Let's start with this example: Associated individuals and Northeast Farm Access company advertises its mission to the public through its website and the media. The message in its mission is that of a progressive movement, full of good intentions. They offer 30 year farm leases to smallscale farmers. Read that: 30 years, NOT 30 WEEKS.
The guarantee of longterm access to the land, which cannot be bought, is on the surface, a tempting lure. It's also a compromise, if you don't do it, you the farmer may not be able to farm at all. Those pitiful souls who have been in this critical situation, know the suffering of the landless peasant. The deal is much more appealing and lucrative to the Company's investor/partners, than it is to the poor farmers. After you crunch the numbers, it becomes apparent.
This type of offer is the best that a small-business organic farmer can find in today's economy. If indeed it is an offer of legitimate business or is it a "carrot on a stick"? Could it be an exploitation in some insidious shape and form? Let me spell out the fraud and hypocrisy.
It's important to point out that the progressive movement is not holier-than-thou, it's not better than the mainstream politics. The progressive movement is full of the same problems and personal conflict which drag down the large corporations, the big industries, and all levels of the government. In fact, the unknown flaw in the progressive movement is that it is not regulated enough.
The progressive movement in all its guises from extreme left to center to neutral stance is a lower scale reflection of what goes on within all the big monied interests. In some cases, its just a way that the same establishment launders its money. That's right, interconnected in collusion, conspiracy. The progressives claim to know what's wrong with the world and they are joining together to improve the world. The progressives want to be perceived as the new good guys, but are they? One would imagine that they would treat each other better and with more respect. That is not actually the case. They are prone to the same things of the conservatives and the others, who are categorized as not-progressives.
It's very weird to figure this out, because it's candy-coated and the outsider just does not see anything but a colorful wonderful picture of things. One would think that the progressive network is just fair and equitable with all its funding and donation collecting. It's comprised of all friends who are happy and getting along, dancing all the way to the humanistic future. Far from it. It's just the hard reality we have to face. Confront that fact.
The NEFA company and I'm sure so many other entities of its type and intention are milking the progressive angle. Be certain that they have their reasons, their comfort zones. But the rabbit hole goes deeper. It's the progressive movement which then generates the growth of community, all sorts of communities and cliques, which thrive in that environment. For the lack of support from mainstream society, it's the only place to go.
These communities form relatively organically in the shadows of the other structured entities. And it's in these communities that can be found some of the well-meaning movers and shakers. These are individuals who do what they do in their own unique style. That's where the problems are lurking. It's the same old problem you find anywhere else in society, the same egotistical competition and complications.
With a progressive mindset, how does a community actually get formed? How you form community is with the leaders, founders and facilitators who are going to foster true cooperation. How you form community is by becoming the real, day by day, expression of some ideals that are broadcasted by the companies, yet never actualized. Being the real deal is quite a task, because you are kind of on your own. There's barely any guidance, it's a remote frontier where we are.
Being the real deal organic farmer, who is living close to the land, is one of the most difficult work pursuits to accomplish. It is especially hard if not impossible to accomplish if the farmer is surrounded by hypocrisy, in-fighting, and personal conflict. These are merely a distraction and are not necessary in the task of the famer, but it's the hard reality of the post-modern world that we find all around us. This is a global struggle, it's not just happening here in rich old New York.
Being a farmer is not just for work, it's also the whole life of farming. It's the agrarian way. It's universal, it's common sense. If not enough people do it the right way, then we all don't eat. That's the upcoming crisis that the overpopulating world has to solve.
Yet the problem is immediately in front of us. The local leaders of the movement and the managers of the land are flawed. They are just smaller versions of the tyrants we see on the mainstream news media. There is now a power struggle and a shifting hierarchy.
How do we build community properly? How do we rise above the community which is being dragged down into the chaos and negativity? Well we are going to find out. It's not so much about community, that's the end result, of the collective. The salvation is more about the individual, going within and being the best possible new self. Become what you are meant to be. Regardless of the obstacles, the confusion, the disagreements, the litigations, etc. Be what you are, right here, right now. That's the way that I believe in. I practice it. And I am doing the best that I can to fit in.
My family and my friends, who are fellow farmers and progressives, will continue onwards, knowing that we will experience the harmony of the community which will create our better future. That is our purpose and our goal. That is the general mission of the new cooperative so far. Practically speaking, we do need a permanent piece of land to anchor ourselves and our activity. Where and when this will be guaranteed is to be decided by the highest possible authority in this world. Then it will be finalized and the garden will be perpetual. It will be quite a success for a group of nobodies with no land. It's not only about the land, it's about everybody doing the right thing, in the long run.
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