Too Much Urbanization…
To continue on with yesterday’s theme, our world has shifted heavily out-of-balance, with the majority of its weight officially city-centered. This has left farmers out in the cold, leaving them to literally starve, and leaving many urbanites perilously close to starvation.
A Loss of Agricultural Knowledge…
In our culture, and in our world, there has been a glorification of non-manual work, which has resulted in steadily subsiding respect and knowledge of farm work. As Barbara Kingsolver writes in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, “Most people of my grandparents’ generation had an intuitive sense of agricultural basics…Few people of my generation, and approximately none of our children, could answer any of those [agricultural] questions, let alone all. This knowledge has vanished from our culture” (8-9). And that is endangering all of humanity.
Yesterday we talked about how many farmers are forced to sell their farms and move to a city in search of money-making opportunities…Many never find their pot of gold, and end up living in a slum, paralyzed in their inability to use the agricultural skills they have. But today I want to talk about the farmers who stay on the farm…
Farmers are Hurting…and Suffering…
The ABC and BBC are doing a co-production on Indonesia. This week’s focus was on West Timor, an agricultural center of the archipelago. In the West Timor, the people, the farmers, are suffering rampant malnutrition. The reality is a laundry-list of nutritional travesties:
- 50% of children under 5 years older are malnourished
- 80% of children under 2 years old suffer iron deficiencies
- 35% of women are anemic
West Timorean children
West Timor traditional home
Why is this happening? Why, HOW can the very farmers starve when the nutrients are all in their own backyards?? There are a variety of reasons.
a West Timor mother with her baby in the hospital
Why are They Suffering???
First: lack of nutritional education. Recently, there was a widespread propaganda campaign in West Timor urging farmers to eat rice, rice, rice. The propaganda left an imprint on the people, and now many farmers sell all of their produce to get more money, some of which they use to buy rice, which means they do not get most of their essential nutrients. Therefore, if only there was more nutritional education in West Timor, perhaps many Timoreans would be better-nourished and have the vitamins they need.
Second: climate change. Global warming is shortening, and in some years stopping, the rainy season. Each year less and less food grows because of the decrease in rain. Historically, there has been the growing season and the harvesting season. Now, West Timoreans have added a third season: the starving season. Now people in West Timor speaking of “the starvng season” as if it is a regular part of the year, something they have to work around. Things like cattle ranching that used to thrive in West Timor are now barely able to exist because of the droughts, and the people really are starving.
How Can We Help???!!!
Because of dangers posed in this region, there are fewer and fewer aid workers every year, and West Timoreans sink closer and closer to starvation. People here speak of the Lost Generation, because the children of today are so malnourished.
This story is being repeated all over the world. Because of climate change and because of a shift in the way we think about respectable work, the farmers are becoming more and more ostracized from society.
But we can all help to re-shift our world back into balance. Yesterday, Nick wrote in his blog about how ecotourism, of which agritourism is a big part!, can reallllllllllllly help in our efforts to curb climate change. He sites amazing examples of places where people used to make their money by economically devastating endeavors such as rainforest logging, etc., and now because of the rise in ecotourism, they make their living as guides for tourists through these very rainforests that they used to chop down!! In many of these places, deforestation has stopped and has been replaced by a surge in ecotourism.
In my eyes, I believe that agritourism, or rather agricultural service, is the best way to be an eco-tourist. It allows you to travel to exotic places, or places close to your home if you’d rather, while participating in ecologically friendly endeavors AND learning more about agriculture–the thing that keeps us all alive. By being an agricultural service worker, you are helping to restore the urban/rural balance that our world desperately needs.
Come Help at Ulaa…
There are thousands of opportunities for you to volunteer on a farm. Just check out WWOOF, and you can see so many listings in so many countries, your vision will blur!! Or move to France and apply for one of the 80,000 farm jobs they have open! But I am here to advocate for Ulaa because it has a special place in my heart…The week I spent at Ulaa was one of the best weeks of my life…I believe in the potential of Ulaa, but only volunteers can bring out its full possibilities. So I am calling you readers to come to Ulaa, and help bring it to its potential!! I think, I know, it can be the experience of a lifetime.
To learn more about Ulaa, visit the following websites:
- The Ulaa Blog
- Our Intentional Community Page
- Our Facebook Fan Group
the fields of Ulaa
) so that I can sneak in some pages during class while my students scribble away. It’s that good!
