Farm in Literature Fieldtrip

                I recently wrote a paper on the benefits of family small-scale farms. I wrote about how corporate farms use harsh chemicals and synthetic pesticides, GMO’s, and inhumane treatment of animals. I concluded that paper by saying how I want to support small scale farms and healthy practices, and that is exactly what I did for my fieldtrip. I wanted to find stores that supported those same beliefs, and I found one right here in Logan. It is called Natural Grocers. I had never been before, and so before I checked it out in person, I did some research online.

                Natural Grocers has a lot to offer. They have meats, dairy, fruit and veggies, grains, spices (one of my favorite isles- they have every spice and herb you could ever want or need!) and even body care: shampoo, face wash, make up, lotions, etc. That doesn’t sound too amazing though- that’s what every other grocery store carries. What makes Natural Grocers special though is the standard to each they hold each of their products. Absolutely everything in their store is organic; they don’t sell GMO products; they don’t sell anything with artificial sweeteners, colors, or flavors; all of the meat they sell comes from humanely raised animals such as free range, no cloning, no confinement dairies, and no added growth hormones or antibiotics. They have other standards as well, but it would take too long to list them all.

                My boyfriend and I went to the store together, and as soon as I walked in I was impressed. Customers are greeted at the front door by the sight and smell of fresh produce. Fruits and vegetables line the wall, and they do look mighty tasty. I wanted to look at everything (to the displeasure of my boyfriend.) I can’t write about everything, because that would be a very long and boring essay, so I’ll just point out my favorites. They have a whole isle just for dried herbs and spices, and it is glorious. If you love to cook, go to Natural Grocers, because you can find whatever you need there to make a savory meal. I also noticed that they refrigerate flour and seeds. I had never seen that before, and I asked why. An employee told me it is because raw ingredients like flour will spoil without preservatives. They have prepared meals, all of which looked amazing and healthy. They have local products, which I thought was really cool. Overall, it was a really cool store.

                I’m really glad that I found Natural Grocers. They have great quality products that I can feel good about, because I know that they are healthy and come from environmentally stable farms. They are a bit more expensive than other retail grocery stores, but I feel better about their products because I know where it came from, and I know that buying from there I am supporting good causes.

               

Analysis on "The Gleaners" by Jean-Francois Millet

Millet, Jean-Francois. The Gleaners. 1857. Oil on canvas. Musée D'Orsay, Paris, France.

 

 

This painting, The Gleaners, by Jean-François Millet, depicts three peasant woman gleaning, or gathering the leftover grains after the reapers. The painting is incredibly realistic, as Millet’s goal was not to idealize their situation, but to show it as it actually was (The Gleaners). The painting was not well received in France, since it made the upper class feel “uneasy about their status” (The Gleaners). It was received with heavy criticism and negative emotions, including suspicion. Of course, Millet revealed this work right after the French Revolution, which was a time of uneasiness and disturbance between the social classes and order. As history usually goes, those things that address a social tension do not fare so well, and was no different for The Gleaners.

                What is most striking about this painting is in fact the composition and subject matter. Rarely ever were the common people or laborers or farmers painted with such care and detail. As is obvious, the women are the main focus of the work. They are left alone to do their work, even though there is a man on a horse on the right side, who is assumedly the landowner (The Gleaners). In the background, we also see the piles of hay, while the women are left to pick up the remains. This is not just a day-on-the-job sort of painting. Millet is trying to show that not only do the gleaners pick up the remains of the other workers, but that those in poverty (the laborers, the peasants, the farmers, etc.) pick up the remains of the wealthy. Another interesting choice of composition that Millet chose to do is the observation that none of the women break the horizon line. They are bent down below it, as if they are forced below it. According to Wikipedia, Millet believed that those born a peasant would stay a peasant (The Gleaners). Further down in the article it reads that the composition “aligns with the social structure that what you are born into is what you stay” (The Gleaners).

                While the women may not have been farmers, they were agricultural laborers. The reason I wanted to analyze this particular painting is because I wanted to show that farming and other agricultural labor is not always glamourous. I wanted to show the social injustice that was (and often still is) forced on this type of work and labor.

