ARE THE OLD WAYS NEW AGAIN? LOCAL FARMERS PRACTICING CIVIC
AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHWEST MISSOURI
A Masters Thesis
Presented to
The Graduate College of
Missouri State University
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science, Applied Anthropology
By
Lester S. Lakey
December 2011
ARE THE OLD WAYS NEW AGAIN? LOCAL FARMERS PRACTICING CIVIC
AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHWEST MISSOURI
Sociology and Anthropology Department
Missouri State University, December 2011
Master of Science
Lester S. Lakey
ABSTRACT
Since the 1970s there has been an increase in social movements toward farmers’ markets,
community supported agriculture (CSA) projects and other outlets where consumers can
purchase local foods. Much of the existing social science research on this topic focuses
on consumers’ motivations. Few studies examine farmers’ perspectives and the methods
they use to produce local foods. I build upon this less developed area of research by
assessing the effects of the “local food” movements on farmers in the Springfield Plateau
region of the Missouri Ozarks. Specifically, I aimed to investigate whether these local
food movements are bringing about a re-emergence of traditional family farms once
prevalent before the adoption of conventional agriculture, or are farmers practicing
something modern. I answered this question by conducting an ethnographic study of two
farms and exploring other farms in the region where food is grown and sold on site, at
farmers’ markets, and/or at other local outlets. Through this study, I found that local
farms share qualities with traditional family farms. I have unexpectedly discovered that
there is a high variability among farmers’ motivations and attitudes. These motivations
range from farming as a means to earn an income for their families to a new type of
farmer who farms as a means to build networks to connect farmers and consumers in the
community to the processes surrounding the growing and raising of food. This research
contributes to the academic and professional understanding of civic agriculture in the
Ozarks. In addition, understanding the range of farmers’ motivations and attitudes in a
community may help in the development of strong local food movements.
KEYWORDS: ethnography, civic agriculture, alienation, Ozarks, local food movement
This abstract is approved as to form and content
Dr. Margaret Buckner
Chairperson, Advisory Committee
Missouri State University
ii
ARE THE OLD WAYS NEW AGAIN? LOCAL FARMERS PRACTICING CIVIC
AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHWEST MISSOURI
By
Lester S. Lakey
A Masters Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate College
Of Missouri State University
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master of Science, Applied Anthropology
December 2011
Approved:
Dr. Margaret Buckner
Dr. Suzanne Walker-Pacheco
Dr. William Wedenoja
_______________________________________
Dr. Pawan Kahol,
Interim Graduate College Dean
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following people for their support during the course of
my graduate studies: Dr. Margaret Buckner, Dr. Suzanne Walker-Pacheco, and Dr.
William Wedenoja. I would also like to thank my family for their support, and the people
who provided their time for me to work and communicate with them concerning the
subject of this thesis.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ........................................................................................................................01
History of Farming in the Springfield Plateau of the Ozarks with an emphasis on Greene
and Christian Counties .......................................................................................................04
Ozarks Geography .................................................................................................04
Ozarks Subsistence Farming up to the Civil War ..................................................04
After the Civil War: Semi-subsistence Farming in the Ozarks..............................10
Development of Conventional Agriculture in the Ozarks .....................................12
Local Food Movements in the Ozarks: Greene and Christian Counties ............................18
Farmers’ Markets ...................................................................................................19
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Projects ..............................................22
Community Gardens, a Local Cooperative, and Produce Auctions ......................23
Local Food Movements as Civic Agriculture and Resistance to Alienation .........26
Local Farmers: Tradition Versus Modernity .........................................................28
Methodology ......................................................................................................................30
Introduction ............................................................................................................30
Participant Observation ..........................................................................................30
Interviews ...............................................................................................................32
Findings..............................................................................................................................33
Fassnight Creek Farm ............................................................................................33
The Farmer and the Land ...........................................................................33
What is Grown and Where it is Sold .........................................................34
People Involved at the Farm ......................................................................35
Basic Methods ............................................................................................36
Innovative Strategies ..................................................................................38
Strategies to “Make Ends Meet” ................................................................40
Reflections on Farming ..............................................................................42
Steinert’s Greenhouse ............................................................................................42
