There’s a lot of discussion on Kaua`i and elsewhere about
what constitutes agriculture, and whether it’s only farming if you’re growing
food.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Defining farming: it means what I choose it to mean
The discussion enters all kinds of arenas, from property
taxation to seed research.
If you’re growing things, but not growing food, do you still
qualify for an agricultural dedication for tax purposes? Is a gentleman’s horse
ranch not an agricultural enterprise unless you’re milking the mares? Should we use taxation to punish you if your crop doesn't end up in someone's belly?
If you try to define agriculture, ultimately it gets into the
Alice Through the Looking Glass
discussion: “It means what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
Still, there are some standards.
Breaking down the word agriculture, you get two
Greek-Latin roots, meaning land and tilling. Nothing about food. (Interesting
that the agri in agriculture and acre have the same Latin root—ager, for land or field.)
Breaking down the word farm, and you pass through
Middle English, old German and French terms referring to both food farming and
any land management that pays the rent. Ultimately in Latin there is a sense of
food and feast, but also security—like something that provides you with the
means for survival, or something you can use as collateral. (Farm and firm have
the same Latin root, firma, meaning solid
and to be relied on.)
Small farms in the American Midwest might grow corn and alfalfa to feed
cattle, and they’d raise the cattle for milk and cheese, and perhaps tobacco
for a cash crop, a vegetable garden, and a managed woodlot for firewood and for
woodworking. As far as the farmer was concerned, it was all farming.
Trying to define agriculture too narrowly yields endless
debate.
If food crops are farming, are fiber crops not? What about
medicinal crops? What about energy crops (whether trees, or cane or
switchgrass)?
Is raising livestock farming, and must we distinguish
between a horse that pulls the plough and the cow that offers milk? If you’re
raising sheep for meat, it’s farming, but if you’re raising the same sheep for
wool it’s not?
And what of the cover crop that is tilled under to improve
the soil? It doesn’t directly feed people, so it is not farming? But it supports the subsequent food crop, so maybe it is? Even dedicated
food farmers need sometimes to grow non-food crops—cover crops, erosion control
grassed areas, windbreaks—and sometimes need to leave a field fallow.
It is a slippery slope, and trying to define it too narrowly
leads to trouble, as Lewis Carroll’s Alice found:
"I don't know
what you mean by 'glory'," Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously.
"Of course you don't—till I tell you.
This is not to say it’s impossible to make public policy of
promoting food crops—just that it needs to be done very carefully.
© Jan TenBruggencate 2014
Posted by Jan T at 10:01 AM
Labels: Agriculture, Botany, Government, Health/Medical, Sustainability
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
They also need to remember that ornamental floriculture and Nursery are also farming. Aesthetics farming to "say it with tropical flowers and landscaping are also working the soil to produce a crop. Thank you Jan for your insight!
Post a Comment