Culture
MARCH 2021
44
AN
AWAKENING
IN
THE
AGRARIAN IDEAL
B A C K Y A R D // W
Stevie Mizzi has been practicing life as a full-time homesteader for years, growing vegetables and raising farm animals on her plot of land near Duson.
ART OF COM MON PL ACE
Yard to Table
HOW THE UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGES OF 2020 MIGHT PERHAPS YIELD A MORE AGRARIAN FUTURE Story by Jonathan Olivier • Photos by Paul Kieu
I
n the early days of the pandemic, when there were more questions than answers surrounding COVID-19, our world came to a screeching halt. In the midst of nationwide shutdowns, deaths, jobs lost, and general confusion, news began trickling in of shortages at the grocery store. Aisles were bare and resupplies were lagging. It appeared as if America, the land of plenty, could soon be left without a way to feed its people. We know how the story played out—some essentials, namely toilet paper, were scant, but most supplies were still available and, luckily, we averted a nationwide food crisis. But at the time, when no one knew if the shelves would be restocked or if workers could enter food processing facilities again, the fear was palpable. Due to shutdowns at meat packing plants, thousands of pigs were euthanized and farmers had no restaurants to 44
M A R 2 1 // C O U N T R Y R O A D S M A G . C O M
buy their product. The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent three billion dollars purchasing meat, dairy, and produce as a bandage for farmers, and the USDA later sent direct aid to them. There’s one part of that story that really struck home for me: shortages of vegetable seeds, chickens, and garden supplies. At the time, I was running a small market garden and, to my dismay, couldn’t find available seeds from my normal supplier or five of its competitors. I scrambled together what I could from as many sources as possible to have produce to sell last summer. Despite my initial frustration at the situation, with hindsight I’ve begun to reconsider this period of American history. I’ve realized that perhaps last spring’s panic buying wasn’t based in irrationality, as I believed at the time, but rather evidence of a deeply-rooted cultural
practice inherent in us all. When the foundation of our industrial food system started to develop hairline fractures, people realized how unstable that structure had been all along. Gardening appeared to be the only logical exit. Growing food, foraging, and self-sufficiency, after all, is woven into the fabric of human history—and America’s, too. It’s likely that most of us are only a few generations removed from some agrarian ancestor. Growing food, then, is an American ideal. While shutdowns are becoming a memory, along with the threat of food shortages, I’m sure many of those victory gardens have succumbed to weeds. But maybe the lockdowns helped America, if only for a few short months, remember where we come from and, ultimately, how growing food is about more than sustenance.
