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Modern Farming Has Lost Its Soul

Family farms have a magic all their own—and can compete

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 23, 2009 10:56 AM CDT

(Newser) – We know today’s food industry cranks out “unhealthy food, mishandles waste, and overuses antibiotics,” writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, but the heart of the matter is that today’s industrial farms have “no soul.” In a visit back to his old stomping grounds, Kristof reflects that the “kind of diverse, chaotic family farm” he grew up on is now disappearing, replaced by insipid food assembly lines”—leaving us with “food that also lacks soul—but may contain pathogens.”

Sure, “industrial farming is extraordinarily efficient”—but that may not mean that the smaller farms are obsolete, Kristof notes, citing a childhood friend who names all of his 225 cows, but is efficient enough to face off with with 20,000-cow dairies. And on a more personal note, it would be a shame to see the small family farms, the “most soulful” places “imaginable,” disappear, Kristof writes, recalling his boyhood when he managed to trick a chicken into thinking it was a goose.

Hogs stand in a pen on a farm Tuesday, April 28, 2009, near Perry, Iowa.
Hogs stand in a pen on a farm Tuesday, April 28, 2009, near Perry, Iowa.   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Klaas Howell Martens displays organic chicken feed at his organic feed mill in Penn Yan, NY, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008.
Klaas Howell Martens displays organic chicken feed at his organic feed mill in Penn Yan, NY, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008.   (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)
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One of my childhood memories is of placing a chicken egg in a goose nest. That mother goose was thrilled when her eggs hatched, and maternal love is such that she never seemed to notice that one of her babies was a neckless midget. - Nicholas Kristof

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
Snarfeh
Aug 26, 2009 12:35 PM CDT
Reader, regardless, you get it....you got SOUL!
Snarfeh
Aug 24, 2009 5:37 AM CDT
@Youth - You don't know what soul is? Omg, child! Soul is Motown, soul is Otis Redding, soul is Stevie Wonder, soul is Etta James, soul is surfing, soul is BBQ chicken, soul is looking for shapes in clouds, soul is the smell of freshly mowed grass, soul is crying from laughing, soul is knowing life is sacred, soul is my dad's brunswick stew, soul is winning at poker, soul is experiencing love not attraction, soul is spaghetti w/meat sauce, soul is giving the money back when you get too much change, soul is building a sand castle on the beach...damn, kid, I could definitely go on and on, but if you have to ask, I doubt any of this would help you understand soul anyway.
2-bits
Aug 23, 2009 10:02 AM CDT
It's easy to be an expert on things that only exist in your mind. The burden of proof rests on you.

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