The Farmer and the Land ...........................................................................42
What is Grown and Where it is Sold .........................................................43
People Involved at the Farm ......................................................................44
Methods, Strategies, and Innovations ........................................................45
Other Local Farmers ..............................................................................................47
Nature’s Lane Farm ...................................................................................47
Ozark Mountain Orchard ...........................................................................49
Millsap Farm ..............................................................................................51
Urban Roots Farm ......................................................................................53
Even More Farms .......................................................................................57
Discussion ..........................................................................................................................60
v
Shared Qualities Among Farmers ..........................................................................62
Fassnight Creek Farm ................................................................................63
Steinert’s Greenhouse ................................................................................64
Nature’s Lane Farm ...................................................................................65
Ozark Mountain Orchard ...........................................................................66
Urban Roots Farm ......................................................................................66
Variability Among Farmers ...................................................................................67
Fassnight Creek Farm and Steinert’s Greenhouse .....................................68
Urban Roots Farm and Millsap Farm ........................................................69
Ozark Mountain Orchard and Nature’s Lane Farm ...................................70
Traditional and Modern Farmers ...........................................................................71
Local Farmers as Singular Existences ...................................................................73
Building Networks of Resistance Against Alienation ...........................................73
Conclusions ........................................................................................................................75
References .........................................................................................................................77
vi
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. A review of farms and their characteristics .........................................................61
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Map of geographical regions of the Ozarks .......................................................05
Figure 2. Graph of the number of farms selling produce in Greene and Christian counties
............................................................................................................................................16
Figure 3. Graph of the number of farms selling produce in Greene and Christian counties
............................................................................................................................................20
Figure 4. Map of Fassnight Creek Farm ............................................................................34
Figure 5. Map of Steinert’s Greenhouse ............................................................................44
Figure 6. Map of some other farms in Greene and Christian counties ..............................59
viii
INTRODUCTION
Traditional family farms of the Missouri Ozarks were varied and culturally mixed
groups of immigrants and settlers who came to the Ozarks started many of these early
farms. Immigrants and settlers who came to the Ozarks’ Springfield Plateau region
worked the region’s rocky and marginal soils for farming. However, starting around the
1940s, conventional agriculture’s capital-intensive system displaced most traditional
family farms.
The growth of conventional agriculture has caused the traditional semisubsistence family farm to become virtually nonexistent throughout the United States,
including Missouri’s Greene and Christian counties. Conventional agriculture’s
standardized methods of growing monocultures and its focus of maximizing food
production have disregarded local economic needs, essential social connections, food
quality, and environmental health.
However, since the 1970s there has been an increase in local food movements,
which has enabled the number of local growers to increase. Much of the existing social
science research on this topic explores consumers’ perspectives and motivations. Few
studies examine farmers’ perspectives and the methods they use to produce local foods to
meet consumer demand. This study builds upon this less developed area of research by
assessing the effects of the local food movements on farmers in Greene and Christian
counties in Missouri. Specifically, this study aims to investigate whether these local food
movements are bringing about a re-emergence of traditional family farms once prevalent
before the adoption of conventional agriculture, or are these movements enabling the
1
growth of a new type of farmer. The specific questions I investigate are: (1) What
strategies do local farmers adopt to provide produce for local markets? and (2) What
characteristics or qualities do local producers and their farms share with traditional family
farms before the 1940s? These questions were addressed primarily through the
ethnographic study of two farms in Greene and Christian counties where local food is
raised and grown to be sold through local food movement channels such as farmers’
markets. In addition, I collected information about four other farms; collected
information for the historical background of farming in Greene and Christian counties;
and interviewed and spoken with other people involved in farmers’ markets and local
food stores.
