When Farm Life and Family Life are not the same, then you can’t call it a Family Farm
In the past we have discussed here at Homesteader Life some of the reasons why, contrary to the latest big ag spin doctors, large scale “factory farms” can not and should not be considered Family Farms. Here are a few more thoughts on the subject.
Some time ago I picked up a copy of the Hoards Dairymen at my folk’s place. It had an article that was a “round table discussion” on ballancing the farm with “family life”. There were several farms that answered the questions and you could tell what kind of farms they had by there answers. The answers that the smaller owner/operator farms had were very different from the “progressive”(read factory) type farms. How do you find time to spend with your family? The smaller, dare I say family, farms all answered that since the all worked together every day there really was not a problem with “finding time to spend with the family”. The larger outfits all had the same kind of “we go to the kids ballgames at least once a month” type answers. One large herd owner said that his daughters think he loves the cows more than them. Another made a big deal out of “going on vacation for two weeks” with the whole family! I thought that the article, without meaning to, showed the real difference between factory and family farms. Large outfits do everything in a big way. There just are not jobs that children can do. When we feed the cows we use pitchforks, wheelbarrows and hand held scoops. Kids can watch and participate without fear of danger. To feed cows on a large freestall farm you need an industrail payloader, mixerwagon and other heavy equiptment. On my farm if a child wants to milk a cow they can. They can help dad with that job. In a “double 14 rapid exit parallel parlor” that runs 24 hours a day, a child would be in the way. Besides that, I don’t know of any of these farms where dad would be doing any of the milking anyway. I guess they could help dad “tell the illegal imigrant to milk the cows”. What bonding for a father and son, eh. A large confinment dairy is just a suped up state of the art milk factory. You wouldn’t expect to see little kids there. A small, low tech, sustainable farm is a place where husbandry and artistry takes place. It is a place where lives are lived and lives are molded. It is a place where families work side by side together. That is what makes a family farm.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:05 am
funny how a brief look at what words actually mean reveals both the truth and the lie to both the job and the description. One finds that the term farm and family become inseperable for someone who acknowledges that being a Father is not just an office but an office that needs to be filled.
The husband or rather the husbandman is the ‘ cultivator’
Husbandry means ‘farming, careful management’.
And farm is’ tract of land for cultivating’.
I think that it boils down to what you are farming. If you take the biblical view than the family is not only ones prime business but also the parents primary vocation , and it is that point from which everything else eminates.
The contrary position is that the means of production and the individual benefits produced become the primary business and everything including the family revolve around it.
Bonds are created through shared effort, You and me become merged into we. I suppose the ideal of the church echos exactly that, and it can only be from the home that we learn this.
Scott , believe it or not rain stopped play on the dark age village, and that rain has been on and off for near two weeks!!
June 29th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Scott , believe it or not rain stopped play on the dark age village, and that rain has been on and off for near two weeks!!
Hmmm … does that mean they called the game in the middle of the 6th one night, and didn’t even get to start on the next? My cards mets the opposition, and couldn’t finish the series.
And Scott, as ALWAYS(!), appreciating your perspective!
June 30th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
We absolutely loved being there to “help” you milk the cows. Mark and I were just commenting recently on what a family friendly farming operation you have - kids playing in the wheelbarrow and you chit-chatting while you went about your work - and how much we loved it.