Something’s cooking in the South

Sustainable (organic) agriculture tends to be an all-white, upper middle class movement, but that’s not what I found when I went to the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Conference in Chattanooga, Tenn. The South(east) might be a little slower than the rest of the country, but they are way ahead in terms of the racial integration of the natural/organic/local food movements. The conference was about half black.

Also, sustainable agriculture in the south means social justice and poor helping poor. Most of the attendees of this 1000+ conference were ‘dirt’ poor, but in the best sense. They do not have much money, but they eat (and live) well.

I did a farm tour to visit a fully integrated biodynamic operation in rural eastern Tennessee. 300 acres, 3 in veggies, 100+ in woods, 150 in pasture. They had chickens, cattle, and pigs. They tried turkeys. There was a lot of talk about how unfair the state rules are for on-farm meat processing. Basically, if you want to process your own animals in Tennessee, its illegal to sell the meat to anyone, anywhere. Other states have exemptions for small numbers of animals.

But the real highlight of the conference was the keynote speaker who ended the conference. John E Ikerd fired up the crowd with his talk about the ideal of the family farm and the ways that conventional economics has it wrong. Ikerd had a long and successful career as an ag economist, but has concluded with great intellectual force that the practice of economics overvalues the short term to the detriment of future generations. Ikerd is author of several books that I have not read, but Sustainable Capitalism appears to be getting positive reviews.