This thesis begins with a historical background in which I describe the geography
of the Ozarks’ Springfield Plateau region, the influence of early immigration into the
region, and the development of farming in the region. I then describe the growth of
traditional family farming and its replacement with conventional agriculture. In the final
background section, I describe local food movements in this region, discuss how they are
practicing “civic agriculture,” and that some are forming complex networks that are a
form of resistance to what Karl Marx called “alienation.”
Following the background, I present my results on the strategies local farmers use
to grow and sell local foods and that the local farmers are exhibiting qualities such as
adaptability, versatility, and diversification similar to the traditional farmers who were
once prevalent in this Ozarks region.
Last, I will discuss my findings. This will include a discussion of the strategies
local farmers are using, qualities local farmers share with traditional family farms, and
2
variability among the farmers. The discussion will also address how these farmers’
strategies are a resistance to alienation. In addition, I will discuss the issue of tradition
versus modernity using Horton’s (1967) interpretation of these terms, Dampierre’s (1998)
concept of the “singular,” and considering whether local farmers are continuing to
practice traditional farming in response to the growth of local food movements, or
practicing something modern.
This study contributes to the academic and professional understanding of civic
agriculture in Greene and Christian counties and in the Ozarks more broadly. This study
also demonstrates that local farmers use varied strategies to provide local foods and that
there is great variability among farmers.
3
HISTORY OF FARMING IN THE SPRINGFIELD PLATEAU OF THE OZARKS
WITH AN EMPHASIS ON GREENE AND CHRISTIAN COUNTIES
Ozarks Geography
Though there are geographers who disagree on the Ozarks’ exact geographic and
cultural borders, its physical general borders are agreed to be the Missouri River as its
northern border, the Mississippi River as the eastern border, and the Arkansas River as
the southern border (Gerlach 1976, McKinney 1990, and Sauer 1968). Differences in
physical terrain and soil types characterize subregions in the Ozarks and have led to each
region adapting differently to twentieth century agricultural change (Blevins 2002 and
Rafferty 1980).
My research area is in the Springfield Plateau (also referred to as the Springfield
Plain) region of the Ozarks (Figure 1). The Springfield Plateau forms the Ozarks’ western
border and extends from Missouri into Oklahoma and Arkansas (Rafferty 1980). The
Springfield Plateau is characterized by sloped topography and soils rich in limestone
chert, which are some of the best soils in the Ozarks uplands (Rafferty 1980).
Ozarks Subsistence Farming up to the Civil War
Thorough cultural histories of the Ozarks and the settlement patterns of its
immigrants have been documented by Gerlach (1976), McKinney (1990), and Rafferty
(1980). This section is a summary of immigration and subsistence in the Missouri Ozarks
and the Springfield Plateau region before and during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
4
Figure 1. Map depicts geographical regions of the Ozarks. From Milton D. Rafferty, The
Ozarks: Land and Life (1980:13).
Archaeological evidence indicates different hunter-gatherer groups, as early as
13,000 years ago, periodically inhabited the Ozarks interior (Lopinot et al. 2000 and Ray
et al. 1998). By the eighteenth century, groups in the southwest Ozarks generally
remained isolated and independent with little trade activity, and subsisted on hunting,
foraging, and small garden cultivation (Rafferty 1980). Prior to the first wave of
European immigrants in the eighteenth century, the Osage occupied much of the
southwestern Ozarks and subsisted by hunting and agriculture along with other tribes,
such as the Caddos (Rafferty 1980). Among the first wave of European immigrants to
5
settle in the Ozarks in the eighteenth century up to the mid-nineteenth century included
French Creoles and African slaves. During this period, there were also American settlers,
mainly Scotch-Irish, from states such as Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, who
followed these immigrants and entered the Mississippi Valley, establishing early
settlements in the Mississippi River Border and St. Francis Mountains regions (Rafferty
1980). Though some of these pioneers would navigate rivers reaching into the interior of
Missouri, this terrain was not suitable for settlement due to the few navigable streams and
the rugged topography of the Springfield Plateau, causing settlement into this area to
occur later than the eastern Ozarks’ regions (Rafferty 1980).
