Admittedly, this post is a bit disjointed...I'll work on it in the coming days. If you have some "clarifying" thoughts, please leave them for me...
I'm a "long-form" consumer of information. I read books, listen to National Public Radio, and enjoy meandering, in-depth, conversations. Unfortunately, we live in a short-form world that requires information in smaller chunks. Also, time constraints limit our ability to put out a lot of long-form information.
At Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm we try to give a combination of short and long-form information. Our website has a number of pages where people can dig in and learn a lot about our farm and how our community support agriculture program works. This blog allows us to take a bit more time and delve into issues of farming and community and sustainability more thoroughly. We publish a monthly electronic newsletter that gives a snapshot of what's going on at the farm as well.
But, we've found that people like to get a picture of daily life on the farm. For that, we have a facebook page. Although, not social media experts, we enjoy posting pictures and links that relate to the farm. Plus it's interactive, with fans giving feedback, almost, in real-time. I know, once we get comfortable with our Twitter feed, it will be. Until then, facebook is a good way to connect with our community.
We're all about local food, so I'm amazed at the reach of this blog and the facebook page. It took me awhile to wrap my head around having fb fans in Iran and blog readers in New Zealand; but a fan pointed out that "food and farming are such a universal concern." She's right, of course. The agriculture decisions made here in north central Illinois and the decisions made in Brazil and Niger and Thailand have global implications. Animal confinement in northern Europe? Palm-oil plantations in Indonesia? Super market or farmers market?
We're all inter-connected, and we're under a lot of pressure. The choices we make in the next few years, will have a huge impact on what the world looks like in 30 years when we have another 2 BILLION mouths to feed. I have a vision of a world where nutritous food and clean water are basic human rights and biological diversity in crops and livestock are tenets of a healthy ecology.
American farmers have bought into the concept that they "feed the world." I reject that premise and seek world where people are empowered to feed themselves, locally. Blogging, and fb allows me to connect with people who share this vision in all parts of the world - so we can work together to make it happen and change the world.
If you like to add to this effort, "like" us on fb and share this blog with your friends!
