Food and Farm Nerdism...

Someone told me yesterday that I was one hard working mom.  That thought was very strange to me because I literally have only left the house once in the last two days.  My husband is 90 miles away most days working on the farm that we are moving to and I am sitting here staring at multiple screens.  What is the nature of farm work in the modern world?

This year is going to be an exploration of this.  I get a great deal done from the comfort of my bed, now, in the winter, with a beautiful little girl on my hip.  I am ordering seeds, I am organizing events from thousands of miles away.  We are coordinating large scale compost collection from our laptops and cell phones.  It is amazing what you can do and from where.  You can make local changes from thousands of miles away.

new farm worker?

I am going to go ahead and say it.  We are the most advanced that we have ever been and I could, theoretically, be on the moon and do the same things.  My husband is 90 miles away and our interactions are instantaneous.  We became fascinated with this and things like this when we saw the people at Kijani Grows.  This organization is devising ways to essentially run a farm from their cell phones.

Then there are people like the guys at Farmbot.  Farmbot which works with CNC Farming.  What is going to happen is that some places are going to be able to run an entire farm with robots.  They will be able to harvest, inspect crops, tend to livestock and more with greater ease.  On the horizon is the debate about whether or not that is a good thing.  Whether it will be great that we have a lot more free time on our hands or whether the idea that we remove a lot of the humanity from farming.

The folks at Open Source Ecology are building homes and tractors and more and making the information available to all.  How do we get at that information?  How do we get it out?

The fundamental ideal is that we have to unite the two fronts.  We need to take into account that people want and need a personal connection to their food, yet also acknowledge that we live in a modern world.

Taking the place of the hoe and rake?

Farm Hack and other organizations are finding that niche and it is interesting to watch.  Why is Monsanto successful?  Why are other companies able to bring food from a third of the way around the world?  Tech is the key.  With global ties they are able to find a number of sellers and buyers as well as seek the highest prices and increase the margin of profit.  They are also going to have the most money to invest in these technologies and their implementation.

One of the main things facing the American farmer and small farmers all over the world is how to get to their product to their customers.  Knowing their customers is a very big deal.  So not only are the things that make their farm work integral, so too is the social media and reaching out. There will need to be a lot of face to face, e-mail, and more.  Web sites, Facebook pages and "branding" are genuine concerns where we will be able to "farm out" our needs to places a half a world away if we want...if we want.

Farming is entering and catching up to a new era.  Farming is a discipline that has its roots in the past and always will.  The challenge is how to feed an ever growing population and (in keeping with the goal of 99Knives) get the best food to the most people.  That is going to mean stepping up and stepping out of the comfort zones of the discipline of farming and preparing food.  We are going to have to know as much about social media and tech as we know about our soil.  It means that we are going to be looking at a lot more screens as much as we are looking what the chickens are doing.  We are the new #farmnerds as attuned to whirring gears and hashtags as we are in the nitrogen content in our soil.

My opinion?  I think that it is a good thing.  We are going to be able to do a lot more and I am going to be able to spend a lot more time with my child and husband.  There may be something with whirring gears by my side and taking care of the small stuff, but there will also be a comfort to knowing that I can fly across the country and see my mother and know that the pigs are being fed via camera and drone.  Farming can never lose the human touch, but it becomes really interesting in watching how it evolves.  My daughter, will be able to feed chickens with the touch of a button.

Contact
Carol Jordan-Mckern
9of9productions@gmail.com
tweets at @9t9knives