quotations about farming
The one thing our Founding Fathers could not foresee -- they were farmers, professional men, businessmen giving of their time and effort to an idea that became a country -- was a nation governed by professional politicians who had an interest in getting re-elected. They probably envisioned a fellow serving a couple of hitches and then eagerly looking forward to getting back to the farm.
RONALD REAGAN
At the end of the day, factory farming isn't about feeding people; it's about money. Barring some rather radical legal and economic changes, it must be. And whether or not it's right to kill animals for food, we know that in today's dominant systems it's impossible to kill them without (at least) inflicting occasional torture. This is why even ... the most well-intentioned farmer one could imagine apologizes to his animals as they are sent off to slaughter. He's made a compromise rather than cut a fair deal.
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
Eating Animals
It isn't the farmer that lives on the fat of the land; it's the fat of the land that lives on the farmer.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
People in the city have no concept of what our farming is like. They have no idea what a tomato plant looks like, or how a tomato is picked. They can't envision a place with forty thousand chickens.
JOHN MCPHEE
Giving Good Weight
Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard!
Heap high the golden corn!
No richer gift has Autumn poured
From out her lavish horn!
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
"The Corn-Song"
As for farming, it's putting money into your pocket wi' your right hand and fetching it out wi' your left. As fur as I can see, it's raising victual for other folks, and just getting a mouthful for yourself and your children as you go along.... It's more than flesh and blood 'ull bear sometimes, to be toiling and striving, and up early and down late, and hardly sleeping a wink when you lie down for thinking as the cheese may swell, or the cows may slip their calf, or the wheat may grow green again i' the sheaf--and after all, at th' end o' the year, it's like as if you'd been cooking a feast and had got the smell of it for your pains.
GEORGE ELIOT
Adam Bede
The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Society and Solitude
The diligent farmer plants trees, of which he himself will never see the fruit.
CICERO
Tusculanarum Disputationum
When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.
DANIEL WEBSTER
Remarks on Agriculture
The farmer, the guy getting a sloppy-with-somewhat-processed-grass tail whipped across his face, the fellow squatting planting seeds he kept from last year, the fisherman on a wild and rolling sea ... these are my people, my heroes and my role models. These are the builders, the makers. These are the foundation stone people on which my Australia and the US and Canada (yes there are others, but at least I know a little about those) were built, and still actually stand.
DAVE FREER
"Makers and Breakers"
Farmers farm for the love of farming. They love to watch and nurture the growth of plants. They love to live in the presence of animals. They love to work outdoors. They love the weather, maybe even when it is making them miserable. They love to live where they work and to work where they live. If the scale of their farming is small enough, they like to work in the company of their children and with the help of their children. They love the measure of independence that farm life can still provide. I have an idea that a lot of farmers have gone to a lot of trouble merely to be self-employed to live at least a part of their lives without a boss.
WENDELL BERRY
Bringing it to the Table
Running a farm is like standing out in the middle of a field in a cold wind, tearing up twenty-dollar bills.
DAN NEEDLES
Wingfield's World: The Complete Letters from Wingfield Farm
The farmers farm the land, and the businesses farm the farmers.
ANONYMOUS
Agriculture is the keystone of our economic structure. The wealth, welfare, prosperity, and even the future freedom of this nation are based upon the soil.
LOUIS BROMFIELD
Pleasant Valley
In some places they raise more corn to feed more hogs to buy more land to raise more corn to feed more hogs.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
A farm is virtually a living organism. The tragedy of our time is that cultural philosophies and market realities are squeezing life's vitality out of most farms.
JOEL SALATIN
Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal
If farming were to be organised like the stock market, a farmer would sell his farm in the morning when it was raining, only to buy it back in the afternoon when the sun came out.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES
attributed, The Guardian, November 2, 2008
For an urban people the British remain remarkably well disposed towards farmers. This is surprising since the only time most of us encounter them is in a traffic queue behind a crawling slurry wagon on the morning we are late for work.
GRAHAM HARVEY
The Killing of the Countryside
I do think that there is a big difference between family farms and agri-business, and one of the distressing things that I think has occurred is with consolidation of farm lands. You've seen large agri-businesses benefit from enormous profits from existing farm programs, and I think we should be focusing most of those programs on those family farmers.
BARACK OBAMA
debate, Oct. 12, 2004
When you have decided to purchase a farm, be careful not to buy rashly; do not spare your visits and be not content with a single tour of inspection. The more you go, the more will the place please you, if it be worth your attention. Give heed to the appearance of the neighbourhood, - a flourishing country should show its prosperity. "When you go in, look about, so that, when needs be, you can find your way out."
CATO THE ELDER
De Agri Cultura