Son of a Farmer

“We’re spreading democracy, are we? Same way European explorers brought Christianity to the Indians.” - Kurt Vonnegut

With just a couple of days remaining until the flip of the calendar, I salute 2008 with a flip of my middle fingers and a tip of my hat.

Nothing personal to all that has transpired, transcended, and transformed in the form of economic meltdowns, neurotic energy prices, little to no action on alternative energies at a feasible price, or even the ever constant threat of nuclear war between this country or that one. No, 2008 in West Texas is finishing about like it started – dryer than a popcorn fart.

Over much of our farmland, we’ve received no more than 11-12 inches for the year. This follows a record rainfall year in 2007 that brought over 40 inches! Livin’ in West Texas is a lot like dancin’ with a bipolar schitzophrenic woman with a peg leg and a glass eye – a tad neurotic to say the least.

It appears the status on the farm front these days is…nervously hesitant. Nobody knows what the hell to expect. I mean, everything is in such peril, how can you put any stock in anything with confidence?

2009 Predictions
Personally, I feel like after 2009 we will never look at life the same again. Look for many more radical transformations in society…

1. Our current economic system will continue to crumble.

2. I believe religion will undergo a major soul-lift and spirit tuck.

3. And, most importantly, we will begin to look at money in a whole new light, which will include it no longer being the primary hub of society.

4. The barter system will make a huge comeback.

5. More massive job layoffs.

6. More retail stores close their doors.

7. Successful regions in the world will put the unity back in community.

8. More wars and rumors of even more wars.

9. Oil prices will rocket back.

10. Urban life will become unbearable in many areas.

11. Migration to small communities will make much more sense.

12. More banks and even GM will most likely go under.
I could go on and on, but prediction don’t really matter at this point. It is only about action and reaction. How will we, as Americans, continue to dodge the shit rolling downhill? How much more tolerance is left in our being? Will this be the year of revolution? Or is this the time of awakening that will form harmony? I suppose it will be some of both. Yet, I’m certain it will be much more of the former before the latter.

What we, as farmers, can take pride and satisfaction in is the fact we can survive through most hardships. When you boil it all down, melting away the mask of money, the question is can you feed and clothe your family? Do you have access to clean water? Most of us do. That is of course, if you still know how to take care of a garden, harvest rainwater, slaughter livestock, hunt wild animals, and heal with herbs. I hope many of you never lost those abilities. If you did, now is the time to get back in touch with them.

“We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself … Now I truly believe that we in this generation must come to terms with nature, and I think we’re challenged as mankind as never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.”

– Rachel Carson, April 1963

A special shout-out to Mrs. Braveheart in South Africa!
Thanks for responding to my blog on www.sonofafarmer.com and letting your voice be heard. Just when I think nobody is listening or caring, I get a holler back all the way around the other side of the globe in South Africa. I guess everything is as crazy there as here, if not more. (On a lighter note, I worked with several people from South Africa in Vail, Colorado, in the mountains. I loved them all.) I am engaged to a wonderful woman, but I am flattered by your interest.
I’m afraid not many farmers here are prepared for this shit storm. Began meeting a few from my generation, and we are forming a tighter-knit group to help brace the fall some. There aren’t many farmers left in America under 60. The average age is 65! Crazy. What is it in South Africa? We concluded at our first meeting there were not enough farmers anymore to band together, creating a stir like the Agriculture Movement in the late 1970s, but if farmers all around the globe unite then we shall overcome more of our obstacles.

What really disturbs me about farming in West Texas is I’ve noticed there exists such a competitive nature between most farmers that I think we look at each other more as competition than neighbors or fellow farmers. Some will lose life-long friendships simply to rent more land to farm. Farmers belittle changes they see others making that is innovative or new to the area, scoffing at innovation or creative ideas, while they refuse to change in a healthy manner.

Fact is if we cannot unite now in this area, in this state, in this country, and around the world, our chances of survival greatly diminish. Even if this is our Little Bighorn, let us go down punching, kicking, and screaming. Let us not go gentle or quiet. Let us not get picked off one by one. If we are all together, the stand will endure more.

Let us come together.

Let us think and plan together.

Let us stand up together.

Let us scream as One Voice.

If that headline won’t grab you by the short and curlies, I don’t know what will.

Some might argue the American Farmer has been on life support ever since the American Agriculture Movement died in the late 1970s, soon after it began. Some will say the plug was pulled when President Truman did away with Parity Pricing. Still some might argue the American Farmer was shot and left for dead with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 in a near-empty congress session just before Christmas. Yet, here it is 2008 and we are still here. Not very fuckin’ many (a little over a million), but we’re still here. And not very young (average age of 65) but we’re pissed and determined to make it through yet another Depression, through yet another financial rape of the American people, yet another transfer of wealth from poor and middle to the rich bitches of this nation under who? Oh yeah, it was supposed to have been God. How has that worked out so far?

Here is my plea to what few farmers are left – Prepare for the worst these next 2-5 years. Hopefully, commodities will slingshot back (along with oil prices) before next fall. If not, most of us are screwed. Make no mistake about it, this sudden decrease in the price of oil is temporary. Don’t let them fool you. Maybe it’ll last till spring. Maybe summer of 2009. But don’t count on it. Continue to prepare yourselves. Continue to be as independent as possible. Depend less on companies you’ve never met. Depend less on fools in Washington D.C. who’ve never met you. Believe in nothing but yourselves, your family, and your neighbors. Stand together through these turbulent times. Stay strong. May the younger generations step up to the plate and swing for the fence. We’ve been left with very little and what is there is not promising, but if we continue to work together and unite today and believe in one another, we can create a better tomorrow. Doing nothing will save us nothing. Complaining and bitching achieve nothing. Only hard work and perseverence will get us through these next few years.

Let us get smaller with our farms if we must. Let us spend less on over-priced modern machinery. Let us rotate our crops, restoring our soil. Let us rely less on herbicides and pesticides and more on healthy, natural alternatives in fertilizers and idealogy. Let us solve these vital issues and not create more obstacles with short-term solutions to long-term catastrophes. Let us relight that campfire once more and squiggey the 3rd Eye. If we wait any longer, it will be much too late.