The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements

By Sandor Ellix Katz

Summarized with permission of Chelsea Green.
All rights reserved.

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Land Struggles Throughout History

"Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality."

Land distribution has occurred as the result of invasion, as above, and as the result of war, as in the U.S.-supported redistribution of the post World War II occupation reconstruction of Japan and Germany, modeled on the by-then eroding of the typical American farming system.

A Bygone Tradition

The smaller farms have been hit the hardest, and factory farms have taken their place in many cases, much to our disadvantage:

• Concentrated polluting of chemicals, antibiotics, and manure rapidly changes thriving ecosystems.
• The toxic wastelands created are polluting our groundwater.
• Unbearable odors result from the concentration of livestock and resulting waste.
• Property values are diminishing in neighboring areas.

Some land is being protected through various avenues:

• Land trusts can help to maintain agricultural lands.
• Developmental easements strip farmland of developmental potential and restrict its use to farming.
• Conservation easements restrict the use of the land "in perpetuity," the limits of which are monitored and the terms are attached to the land, not the owner.

Another problem facing farms today is the lack of people willing to run them. The age of the average farmer is 55 as of 2002. Farmer's children are lacking interest, finding "bigger" opportunities elsewhere. Programs such as the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) hope to offset these issues with volunteer and apprenticeship opportunities. The National Farm Transition Network works to link prospective farmers with farmland, or farmers who wish to pass on their land yet have no willing heirs to take over.

To some, the prospect of moving to a rural area is a daunting one. Small-town cultures are many times entrenched within themselves, and are not very conducive and welcoming to outsiders. As food philosopher Lisa Heldke puts it, "An expanded bio-regionalist vision must include a deep, well-integrated commitment to ethnic diversity."

Although African-Americans comprise more than twelve percent of the U.S. population and lived mostly a rural life until the past century, in 1997 only 18,000 African American farmers remained, down from a high of nearly one million in 1920. Fueling this issue is the lack of government-backed funds and cries of racial discrimination largely going unheard. Unfortunately, racial tension can still be an issue, and must be addressed for the good of the people as well as the land they live on.

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