There is a clear idea of community, of what the culture in agriculture means.
It means in part, the people. In part the stories the people band themselves together with. But the culture and community of a farm is bigger than that.
It’s everything. It’s the sense of place and of purpose. It’s the people on the farm who produce the food and the people off the farm who will eat it. It’s the companies, truckers, supermarkets, slaughterhouses, chef’s, family cooks and everyone else connected by the food chain that runs from farmer to plate.
It’s deeper still. In Catalunya, a bad chef is said to be a traitor to their country. Food is an expression of identity and community. An engine of it. Food is who you are, what you are, and where you are. To prepare it badly is to betray the what and who and where of your culture.
But the culture runs deeper still. It includes the how of growing. As well as the why. And, in that, in that how and why, community and culture must include the soil we work, the wilderness we compete with or complement, compromise and coexist with.
The food at the end of our fork is the expression of a complex network of ideas and realities. Geology, philosophy, love of land, care, economics, history, legacy, love, need and identity.
This incredible complexity expresses itself as the taste and texture on your plate, and as the culture that tells you the meaning made from what you eat. The Irishness of your stew. The Britishness of your roast beef. Whether your paella is from this valley or that ridge.
Eating connects you to your country, your culture, your city and your co-diners. But it also connects you to us. The farmer. We have the practices, the culture, the theory, the philosophy and the love which your meal is the final expression of. Food is culture. So is farming. We do what we do, how we do it, ultimately because your consumption, money, interest and engagement allow us to. Eating is political. Because the eater engineers everything the farmer does. It’s ecomomics. Ecology. Policy. Practice. It’s connected.
