Visionaries are rare
Visionaries are rare. They are people who can see the puzzle of our existence and then make the extraordinary effort to find a way out. They are rare because they must live in the world as it is but can glimpse the array of possibilities that others deem impossible.
Their words may seem confusing to those who would rather not rock the boat, but their inability to be deterred outlasts the skeptics. Their existence cuts a path for those brave enough to walk. And though often misunderstood, the love and passion that propels them is enough.
Sometimes visionaries are fortunate to create a legacy that honors them by carrying on. That is what I learned when I chatted with the current president of Family Farm Defenders (FFD). https://familyfarmers.org
Joel Greeno, and I listened to him sing the praises of founder John Kinsman. https://familyfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/John-Peck-Remembrance.pdf
But let me step out of all this headiness to explain that John Kinsman was a simple man who understood complexity. He was practical and observant of the obvious. And those are the ingredients that make a good farmer and an excellent human being.
John Kinsman created a legacy that would carry on his mission to create food systems that allow for the dignity of the farmer, the sacredness of the land, and the very best quality foods for people.
Born and raised in the Driftless, we can know John best by understanding what he began: the Family Farm Defenders. Family Farm Defenders is a national grassroots 501(c)(3) non-profit with members in all fifty states. It began in 1994 and was fully licensed as a nonprofit in 1999.
It is their tenant that healthy, safe, accessible food is a basic human right and that all communities should be able to control their own food and farm systems. To this end FFD works tirelessly attempting to help save family farms, to create equitable and safe systems for workers, and to level the playing field of politics, which for the past decades has increasingly favored industrial agriculture.
When I spoke to the current FFD president, Joel Greeno of Kendall, Wisconsin, I could feel the power of possibility even as the numbers of family farms shrink, and as the pandemic has revealed the glaring scarcity of food and inadequacy of a government who has lost its ability to care for its people. I could feel the power of one man’s dream merging with another and another as Joel explained the various organizations and collectives that are coming together locally, nationally and internationally with the same goals, with the same passions: to let farmers do what they do best, love the land and provide good food for others. Some of these organizations include: the American Raw Milk Producer Pricing Association; the National Family Farm Coalition, https://nffc.net; and La Via Campesina, which has 300,000,000 farmer members in eighty-one countries. https://viacampesina.org/en/
There is a belief that we have accepted that tells us that we live in a world of scarcity. And from that belief we have created systems that have put a strangle hold on creativity and have kept our natural instincts in check.
In our rush to feed the world we have given way to corporate monopolies that have not yet learned to put people before profit. And we have paid heavy prices for this, rural economies going bust, farmers being forced to “go big or get out”, with many paying the ultimate price, suicide.
But in the midst of all of this, there are those not giving up on the dreams of what can be and they are working to manifest those dreams against great odds. For example, President-elect, Joe Biden has picked Tom Vilsack as head of the USDA. As you may remember Vilsack had that job under President Obama and Vilsack came to power through his work with Monsanto, corporate king and purveyor of round up and GMO seeds. It is hard for someone with this background to understand the need for agro ecology. It is hard for someone on this track to walk in the shoes of the small farmer and find ways that are equitable and sustainable for everyone.
So, this is the task John Kinsman left to his fellow farmers, Joel Greeno, and to each one of us. We must help turn around this self-destructive agenda of industrial agriculture. We must put humanity back into the equation.
Family Farm Defenders invites all to a seat at the table and it will take all of us. It will mean finding our local farmers and supporting them, helping to get good clean and fresh food to those in need, and educating each other to the importance of caring for the soil so that our foods are enriched in the way that Nature intended.
Yes, it may mean paying a few more cents here or there, it may mean not getting that rare fruit in the middle of winter, it may mean changing our diets and our attitudes. But it will also mean this: We will not be forcing farm workers to do backbreaking labor with little compensation, we will be saving the small family farms, creating cooperatives where many can thrive, we will be reestablishing food as the first and most important ingredient to a healthy life, and we will be restoring the soil and the earth not only for ourselves, but for those yet to come.
We owe it to ourselves to make this leap and we have great mentorship in organizations like Family Farm Defenders to help us. I strongly urge you to check out their website and if so moved, become a member. You can also find them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Family-Farm-Defenders-292812867401).
Their quarterly newsletter is full of facts and news that you may not hear anywhere else and it is worth the donation in any amount.
Learning from FFD, a great way to help one another and a fine way to honor John Kinsman.
Editor’s note: You can listen to Dena’s conversation with Joel Greeno on WDRT 91.9 fm, Driftless Community Radio, on Thursday January 14 at 9 am CST, or for the following week archived at their website https://wdrt.org. The show is “Conversations”. Photos were contributed.
Contributing writer Dena Eakles is the founder of Echo Valley Farm in Ontario, Wisconsin. Founded in August of 2002, the community of Echo Valley Farm has moved towards sustainability. They celebrate and learn from the land and one another, living what is possible when peace is the foundation and the earth is sacred. In addition, Eakles publishes a blog called Let kindness win, and authored the ebook “The Peace Warrior” (2013).
