against ‘them’ became prevalent. We hope much of that is past now. The old saying, ‘You get more than you give.’ is never more true than when one farming family helps another.
– CM
March 5, 2013 8:16 AM EST
Although I was unable to attend due to an every-Sunday volunteer gig at the local animal shelter, I was invited to a local farm to help start the seeds for one of our market gardeners. Reading your post makes me wish all the more that I had bagged just one day to help forge our community, which is fairly healthy here in Central PA, at least with the “new” farmers.
– Julie
March 5, 2013 8:29 AM EST
I grew up in rural Ohio when working with one’s neighbor was a way of life. Farmers came together to fill the silo or harvest grain since no one owned all the needed equipment.

People going through a rough time were aided by neighbors, church groups and those who were more affluent.

In addition to the great push of post WWII industrialization–that get big or beg out era–there were many other changes that contributed to the demise of “community” among both rural and urban folks.

This has become a great challenge for me as I work in the food and farming sector. There are 2,300 subscribers in our CSA. $1.6 million was sent back to our farming network this past summer. We are saving and creating small, sustainable farms.

The down side of all this is that the liberals have hijacked sustainable farming just as the industrialist did in the forties and fifties. They have insert meaningless words and phrases such as food deserts, food justice, fair trade, etc. These are not part of a good farming system or food production system. Having three babies out of wedlock and making a trip to the welfare office are the real causes–not a farming system.

Socialism is not a solution. The sustainable community must understand that people need to make money and that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with being a responsible and honest capitalist who wants to make money.
– Parker Bosley
March 5, 2013 8:37 AM EST
I’m nodding, though from the vantage of my suburban home. Even here, it can be so hard to ask. Fortunately, I’ve been learning from a neighbor who, after listening to me shower thanks for covering some last-minute childcare, cut me off with a simple, “It’s what we do.” It may be what she does, having grown up overseas, but I was never taught what grace there is in reciprocity.
– Carole
March 5, 2013 8:51 AM EST
There are modern day equivalents of this, though some are less tangible in result. Kickstarter, for instance, or mob sales at retail outlets, and so on. It is so very important for a community to support the kinds of foundations that build resilience!
– Luther
March 5, 2013 8:52 AM EST
My father grew up on a farm run by his grandfather, who eschewed all forms of progress. He didn’t listen to ag agents or salesmen. Well into the 40’s he refused to use “newfangled” tractors and equipment that put his fellow farmers into debt. He relied on a team of horses and fixed just about everything with baling wire and prayer. But he was a member of the Grange organization, back when such groups pooled their resources to help each other out.

My father’s favorite memory was harvest time. Everyone went from farm to farm, following the lumbering Huber they’d collectively leased (or maybe collectively owned). They worked all day, stopping to eat at tables set up outside on sawhorses. It was a warm memory for my dad because of the sense of solidarity and true community. Okay, he probably also cherished those days because he could feast on plate after plate of food followed by a whole pie.
– Laura Grace Weldon
March 5, 2013 9:12 AM EST
I think this is a first step to a new community culture. Good for all of you! I belong to a yoga/CSA/organic vegetable growing/sustainability/ban fracking/group in my community that is slowly making our way in this direction. When we need help last summer, cutting down and cutting up a large oak tree that was dying we called on a friend who gave willingly of his time, energy and equipment. Out of graditude we gave him a lot of wood. This winter when a small local bakery need wood for their wood fired ovens, this same friend loaded up a trailer load of wood and took it to them to get them through a bind. This is the essence of pay it forward. Hope to see more of this!
– Donna Allgaier-Lamberti
March 5, 2013 9:29 AM EST
Great post! It’s a shame our culture doesn’t embrace helping each other like they used to but glad you got the opportunity!
We had a barn raising to build our barn…it was great! (people thought we were mennonites after that!) on hindsite, I wish I handn’t been infected with ‘red barn syndrome’ and put up a white ‘Coverall’ barn… 🙂
– Janeen Covlin
March 5, 2013 10:38 AM EST
This is something that I have never thought much about before, since it is just something that is a part of our lives. We farm in a very rural area of eastern Alberta (no neighbors for 3 1/2 miles and 40 miles from a town of 1500 people). Although all our farming neighbors each own their own major equipment, there is lots of trading of small, not-so-often-used pieces. We often trade a day of labour with our neighbors, or lend some tools or a day of working in our shop with the welder. We then may ask those neighbors to feed our animals for a few days in the summer or help us build a grain bin. I love living somewhere where this is still common practice!
– Renee
March 6, 2013 9:28 AM EST
I had this post in my head last night as I had to be the new guy asking for help. I’m pretty brand new to the grass-fed beef business and I happened upon my favorite cow half-dead in the pasture after being spunky as ever just that morning. Boss out of town. I figured I’d have to just shoot her because she was so far gone, but I just felt like I really needed advice or help.

I called the big, conventional farmer down the road. He was out of town, too, but called his uncle and cousin. They were there within 5 minutes and helped me chain the now dead cow to the tractor bucket and haul her off. I know these guys don’t really like my boss and are probably skeptical of little ol’ very-green me, but they didn’t hesitate to help when asked. I told them to bill my boss if they wanted to, they just said, “Nah, we might need your help some day.”

I have no idea if my plea fits the local culture or not, but I’m glad I owe those guys a favor.
– Kim
March 7, 2013 5:19 AM EST
Ugh. That’s a tough one, Kim. Bob and I had that happen once. We went up into the fields while my folks were away, and a perfectly happy steer was lying there dead. Best we ever guessed was lightning strike. Either way, that’s a pretty big haul to cope with, and I’m glad you were able to get help.
– Shannon Hayes
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