 

N.a. "The Gleaners." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Mar. 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

 

 

 



A Man's Right to Land- An Academic Review of "Far and Away"

 

A Man’s Right to Land

At first glance, one does not immediately identify Ron Howard’s film “Far and Away” (a tale of an Irish immigrant’s hilarious and sometimes heart wrenching journey into American culture in the late 1800’s) as a significant cornerstone of American agriculture in film. In fact, many still remember the film only for Tom Cruise’s shirtless boxing matches when it should be renowned for its accurate depiction of the effect this time period had on America’s Agricultural industry. Despite the story’s origins beginning in rural Ireland and having a very distracting Tom Cruise as its main character, “Far and Away” creates an almost exact parallel to the historical impacts the “American Dream” had on American agriculture, which includes; ideology of Manifest Destiny with its cultural impacts, the surge in the agricultural working force made up of immigrants, and The Great Oklahoma Land Race of 1893.

The story’s main character, a hard working Irish potato farmer named Joseph Donnelly, fell victim to (as many Irishman did at the time) his landlord’s greed after a couple of failed seasons, which led to the death of his father. While on his death bed, Joseph’s father implanted a thought in his son’s mind that would later spawn into Joseph’s own contribution towards the Manifest Destiny movement in America. Frederick Merk, professor emeritus of American history at Harvard University compares Manifest Destiny to a Mission, and as Alexander DeConde writes in his review of Merk’s writings, he says, “This ideal of Mission, meaning that America was the light of liberty for Europe, indeed for the world, was meant as a divine growth both culturally and economically for the benefit of the nation.” (DeConde) Joseph saw this light in the final moments of his father’s life, and instilled in him this inspiring thought; “Without land, man is nothing.” This saying inspired Joseph to leave Ireland and go to America, seeking the American dream, which also inspired many others to seek out their own land and destiny in America, to farm and begin a new life.

While entering America, Joseph, along-side thousands of other Irish men and women, were quickly lost in translation and taken advantage of. What seemed like a very obtainable dream quickly became a nearly insurmountable challenge. “Nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England.” (Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900) Many of these people had to sell what little posessions they had simply to make the trip across the Atlantic, leaving them with nothing upon their arrival to the states. Jobs were plentiful at the time, however, the conditions of factories (where most immigrants worked during this time) were the worst the states had seen in the nation’s brief history. Wages were low and working conditions were dangerous. While most immigrants worked in factories in the city, others worked in more rural parts of the nation farming in the mid-west. In search of land of their own, many immigrants were in no better condition working for land owners in the states than they were in their home land working for landlords. Thousands of Irish Immigrants alone entered the U.S. and worked in agricultural areas:

 

“The figures for this period show a dramatic increase in Irish people arriving in the United States and working in agriculture: 92,484 in 1846, 196,224 in 1847, 173,744 in 1848, 204,771 in 1849, and 206,041 in 1850. By the end of 1854 nearly two million people - about a quarter of the population - had emigrated to the United States in ten years” (Simkin).

 

With this fantastic influx of workers and the continuation of American expansion in the west, there was also an increased population of farmers in the nation as well. Joseph worked in factories as well as building railroads, saving money enough for his own land and continuing his father’s divine inspiration for him to seek out his own land.

            After saving enough money, Joseph traveled west to Oklahoma. Thousands of covered wagons gathered in the territory, waiting for the embargo to lift off the territory where the American government would give away the land for free. The sound of a military bugle would begin the largest land rush in American History:

 

“At the time fixed, thousands of hungry home-seekers, who had gathered from all parts of the country, and particularly from Kansas and Missouri, were arranged in line along the border, ready to lash their horses into furious speed in the race for fertile spots in the beautiful land before them” (Howard 1).

 

Joseph was, in the end, able to obtain the land he needed with the 100 square acreage plots predetermined by the government. He was able to fulfill his and his father’s wishes and began his life farming in America.

            While Ron Howard’s depiction of these historic events were by no means perfect, he did illustrate in “Far and Away” the paramount impact immigration had on American culture and agriculture. He also illustrated the reasons why immigrants came to America to escape their landlords in their homelands and to obtain land to for their own, also depicting in the expansion of the states for the purpose of farming in the Oklahoma territory. In conclusion, while most people watch “Far and Away” for its entertaining value, it also educates its viewers with history as rich as the soil this great nation was built upon.

