By Starr Munro: Riverbend News
The farming communities of the 21st century have seen more changes in their lifetime than the era of industrialization brought to their own great grandaddies way of life, which is honestly saying quite a lot. Having these giant machines to help both man and mule till the land, water crops and plant seeds completely changed the way the people who made their living by working off the land did things in the late 19th and early 20th century.
A lot of the folks who worked with the land in those days tried to hold back from jumping on the agricultural bandwagon that came with the industrial revolution. They would declare to Mr. Smith, who just bought mechanized equipment for his own cotton crops, that they didn't need any of that fancy machinery and what worked for their great grandaddies would certainly continue to be fine enough for them, thank you very much. But eventually, most everyone had to give in or suffer the consequences because that new equipment changed everything for the farmers of the era and they had to compete.
And because everyone was farming better, the nation's pricing for crops was heavily compromised due to these changes. Everyone had such great yields that the worth behind a bushel of anything drastically changed and changed quickly. The effects that industrialization had on the agriculture industry is a fascinating history, but even with that in mind, the farmers of today have just as much, if not more, to contend with when it comes to change.
Most of America's meals do not contain what it used to entail. Supermarket chickens, "fresh" greens shipped from across the nation, dried food from across the globe and not to mention the quick-frozen meals that can be so easily found, have changed how we feed our families. And that's not without reason. Most families these days have not one but two parents who work full time and the convenience of only having to go to the local supermarket's frozen food aisle for tomorrow night's dinner is something that many find hard not to take advantage of every day. But that convenience has also helped shove our local farmers further off to the side. Fresh produce is considered a luxury, when in reality, it's the type of food families of all kinds deserve to have available to them.
In recent years, farmers markets have risen in popularity. And there is a group on Facebook ensuring that different communities all around Florida know what's out there besides fast food and pizza rolls. All they have to do is check-in with the group and see what's available in their area, who grows it and where they can go to find it.
Florida Farm Finder and its Facebook group "Small Farms are Kind of a Big Dill" boasts thousands of contributors and members, 8,000 in total, with that number expected to rise to 10,000 by December of this year. Born initially out of an online group that was dedicated to all things involving urban homesteading, it had resources that helped small homesteads move out of the red using organizing markets at various locations found throughout central Florida. "Products get sold, connections are made and local demand and availability is redefined for the area." Jillian Rebecca Childs is an administrator of the group and what she and the people who utilize the group have discovered is inspiring, fascinating and so very 21st century.
Shortly after we all began learning how to live in the COVID era, Childs and others were discovering what it could mean for those who still grow food and work with animals to be living in a time where people, for the first time in ages, began to worry about their food security. Toilet paper wasn't the only thing some communities flocked towards; many people wiped out shelves of their seed packets and watering cans. With many people out of work at the time, folks all over took to their yards and fields for the first time in years. Businesses, airports, and the hospitality industry was talked about often enough pertaining to how the pandemic had negatively impacted them but farmers took one of the worst hits. People were driving a lot less, driving down the cost of corn that is used in the ethanol industry. About 20 percent of farmworkers in the U.S. come through the H-2A program and with the coronavirus restrictions, many states were not allowing people to cross state borders to work like they usually do. Quarantine measures affected labor availability for critical farming from sowing vegetable crops to picking fruit, which can only be done certain times of year. Hundreds of thousands of pounds and liters of fresh milk, fruit and vegetables were wasted due to the inability to transport them to the typical markets they went to.
It was a tragic time, but it also woke many citizens up to how fragile their life of convenience is. From the words of Childs, the creator of the "Big Dill" group: "I have a friend who decided to upgrade her petting zoo that's on a five acre farm but only opens on the weekends, to a full-fledged self-service outdoor produce stand, because people were afraid to shop indoors. Her first weeks were slow but she had an established Facebook due to local events she'd already hosted, and it grew. I watched for a couple of weeks, and one day I shared her Facebook post into close to 100 local Facebook community groups and the response was just completely overwhelming. People were commenting in the dozens on each of the posts trying to get more info about location and hours. Lindsey sold out that weekend and continues a very brisk business since then. I didn't know it at the time, but the effect of all those comments and questions from the locals in Lake County (rural and very disorganized when it comes to food availability) really sparked a flame in me that really hit first gear once the images of the ruined and tilled under crops started to show up on TV in early May."
Much like the industrial revolution, social media has the power to change how farming is done. But if this particular use of Facebook is taken advantage of correctly, it can affect how farmers do business, just like it affected nearly every other type of business. "Florida Farm Finder - Small Farms are Kind of A Big Dill" was created in April of this year and has proven it does just that. It has over 8,000 group members now. That means it gained more than a thousand new members each month. There is an opportunity now for a whole new way of getting information around by "word to mouth." And the sense of community that local farming brings to people is one thing that will never change. People are proud of their local farmers, what the land they live on is able to produce and they want to share that with people in other communities. This is the success behind online groups like this one. It has elements of old traditions like sharing what someone grows or raises with others but in a broader, quicker way. The internet is still a fairly new invention. There is still a lot to learn about how to use it in the correct way and what it can actually be helpful with. There has been no other time like this one, due to the advent of the worldwide web, and it's possible to see that as a blessing, as Childs and her group have. When visiting their group, you can use the search bar to type in whatever city, town or county you're interested in looking into or make a post, including the location of the farm that you or someone you know, has. Add yourself to the group for updates on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/floridafarmfinder.