What Even is 'Good Farming'?

From grocery store confusion to asking better questions about where food comes from

Learning where good food comes from starts by slowing down and asking better questions.

What’s the Purpose of All of This?

When I used to think of farming, I used to think of Little House on the Prairie.

I didn’t think about sustainability, where the food came from, what it took to grow it, or any of those things. I thought about Little Carrie Ingalls tumbling down that big hill in the tall grass, wide open county, and their family.

Thought Side Quest … Did you know that the iconic moment at the beginning of Little House on the Prairie where little Carrie tumbles was an accident? The character of Carrie was played by twin girls and neither girl was willing to run the hill again after Sidney fell during shoots.

The point is… I don’t really know much about farming, a lot of my knowledge is limited to random facts like the one above. I don’t know much about sustainable agriculture. I had to look up what regenerative agriculture even was whenever I first met Ryan, and I mostly just stared glassy eyed at the computer screen at a few articles before I went back to my pantry for another bite of processed food.

That’s just it though, isn’t it? The sheer volume of information, or sometimes lack thereof, is just so intimidating for someone who is just waking up every day in this busy life we all live, just trying to make it to the next check so we can spend half of it at the grocery store.

And that right there is the kicker, all that money spent on food at the grocery store, food designed to satiate quickly, and poison slowly. New connections pop up every day about food we have been consuming for years and another debilitating disease to not look forward to. It’s honestly extremely frustrating because you just want to make the right choices so you can live a healthy life.

Then, just when you think you are ready to make the investment (meaning spend more money at the grocery store on more expensive items), you find out that the food distributors with the fancy packages are at least in some way being dishonest with you by coloring their egg yolks, so they look ‘healthier’.

I might be new to this, but I’d wager that most people who have decided to homestead or make a huge switch to healthier living have also felt the disappointment of trying to do the right thing and still being met with resistance because EVEN THE PEOPLE YOU ARE PAYING ARE STILL LYING.

But, you know, at a premium price.

What does this even all come down to for a person like me? I’m not about to pack up my family and move to an acreage out in Arkansas so I can homestead with them. I like convenience and live music too much.

I just feel like I could be doing more.

At the end of the day, there are seemingly millions of different companies out there selling food products in the United States, but they are just packaging them or mixing them into different things. The origin of our food is just as important as anything else.

And that food comes from farms all around America (or at least should). What gives? I’ve known farmers, I grew up in Florida and Texas, what’s stopping the food they are producing from the very Earth that gave us life from being good for our bodies at the same time? Where are the good farms and farmers?

Or … have they just been overtaken by a plethora of companies that are simply scheming to make an extra few dollars by deliberately misleading Americans that are just trying to make healthy decisions for themselves and their families?

This just seems like something that should be SIMPLE to me, but is made complicated and practically gatekept by so many people both inside and outside of the industry. None of it seems right, and this should be easier for people to make the right choices than it is, but I’m looking to start prioritizing my family’s health by learning what I can, and doing it right here with you guys, because I know I’m not the only one on this journey.

In a few ways, it brings me right back to tumbling Carrie Ingalls and the opening of Little House on the Prairie. The beautiful rolling hills, flowers, and tall grass represent a land that is healthy and abundant, the wide-open country a visualization of possibility, and the Ingalls family itself reminds us of our priorities.

I don’t know everything (obviously), but I do know I want to learn and act on as much as possible to care for my family, my kids, and this beautiful planet that we get to live on.

So, I guess here goes, for the foreseeable future I’ll be learning as much as I can, sharing my take on different things with y’all, and finding out what ‘good farming’ is. I invite you guys to come with me. Send me articles and help me learn what comes next, because I’m excited.

Until next time, much love y’all!