By the 1820s, the Delaware had established along the James River in southwest
Missouri, a large Native American settlement, which numbered more than 3000
inhabitants at its height. Delaware Town (in Christian County) was the largest
concentrated population in southwest Missouri until the growth of Springfield after the
Civil War (Morrow 1981). This temporary reservation for the Delaware and their
establishment in southwest Missouri is possibly the most important factor to encourage
the settlement of Springfield, located near Delaware Town (Dark 1981). The first known
white settlers who managed to find passage into the region followed the Delaware into
the area. These settlers included William Gilliss, a trader who had ties to the Delaware
and worked extensively with them (Morrow 1981). Some settlers started from the
Muskingum River in Ohio and navigated the Mississippi, Arkansas, White, and James
rivers and established their settlement near the Delaware reservation (Rafferty 1980).
These settlers traded and established complex relationships with the Delaware until the
latter were removed from the temporary reservation in 1830 (Morrow 1981).
6
Other groups of settlers, mainly from Tennessee and Kentucky, made their way
into the southwest region of the Ozarks at approximately the same time the Delaware
were forced to relocate westward. This group was of Scotch-Irish descent, like the settlers
who initially inhabited the northeastern Ozarks regions. They first chose areas near
springs and timber, while later settlers chose fertile upland prairies (Rafferty 1980).
Rafferty notes a visitor who came to Springfield in 1829 from Tennessee and is
recognized as one of the founders of Springfield, Missouri: “John Polk Campbell, a
Tennessean, found good soils in the Kickapoo Prairie and in the small bottoms along
Jordan Creek (a tributary of Wilson’s Creek) and abundant good water issuing from
springs along the creek bank. He returned the following year with his family and friends”
(Rafferty 1980:50).
During 1838 and 1839, Cherokees, under forced migration by the federal
government, passed through the Springfield Plateau region to the Oklahoma Ozarks. The
groups of Cherokees migrating through Springfield were among the last settlers of this
first migration wave into the Ozarks during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
(Rafferty 1980).
Though the Ozarks started to become a culturally diverse region at this time, the
majority of the pioneers settling in the Ozarks and specifically the Springfield Plateau
region were Scotch-Irish and German immigrants. These immigrants made a larger
imprint upon the Ozarks regions than other immigrant groups and differed from each
other in their subsistence methods.
The German immigrants, who settled mainly along the Missouri and Mississippi
River valleys, brought with them their land-intensive farming methods to grow crops for
7
market (Gerlach 1976). The Scotch-Irish who settled throughout the Springfield Plateau
Region did not use intensive farming methods. They subsisted through versatile means,
such as weaving, farming, hunting, fishing, trapping, and using other resources obtained
from the surrounding forests (McKinney 1990).
The Scotch-Irish frontiersmen from Appalachia were an early generation of
Americans but still brought with them cultural traits of independence and versatility from
their original homeland (Gerlach 1983). These traits helped them to settle in areas of the
Springfield Plateau region, such as around the Current, Osage, and White rivers where
the land is more isolated and forested than the Mississippi and Missouri River Valleys,
settled mostly by the French and Germans. The land in the Springfield Plateau region of
the Ozarks was a mixed topography of hills and prairies with rocky soil. The farms that
some of the settlers established in this region were as diverse as the land, and though
settlers preferred land similar to their homeland, these settlers had to figure out what
worked successfully on this new land (Irwin 2003).
The Scotch-Irish immigrants who moved from the Appalachian areas and then to
the Ozarks were known as Ulstermen, Lowland Scots who immigrated to Ulster
Plantation in Northern Ireland during the seventeenth century (Gerlach 1983 and Rafferty
1980). After weathering clan wars against Northern Scots and Irishmen in Northern
Ireland, the Ulstermen Scots made their way to North America and to the Appalachians.
