Wendell Berry: Farmer, Ecologist and Author

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

PLOWBOY: There are many chores on a working farm that require that kind of discipline.

BERRY: It's like having a milk cow. Having a milk cow is a very strict discipline and a very trying circumstance. It means you've got to be home twice a day to milk whether you want to or not, or else the cow will be ruined. Some days you'd rather do anything than go down to that barn and maybe some days you go and you're kind of bored with it. But other days it's a most rewarding thing and you realize that you get the reward and happiness of it because you stuck to it when it wasn't rewarding. There's some kind of wisdom in that fidelity, when you can say, "All right, every day ain't going to be the best day of your life, don't worry about that. If you stick to it you hold the possibility open that you will have better days."

PLOWBOY: But when people make a commitment to farming, won't their attitude toward the work make it more rewarding''

BERRY: If by attitude you mean enthusiasm, then I'm not so sure. I think the popular drug culture and certain aspects of the peace and environment movements have led people to believe there's a great deal you can do with enthusiasm. I have a lot of enthusiasm, but I know how far it will get me. It doesn't last until dark when you've got a full day's work, or three or four days' work, to do in a day. If you get all the way to dark and to the end of the job, then you're going to be operating on something else.

A lot of people have assumed that the main work in changing over from an urban to a rural life is to get out of the city. That's hardly the start. Learning farming is like learning an art; it takes a long time, and a lot of careful work. And we've failed to teach the young people to expect that a worthy thing might be difficult to learn.

PLOWBOY: Yet many people are willing to make a very serious commitment to the land . . . investing their money and their hopes in the ideal of an independent life.

BERRY: Yes, but it seems to me that they shouldn't try to be too pure. That is, to throw over a well-paying job — and training that prepares you for some kind of profession — and go back to the farm and attempt to survive there under conditions that are destroying a lot of experienced farmers. That might be a dangerous thing to do unless you know very well what you are doing and are young. I think it's worthwhile to support your farm by some other work. It's worth it to keep your hands on a piece of land and to keep that part of your life away from the corporations and the speculators and the fools.

If we were willing to isolate ourselves, we could have a lifestyle here that would make us a lot more independent of power companies and machines than we are now. It would also keep us from being useful as strip-mine opponents and airport opponents and that sort of thing.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print