F.A. Farm

Many years ago I applied for a breakfast cook job at a hotel in Boulder, Colorado. The application process included a question along the lines of: "You have three orders come in for the same table. One is 2 eggs over with ham and whole wheat toast; the second is Eggs Benedict and the third is a Spanish omelette with a side of pancakes. Write down the step-by-step process you would follow in finishing all three orders at the same time." For those of you who have been line cooks, you could probably do this order in your sleep, as could I, and I always liked this kind of application question.

I remembered that question this morning as I made myself an omelette and I thought at some length about timing in cooking. Sometimes I do all my prep work ahead of time and leave the ingredients in little bowls that I add at the right time. However, I find this boring, as I have to stand around and wait for the right time to add the ingredients. I much prefer to do my prepping as I cook and I sometimes refer to this as "just-in-time prep work." Back when I was an office temp I used to learn each new program I had to use by going to the tutorial in the Help Menu in the program itself. I called this approach "just-in-time learning." I first got onto the "just-in-time" concept when I worked in a machine shop and the owner had adopted the idea from Japanese business. Now many people have used this idea in their businesses and there is even a backlash against the concept because it is heavily dependent on cheap oil for transportation and it tends to clog up city streets during the workday hours (as it has done in Tokyo for years). Now American business is rethinking the idea of warehousing, especially if it can take advantage of inflationary cycles. In short, timing itself is being analyzed.

"Timing is everything," is an oft-used soundbite. Just as in cooking, timing is important in farming. For example, getting new potatoes out of the ground ahead of the lifecycle of late blight provides a backup against losing the entire crop. Using soaker hose or drip tape to water tomatoes not only lessens the probability of late blight, but also affords the opportunity to short the plants on water and speed up ripening. It is difficult not to hit the tomatoes if you have an impact sprinkler system, as I do, with a specified number of watering stations and a 10-day cycle - here's that timing thing again. The point is that timing is important in crop cycles and in individual plant cycles. This is not a new concept.

However, let's look at timing in a wider context. For the last 40 years I have been waiting for something to happen to afford the opportunity for real change. There was quite a burst of social change during the 60's and a lot of follow-through in the 70's. However, mainstream society fought back against real change and many cosmetic changes took the place of real change. One of the things Toni and I marvel at his how little progress has been made since our back-to-the-lander days. If we could have known how stratified and repressive American society would become, we wouldn't have believed it. The upshot of this perception is that the timing wasn't right in 1969. Of course, the question now becomes, "Is the timing right in 2009?" Tentatively, I think so.

The Transition Movement is gaining some traction right here in Whatcom county and around the nation. There are quite a few flaws, as it is mostly repackaging progressive social tactics developed over the last 40 years into a slick, branded package and marketing them heavily as new ideas. However, if it sweeps up the disaffected and airy-fairy and touchy-feely types into a movement that actually gets down into the dirt and sweats calories, it will have done its job. Right now the Transition Movement is mostly about meetings and spreading the word. However, it has provided another forum for me to spread my ideas and the local Transition Whatcom site provides constant updates from The Energy Bulletin and other worthy peak oil sources. I do take issue with its permaculture roots (there is way too much "cult" in permaculture) and since I have discussed my take on permaculture in other posts, I won't repeat myself. I also take issue with the whole idea of branding. As David Bowie once said, "Product plus personality equals brand." This is quite accurate and one only needs to look at Bowie's career to see how he marketed himself into superstardom. Personally, I find the whole concept of branding disgusting and Naomi Klein's book on corporate branding, No Logo (2000), was quite an eye-opener.

Clearly, I am selling my story when I am fresh-picking and selling vegetables to customers on the farm, but I am not doing the same thing as Nike (one of Klein's examples) is doing with their branding. Nike sells the brand and outsources the product. It doesn't really matter if its shoes are made in the Phillipines or Vietnam - the brand is what the customer is buying. The place means nothing and the product very little. It is all about the image behind the brand. In certified organics, the brand is once again most important. It doesn't matter where the product was made and the product is less important than the image being sold. In a nutshell, that is what then-Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman was saying back in 2000 when he said organic certification is not about food safety but just about marketing.

There are different levels to marketing. I do some marketing and I sell my commitment to the land every time I tell my story to a customer. However, I don't do branding like those who use the certified organic brand. The place I grow my food is important and the product itself is of prime importance, not whether it has a certified organic label. As an example of how the certified organic brand has gone astray, the Bellingham Co-op doesn't care whether their produce is grown in California or in Northwest Washington. What is most important to them is whether the produce has the certified organic brand.

How does all this relate to timing? I think the time is right for real change - right now. It starts with the land and proceeds through the food into the time spent cooking our own meals with like-minded folks. However, I think we have to be careful this time around. We cannot let ourselves be co-opted this time, especially by retread corporate tactics like branding and slick promotion. The environmental stakes are much higher and the societal costs more expensive.