The Scotch-Irish (eventually) migrated mainly from the Appalachians in
Tennessee, Kentucky, and other regions of Missouri (McKinney 1990). They were
independent, resourceful, and innovative in making a living off the land (Rafferty 1980).
Rafferty states: “At the close of the primary phase of immigration, then, the Ozarks was
8
inhabited by a hardy breed of Scotch-Irish immigrants who were engaged mainly in
subsistence farming. Among them were a few artificers, professional men, and preachers.
They were poor but nearly self-sufficient and skilled at living under isolated conditions”
(1980:60).
While Rafferty describes the Scotch-Irish farming practices as subsistence-based,
other scholars differ in their descriptions of the Scotch-Irish pioneers’ lifestyle.
McKinney’s description of these early settlers in the Ozarks is based on Michael
Merrill’s analysis of rural farming communities using “Marxist-based analysis of
capitalistic endeavors versus home production of products” (1990:28). Merrill’s argument
is that most rural farming communities in the United States appeared to practice a
subsistence lifestyle because they did not have immediate access to cash money and only
very few families were strictly subsistence farmers. If families had any surplus items
available, they could be used to barter in exchange for other goods and/or neighbors
would use labor exchange for cooperative work, such as barn raising and log-rollings
(McKinney 1990).
Regardless, the Scotch-Irish who settled in the Springfield Plateau region from
Appalachia during the nineteenth century was independent, versatile, and adaptable.
These settlers very well may have bartered surplus goods and labor exchange amongst
rural neighbors as McKinney indicated; however, these settlers still survived on what
they grew, raised, and harvested for themselves. It is also important to mention that
Ozarks settlers who were craftsmen produced goods for individual customers.
“Manufactured products made by individual craftsmen were made-to-order for
9
customers, not speculatively built ahead of time for eventual sale to unknown customers
in remote markets” (McKinney 1990:29).
After the Civil War: Semi-subsistence Farming in the Ozarks
After the Civil War, while urban areas increased in population as more people
moved out of rural areas, the Ozarks witnessed an increase in population. Derr (1953)
suggests that agriculture’s significance waned as manufacturing and business gained
importance in political circles. However, the significance of agriculture may not have
decreased so much as the family farms’ significance and its subsistence basis; bartering
accumulated surplus; and labor-exchange between neighbors.
The Ozarks was becoming a culturally complex region, settled by people of
various cultural backgrounds. In addition to the Scotch-Irish and German settlers, there
were also Irish, Swedish, Swiss, French, and Bohemian (Gerlach 1976). Rafferty (1980)
characterizes this second wave of settlers moving to the Ozarks during the time after the
Civil War as primarily war veterans and educated entrepreneurs, distinct from the rugged,
intrepid pioneers of the first wave. This second migration wave of settlers made their way
into the Ozarks primarily by the new railroads that had resumed construction after the
Civil War (Rafferty 1980).
During this time of agricultural change, Ozarks family farms adjusted to
innovations such as railroads and new farming technology that arrived in the early
twentieth century (Derr 1953). Subsistence farms transitioning and adapting to a semisubsistence lifestyle in the Springfield Plateau adjusted to these changes, first by adopting
new cultivation technologies of the time, like the turning plow (when families could
10
afford to buy new equipment) and second, by selling their surplus to emerging markets.
In 1868, McGregor and Murray (a Springfield firm) sold more than 700 turning plows,
showing that farmers in Greene County were purchasing new agriculture technology
(Rafferty 1980). This also shows a change from the individual craftsman producing
made-to-order equipment for customers, to products built ahead of time for future sales as
mentioned earlier in Merrill’s study of a subsistence lifestyle versus a cash economy
(McKinney 1990).
