Deeply Rooted Evaluation

Andrew Hibbard

Professor Santos

English 102-016

25 November 2017

Deeply Rooted Evaluation

            In Lisa Hamilton's book Deeply Rooted she follows three different kinds of farmers and recaps her experiences in vivid detail. One is a dairy farmer named Harry Lewis from Sulphur Springs, Texas. The second is Virgil Trujillo, a rancher in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Finally, Hamilton visits the Podoll family from LaMoure, North Dakota who raise turkeys and grow crops. In all three cases it is evident that the movement of modern agriculture is hindering small farmers and making the need for profit bigger than that of quality and care. 

            These farmers are in different fields of the farming industry but share the same worries and issues. They are all troubled by the impact industrial agriculture has on small farms and the morals that all farmers should follow. For example, Harry Lewis felt very strongly about the moral side of this. His dairy farm was small and allowed the cattle to live as freely as possible. He emphasized pasture. To him pasture is not just a place of grazing. It is a principle, not a standard to be met but a moral action. When talking about industrial farming Harry says, “a big, concrete dairy. You know what I call that kind of dairy? I call it a penitentiary. When you’re not free to move, then you’re incarcerated.” (Hamilton 42).  Most industrialized dairies are big concrete buildings where the cows don’t have access to true pasture. This goes against the morals that Harry and other small farmers hold at their establishments. Along with Harry, the Podoll family has a very strong morality when it comes to farming. David and Dan Podoll work in the family’s garden. They talk about how you lose your connection with the land when you use machines. They work in the garden because it keeps them close to the land and allows them to learn about it in more depth. Their morals rotate around the idea that one should work his land not with machines but with the tender care of a loving hand. Not only do they have a strong moral sense in farming, they also know how industrial agriculture’s goals can harm small farmers. David says, “We are running the farm as a business, but we don’t like to sell stuff-we think money perverts everything.” (Hamilton 246). Like many other small farmers, the Podolls hold quality and care higher than they hold profit. Money is the main goal of industrial farmers. Many small farmers struggle to compete. their morals are lost causing them to either industrialize or get out of the game. This allowed industrial farmers to grow and hurt the small farmers even more. This led to lower prices which in turn made the small farmers struggle even more. For example, Hamilton says, “in 1950 farmers received forty-one cents of every retail dollar spent on food, today their cut averages out to nineteen cents.” (Hamilton 140). This shows how drastic of a drop in price there really was and it helps you see how it would be hard for smaller farmers who can not produce as much to get by. These farmers struggled with the same issues in different ways.

            At times it was difficult for me to see Hamilton’s message while reading this book. Much of the book is vivid description of her experiences. The description is almost too much for me. It feels like she rambles a bit. However, it did not take away from my experience reading this book. In the end her message was clear. Our food industry is getting worse and has been for some time, profit has become more important than quality or care of animals and this is a moral issue. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys agriculture or farming and wants to learn more about the struggle of the small farmer and the effects industrialization has on farming. I think it is a good book for anyone to read because it gives you some insight on where your food comes from and that is a great thing to know about. Overall the book was well written and gave amazingly vivid descriptions that help the reader visualize Hamilton’s experiences. I urge you all to read this one day. You may learn some things you never knew. I know I did.