For those loyal readers of my blog, you may remember an entry I had back in September (October?) where I talked about farmers and farming and what not. We've been back to visit those same farmers a few times since then, and on our last visit, I started seriously thinking about how amazing the whole cycle of farming is. I should also add that I had just finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food (which I highly recommend), and I'm sure that has something to do with it too.
I don't think many of us, especially Americans, really take the time to think about where our food comes from. We see an enormous bounty in every supermarket we go into, and a lot of people don't take a second to realize all of the work that has gone into getting each of those pieces of produce onto those shelves. I thought I had an idea about what farmers went through, but after visiting farms here and talking with farmers, I realized that I had only a tiny, tiny grasp of all the work. So I wanted to tell you all a little bit about what the farmers here go through. I'm sure for the big industrial farms in the states, it's different, but I have a feeling that for small, family farms in America, it's pretty similar.
What I'm learning by visiting all these farmers is the vast amount of work that goes into farming even a half acre of land. You have to clear the land, prepare it for planting, create some kind of water system, acquire the seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Once all of that is in order, you have to work 7 days a week, every day of the year to keep up with the weeds and pests, and with the needs of the plants. These farmers are out there from early in the morning, and work right through the day. And in the Jamaican sun and heat, that takes an enormous amount of energy. Just walking around on these farms for a few hours exhausts me, and I am doing no hard work at all. And these farmers have to be there every day, putting in several hours a day. If they are not, the weeds take it over, the pests will eat it, or as in one unfortunate case, someone will come along and steal their crop. And the farmers here usually don't have any tools – just a well used machete in most cases.
Most of the people we meet have been farming their whole life, and the store of knowledge that each one has is incredible. That's the other thing about farming that amazes me – you can't necessarily just use the same method that works for one crop on your next crop. Each crop you plant has to be planted at a certain time, a certain way and has unique needs. And each pest that might come to feast on your crops needs to be dealt with in a certain way – whether organically or with chemicals. Hearing them talk about all of this is dizzying. Farmers here often plant peppers, tomatoes, root crops and calallo (similar to spinach) on a small plot of land, but each of those crops need to be planted and worked in a different way. They need different amounts of water, different nutrients, and different levels of attention. Like I said, dizzying.
Then there's reaping it. How farmers know exactly when their produce is ready is still beyond me, but somehow they do. Then they have to get it from their farm to market. Many of the farmers we have talked to have said this is the worst part about their job – they can't usually find a fair price for their crops. Many of the farmers here sell their crops to a higgler, or middle man (“miggle man” in Patwa), and they are kind of forced to take whatever price he gives them, knowing he's gonna mark it up like crazy. They can't sell directly to the hotel, and can't always get to the market themselves, so they are kind of stuck. Even getting the produce out to the road is hard sometimes – farmers have to farm where there is land, and sometimes that's in the middle of the bush. So it's a lot of hard labor just to get things to a road where a truck can pick it up. Again, it's dizzying just to think about.
Despite how intelligent these farmers usually are, they are often uneducated in a traditional sense. Many are near illiterate, and I don't think we've met one who understand the economics of running a business, which is what farming is for them. No one has really taught them bookkeeping or accounting, and they usually have no idea if they are turning a profit – they only know if they have money in their pockets today or not, and they usually don't have much of that. It saddens me how much society over looks the farmers. Without farmers, we would be in some deep trouble. And there aren't a whole lot of young farmers out there either. Understandably, the youth don't usually want to be out in the fields doing hard work all day. When you really look at it, farming is a noble profession, but it's not usually seen as such.
I've thought about it, and I don't think I'd last 2 weeks as a farmer. But I'm glad there are people out there doing it, and I'm glad I've gotten to know just a few of them.