With the capability to grow a diversified selection of vegetables, fruits, and
grains, family farms increased in the early 1900s. Rafferty states that, “from 1890 to 1900
the number of farms in the eight-county area around Springfield increased from 13,540 to
23,311” (1980:151). Johnathan Fairbanks writes of the state of agriculture in Greene
County in 1915 that:
Greene County is especially blessed in not being a region where the farmer has to
place his reliance almost wholly on any one particular crop. He can choose for his
specialty, if he so wills, almost any standard crop of the temperate zone. Or he can
have crops of any and all grains, fruits, and vegetables. Thus, with more than one
string to his bow, he can feel sure that is disaster befalls one or two of his crops,
the others will hold him safe from harm. [quoted in Rafferty 1980:150]
According to Rafferty, “a 1917 county history stated that ‘small farms and diversity of
crops’ well could be adopted as the motto of Greene County” (1980:150-151).
Around this same period, Christian County, bordering Greene County to the
south, was experiencing a boom in fruit producers and canneries. In the 1890’s tomato
growing, as a cash crop, and the canneries it supported, became profitable for farmers in
Christian County (Glenn 2009). After the Civil War, canned products entered the civilian
market as demand increased, and canning operations became viable for small farms
11
(Dicke 1999). Tomatoes fit well into farmers’ operations: tomatoes have a fast
turnaround, and while farmers’ other fruit crops matured, they could harvest tomatoes
and sell them to the canneries (Dicke 1999). For product quality, canneries were located
as close as possible to the farms growing tomatoes; this characteristic of canneries
allowed farmers to acquire additional income for their families as family members also
worked at the canneries (Dicke 1999). Despite the growth of these small farms in Greene
and Christian counties, also referred to as “general farming” (e.g. Rafferty), they would
soon decline due to the growth of conventional agriculture, which had already begun
around 1870 (Rafferty 1980).
Development of Conventional Agriculture in the Ozarks
Conventional agriculture developed in the Ozarks (including the Springfield
Plateau region) between 1870 and 1910, due to the adoption of scientific farming
methods directed by colleges of agriculture and farming organizations, such as the
Grange, the Agricultural Wheel, and the Farmers Alliance (Rafferty 1980). I will adopt
Beus and Dunlap’s definition of conventional agriculture as “capital-intensive, largescale, highly mechanized agriculture with monocultures of crops and extensive use of
artificial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, with intensive animal husbandry”
(1990:594).
Semi-subsistence or general farming started to decrease in the Ozarks as the focus
shifted to specialized agricultural production, as discussed by Rafferty: “The overriding
forces contributing to the decline of general farming have been the improvements in
transportation, organization, and integration for the marketing of agricultural products
12
throughout the United States. Increasing area specialization and the economies of scale of
production have made general farming largely uncompetitive” (1980:154).
Jager illustrated the concerns of farmers who lived in his community that the shift
toward specialized farming was going “toward business” and leaving their “history,” a
history that included “their farm’s diversity, and the variety of challenges it imposed,
valuable in themselves” (2004:26). Diversification and other qualities comprised what
Jager describes as the traditional family farm or general farm. Though Jager recognizes
that each family farm has its own set of unique challenges whether handled wisely or
poorly, he argues that his family farm, like most, was typical in having a “mode of
agriculture that was highly diversified and highly integrated” (2004:25). As for a family
farm’s unique set of challenges, “every farmer knew his own land intimately, knew its
quirks, its strengths and weak spots; and to a very large extent it was the produce of that
land that was brought to his own table” (Jager 2004:27). This type of family farming did
not last alongside the spread of specialized agriculture with the exception of Amish
farming that continues today (Jager 2004).
As Ozarks farmers found they could not compete with a national market, many
switched to specialized production in fruit farming (mainly strawberries, apples, peaches,
and tomatoes), dairy farming, and raising livestock. The Springfield Plateau region
supported many of these specialized products. The slope of the topography and cherty
soils favored the production of strawberries and tomatoes but the sloped land ultimately
limited the amount of production that distant markets demanded (Rafferty 1980).
