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What if there are too many bust seasons in a given period and you and all your neighbors’ stocks are depleted? These are the real problems with subsistence farm

by jolux 4y ago

What if there are too many bust seasons in a given period and you and all your neighbors’ stocks are depleted? These are the real problems with subsistence farming and they’re the primary reason nobody wants to do it given a choice. There’s ultimately very little freedom in the sort of precarity that subsistence farming entails: all aspects of your life are dominated by the success of your harvest, which requires constant attention.

baremetal 4y ago
you assume the only life worth valuing is one that you know. fetishsizing risk is not what subsistence farmers do. look at the amish. when i am in the field, it is as if there is nothing going wrong in the world. headlines dont pierce the stillness. something ineffable has been lost.
- jolux 4y ago
  > you assume the only life worth valuing is one that you know. No, I think all life is worth valuing, it's just an objective fact that the vast majority of people would prefer not to be subsistence farming. > look at the amish. The Amish are not pure subsistence farmers. Many of them shop at Costco and Wal-Mart if it's accessible to them. They are also dependent on the rest of society for emergency services and healthcare, just like us. Their daily existence is far closer to ours than that of a subsistence farmer in sub-Saharan Africa. > when i am in the field, it is as if there is nothing going wrong in the world. headlines dont pierce the stillness. something ineffable has been lost. That's all well and good, I like being in nature and getting away from it all too, but there's no sense in romanticizing poverty like you're doing here. Subsistence farming is pain and suffering for huge numbers of people, not just an escape from the over-technologized mainstream culture of wealthy countries.
  - baremetal 4y ago
    fair point. i think i am trying to solve a different problem. and incorrectly drew inferences.

by jolux 4y ago

baremetal 4y ago

you assume the only life worth valuing is one that you know. fetishsizing risk is not what subsistence farmers do. look at the amish. when i am in the field, it is as if there is nothing going wrong in the world. headlines dont pierce the stillness. something ineffable has been lost.

jolux 4y ago
> you assume the only life worth valuing is one that you know. No, I think all life is worth valuing, it's just an objective fact that the vast majority of people would prefer not to be subsistence farming. > look at the amish. The Amish are not pure subsistence farmers. Many of them shop at Costco and Wal-Mart if it's accessible to them. They are also dependent on the rest of society for emergency services and healthcare, just like us. Their daily existence is far closer to ours than that of a subsistence farmer in sub-Saharan Africa. > when i am in the field, it is as if there is nothing going wrong in the world. headlines dont pierce the stillness. something ineffable has been lost. That's all well and good, I like being in nature and getting away from it all too, but there's no sense in romanticizing poverty like you're doing here. Subsistence farming is pain and suffering for huge numbers of people, not just an escape from the over-technologized mainstream culture of wealthy countries.
- baremetal 4y ago
  fair point. i think i am trying to solve a different problem. and incorrectly drew inferences.