 

 

Works Cited

DeConde, Alexander. "Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation." Indiana Magazine of History. Indiana University, 2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Howard, William Willard. "The Rush to Oklahoma." Urban Planning. Cornell Library. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

N.a. "Immigration to the United States - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress." Rise of Industrial America, 1851-1900. Library of Congress. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Simkin, John. "Immigration 1800-1900." Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Education Publishers. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

 

The U.S. Farm Bill and SNAP

                The United States Farm Bill is a bill that is passed every five years that deals with agricultural and food policies (United States farm bill). Farms bills deal with a lot of aspects, and “can impact international trade, environmental conservation, food safety, and the well-being of rural communities” (United States farm bill). It impacts our daily lives, yet we don’t always think about it, or even understand very well. A huge portion of the Farm Bill and funding goes to SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This social welfare program used to be commonly known as The Food Stamp Program. (Food Stamps (Now SNAP….)) No matter how you feel personally about the bill and SNAP, it affects us all daily and has a huge impact on our economy.

                Of the entire Farm Bill budget, a vast majority of it goes to SNAP. In the last bill passed by Congress in 2014, the estimated budget is about $956.4 billion over the next decade (Plumer). Of this amount, $756 billion of this goes to SNAP and other nutritional programs (Plumer). This is about 79.1% of the budget. There are have been lots of arguments and modifications to the SNAP, and the 2014 bill was no exception. There was a $8 billion cut to the program, as well as the introduction of a plethora of various programs to help the unemployed find jobs (Plumer).

                To be eligible for SNAP benefits, one has a pass a series of requirements (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). These include requirements for income, monthly resources, housing, and immigrant status, since not all immigrants and undocumented immigrants are ineligible for such social welfare programs. Applying for SNAP can be quite easy, but it does matter which state you live. To apply, recipients need to fill out a form and turn it into either a SNAP office or now it can be done online. Applying is easy, but being eligible is more challenging.

                Like most things in life, SNAP and other nutritional programs have their pros and cons. It’s important to know both sides before picking which one to support, that way we can make the most informed decision. There is a lot more to the Farm Bill than just SNAP, but hopefully this post helps you understand just a little better than you may have before.

N.a. "Food Stamps (Now SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)." Food Assistance. Utah.gov, 2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
Plumer, Brad. "The $956 Billion Farm Bill, in One Graph." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
N.a. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
N.a. "United States Farm Bill." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.

Fishing for Farming Folklores

   

 



Miss Mannix milking a cow at Charleville, Co. Cork in 1920

 

Folklores are everywhere. They make cultures unique and fun. Sometimes we think that folklores are only myths that existed in the past, but we can still see them around us today. For example, treating a cold with chicken soup is a folklore that still exists today (Funda, Kinkead, McNeill 251). Most of us didn’t learn that in school or a formal education class. In most cases, it was passed on orally. For example, I learned that from my grandmother, who had learned it from her mother. Folklores exist in all kinds of cultures and groups of people, and farming is no exception to that. In Farm: A Multimodal Reader, veterinarian Michael L. Doherty presents us with some Irish folklore that helps cure diseased cattle, which contributes to a unique Irish farm culture.

    Irish farmers used many folklores to cure their cattle. Many of these “cures” were found in other counties, with a few tweaks that made it specific to that region in which it came from. For example, a folklore that was used to heal cows bleeding from haemorrhage or babesiosis was to use a person with the cure for bleeding in the county. Eight counties believed this, and all eight had the similarity that to cure the bleeding cow, you needed to consult with the person in the town/county that had the cure. However, all eight had differences too. For some counties, you needed to say a specific prayer, in some the person with the cure needed to know specific details about the cow. Why would each county have differences for the same cure? Most likely because the cure came from the same place, but as it was passed along from person to person and place to place, it was altered to the specific population.

    Folklores tell us a lot about people. Which folklores a person believes in tells a lot about what they are like, what their family was like, and where they grew up. This contributes to our understanding of culture, of people, of daily life, etc. That is why it is important to study and read folklores (if you’re interested in understanding and appreciated something better.) This doesn’t just apply to farming folklores either, it can apply to all folklores.

Funda, Evelyn, and Lynne S. McNeill. "Farms and Folklore." Farm: A Multimodal Reader. Ed. Joyce Kinkead. Southlake: Fountain Head, 2014. 251-56. Print.
N.a. Miss Mannix Milking a Cow at Charleville, Co. 1920. National Library of Ireland, Charleville. Irish Archaeology. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

Where Did It Come From?

             I remember a few years ago, and even today, people were becoming increasingly worried about the ingredients McDonald’s was using, especially in their meat products. This lead to hundreds of investigations, undercover videos, news stories, and statements from McDonald’s themselves. While McDonald’s is still a thriving company, some people stopped eating there entirely, including a few of my own friends and family. I don’t eat at McDonald’s much personally, but it got me thinking about the other fast food restaurants I eat at, one of them being Chick-Fil-A. So I decided to find out where their chicken comes from.

