Factory Farming is a Disaster

If you think factory farming is a disaster, if you think industrial agriculture is inhumane for both man and beast alike, then you will support this project.

The project is this – I will raise heritage, landrace breeds, but also indigenous animals such as bison, deer, and elk. Produce heirloom varieties of tomatoes, corn, pumpkins, and wheat. This is not an exhaustive list, to be sure.

And who am I? Call me Logan. I’m of the Beaver Clan of the Tuscarora Indian Nation. A member of the Haudenosaunee. I attended the Dyson School at Cornell and I’ve been involved in agriculture the past few years.

Let me make it clear: I’m fundraising for this project. I want money from you. I’m not here to persuade you. You made up your mind long before you’ve read these words, this is to make sure we’re on the same page – and that I’m the man for the job.

If we are to have a clean and natural food supply, then this project is what must be done. It is in your own best self-interest just as much as mine. Modernity – modern medicine, modern food – is good for the acute. Not so much for the chronic. It can treat cancer, it can reconstruct a knee. A broken leg is not a death sentence. Infections are not as dangerous as they were. But fixing gut health? Depression? Chronic Fatigue? It's not as cut and dry. There is more complexity in the chronic.

As much as the term “holistic” has certain connotations, it is the correct term. A holistic approach must be taken. Isolation of the components - soil, water, air, sun - is good for study. Research. But in the field, in the real world, isolation is impossible, or close to it. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, in other words.

It is self-evident that the way we produce our food affects our health, and the more industrial the agriculture, the more artificial, the more problems there are. Expensive healthcare is the trade-off for cheap, mass-produced food.

But.

But the solution requires resources. I have the land, and I have access to more land. That is not the problem. I live on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation and there is a lot of unused acreage. As I've alluded to the problem, is that I don’t have the money. And it will cost a lot of money to do this.

Let it be said that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, because there is no one thing that can fix everything. I cannot promise a grand solution, a world-changing solution, I am not a revolutionary, and to be sure, it would require a revolution to execute a plan that necessitates millions of Americans taking up intensive gardening. Farming. That's not America in 2024, 2034, 2044.

The other problem is Will. Now, that may sound like a philosophical problem, and it is, but it very much presents practical and logistical issues. For example, is there willingness to do hard work for a modest income? What if the best man for the job wants at least $100,000 and benefits? No regular farm will support that.

That said, I am requesting donations. I would like to offer  products, but I cannot guarantee the production of product until a certain funding level has been met.