In Praise of Farmers

Lisa Kerschner and her husband Ike love growing food for real people. They are the owners of North Star Orchard in Cochranville, PA. In 1992 they started with a 4 acre piece of ground. By 1996 they added another 6 acres and today they farm 20 acres, in all, producing fruit and vegetables of all varieties to sell at their local farmer's market.

You probably won't see Lisa driving around in a new Mercedes or sporting a Rolex. There are no windfalls in farming but in her recent article in Newsweek, Lisa tells about the meaningful life she's found tending the land and providing one of civilizations three basic needs - Food.

Better yet, she and her husband sell homegrown, sun-ripened goodness. The pears and tomatoes are full of flavor and color - not the bland product what you find in the grocery store that's shipped in from industrial farms from around the world.

I know exactly what she means when drawing this contrast. Every summer, my father has a vegetable garden. It's small, about a half acre but on that small plot he grows corn, okra, beans, cabbage, lettuce, squash, tomatoes...I could go on and on about the varieties he's tried. We always had fresh food and in the winter we ate the vegetables my mother had canned or frozen during the harvest season. I never appreciated it until now.

Our world is facing a food shortage. I heard yesterday that rice is being rationed by some of the large food chains in the US. A majority of our population does not know how or lacks the resources to grow their own food. We are at the mercy of industrial farms, big business, and government regulation. That's the downside.

The upside is we can change that. If you have a yard plant a few vegetables. Most are so easy to grow with a little care and simple knowledge. No yard, plant tomatoes in pots. Lobby for responsible farming that produces sustenance for people, not fuel for cars or food for consumer products (cattle). I'm not advocating that everyone become a vegetarian but if just half of the land around the world that is now being used as grazing land and acreage to grow food for the cattle were converted to rice, wheat, and millet, I believe we could solve the food shortage dilemma.

Lisa says she loves going to the farmer's market and interacting with the people who buy and actually eat the food she grows. It must be so satisfying. I remember the look on my parent's faces when they'd give away bundles of vegetables to their friends. They knew they were giving away something of great value. Not only does their gift feed the bodies of people they loved but it feeds their souls when they grow and share something so important.

Next time you meet a farmer, say thank you..honor him or her. They certainly deserve it and I believe, in the coming years they will become more important to us than our banker or doctor.