             The first place I decided to check was the Chick-Fil-A (CFA) on Logan Main Street. Since Logan is an agricultural town, I wondered if the chicken was locally sourced, or if it at least came from the state of Utah. I called in (unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the young man who helped me) and asked him if he knew where the meat came from. He told me that he thought the meat came from Colorado, but was packaged and shipped from Texas. This lead me to the CFA website, in search of their suppliers. I couldn’t find the names of any suppliers on their website, but there is a Supplier Inquiry Form, giving the terms and conditions for those interested in doing business with CFA (Supplier Inquiry). However, I did find a list of common suppliers on another website, including the “National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers, National Pork Board, American Meat Institute, International Dairy Foods Association and National Milk Producers Federation” (Chick-fil-A denies…).

              The next piece of information I found about CFA suppliers is about animal abuse. In 2014, the animal activist group Mercy for Animals released a video of chicken abuse that was supposedly connected with CFA (Simon). The chicken farm where the abuse took place is owned by Koch Foods, and CFA released a statement saying they stopped working with Koch in April of 2013, stating that “All of [their] suppliers must comply with rigorous animal welfare requirements” (Chick-fil-A denies…).

              I’m not suggesting that Chick-Fil-A is unethical or filled with abuse, or that we should all stop eating there. I enjoy their food and the environment. However, it is difficult to find out exactly where their chicken comes from. The information on their website is extremely limited, and the information is hard to find anywhere else. That does make me a little nervous, and hopefully I learn more in the future.

"Chick-fil-A Denies Getting Chickens from Abusive Supplier." - CBS46 News. WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation), 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.

 

Simon, Sam. "What's Really inside Your Chick-fil-A Sandwich? Shocking New Hidden-camera Video Paints a Disturbing Picture. Watch Now." ChickFilACruelty.com. Mercy for Animals. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.

 

 

Sheridan Hutchinson

Rosa Thornley

English 3630

23/01/2016

Tracing My Family Farming Roots   

The most recent generation in my family to be involved with agriculture is my grandmother, Mary Jo, on my mother’s side. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away when I was only two years old, and so to find out more information about her farming life, I interviewed my mother. While she did the best she could to remember her mother’s childhood, there is still some information that we’re missing, so there are some assumptions made on my part.

    Mary Jo’s family immigrated to America from Denmark in July of 1870. Her father, Joseph, began farming in Levan, Utah around 1920. The farm was about 120 acres large, and this area was dispersed all over the area. My mother doesn’t know anything about the farm during this time, since the only stories she knew of the farm came from Mary Jo, who was born in 1935. Mary Jo and her family didn’t grow large scale crops for income, but instead raised livestock. They only large crop they had was used for hay, which they used to feed their animals. They had sheep, cows, horses, chickens, and pigs. They used all of these animals, except for the horses, for their meat (they also collected eggs from the chickens, and only killed the chickens when they weren’t useful for eggs anymore.) My mother said that they only sold cows commercially, which is where the majority of their yearly income came from, and kept the meat from the other animals for themselves, their extended family, and for trading locally.

    They farmed a lot for just themselves. They had a large garden in which majority of their food was grown, they kept a lot of meat and eggs for themselves, and had only a couple of dairy cows for themselves. For everything they couldn’t farm or make themselves, they would trade eggs or meat in town. They farmed during the Great Depression, but my mother told me that their family seemed to do alright during this time, since they were able to produce their own food (it’s important to note that my mother is not exactly sure of this, since Mary Jo rarely spoke of the Depression since she was only a small child.)

    When I asked my mother what kind of equipment they used for farming, she could only remember the bare minimum. She says she remembers that they had a tractor, which parallels with the Ag Classroom website. The all purpose tractors were popularized in 1930, which, making an assumption, is most likely when Joseph got his tractor. I also asked my mother how they irrigated their hay crop and garden. She said that they didn’t have any man made irrigation for the field, but instead relied on rain to water their hay. She did say they had a well though, with a hose, and that is how they watered their personal garden.

    The knowledge of my grandmother and her childhood on the farm is limited to me. Hopefully with a little more time and research, I can learn more about her. Her family continued to farm in Levan until 1985, when her brother Leo, the last one to keep up the farm, passed away.

"Historical Timeline." Agriculture in the Classroom. National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2016.

Hutchinson, Vickie. Personal interview. 22 January 2016.