Specialized agricultural production of fruit and their associated canneries and
processing centers did provide jobs in the Springfield Plateau and other Ozarks regions.
13
However, by the 1930s the Great Depression and the droughts in 1934 and 1936 affected
the fruit industry in the Ozarks, causing many orchards and canneries to shut down. Many
commercial farmers suffered and lost their farms as the value of agricultural commodities
fell.
Many of the farmsteads that were not sold transitioned to specialized production
techniques or other specialized agricultural production, such as dairy (Stewart-Abernathy
1986). Yet during those stressful times, families in the Missouri Ozarks region who
continued to practice semi-subsistence farming witnessed less suffering and were affected
less by the economic collapse than by the droughts in 1934 and 1936 (McKinney 1992).
A 2004 Ozarks oral history project conducted by Missouri State students found
that men and women who had lived on subsistence or semi-subsistence family farms
during this time reported that they never went hungry (Ozarks Oral History Collection).
For example, Clifford Garrett, who grew up in the Ozarks during the Depression, said:
We lived on a big farm. My dad had eight children to feed. We raised about
everything that we ate. A lot of years my dad would butcher seven and eight hogs.
We raised our own potatoes, even to our dried beans and everything practically
that we eat. We never went hungry because we had plenty from the farm to eat,
although we didn’t eat the variety that people eat today. [Clifford Garrett 2004]
While variety may have been lacking, people lived on what they grew and some were
able to sell their surpluses.
Some people moved to the Ozarks from urban areas due to the depressed
economy, drawn by cheaper land, the lower cost of living, and the possibility of starting a
subsistence farmstead (Rafferty 1980). Many of them, as well as some established
farmers and their family members, found part-time labor to supplement their income by
working at the canneries, logging, and harvesting strawberries and tomatoes (Rafferty
14
1980). Part-time work created a hedge for farming families, with the traditional family
farm being “varied enterprises, of many small hedges against total failure” (Jager
2004:25).
Labor shortages during wartime in the 1940s, in addition to increased nationally
integrated markets, further devastated specialized agricultural production and the
canneries in the Ozarks. The semi-subsistence family farmer could not compete with
conventional agriculture. By the 1950s, tomato farming and its supporting canneries
virtually became nonexistent and many of the orchards in the Ozarks had disappeared
(Rafferty 1980).
The number of farms producing vegetables and small fruits dropped significantly
in Greene and Christian counties after the 1940s. In 1925, there were 1333 reporting
farms that grew vegetables for sale in Greene County. The next available census data for
the census years 1950, 1954, 1959, and 1964, report respectively 62, 17, 25 and 8 farms
selling vegetables (US Census of Agriculture 1925, 1950, 1959, and 1964)1. In Christian
County, 710 farms reported growing vegetables for sale in 1925, but for the census years
1950, 1954, 1959, and 1964, the number of farms reporting dropped to 26, 5, 16, and 5
respectively (Figure 2) (US Census of Agriculture 1925, 1950, 1959, and 1964).
The Ozarks differed little from the rest of the nation in reference to agricultural
changes taking place from the early to mid-nineteenth century; however, what was
unique to the Ozarks was the rapidity of the cultural, social, and economic changes that
occurred from 1920 to 1960 (McKinney 1990). Rafferty (1980) reports that in 1930 there
1
The options for produce census data have changed over the years. Whereas the Census of Agriculture
used to have a variety of options to list the amount of different produce harvested for the census year (i.e.
cabbage, lettuce, onions, sweet corn, tomatoes, etc.), it has since lumped any amount of vegetables
harvested under the single option of vegetables and melons.
15
were 11,172 general farms in the Springfield Plateau region, and by 1964 that number
had dropped to 420.
Figure 2. Graph showing the number of reported farms that grew and sold produce in
Greene and Christian counties during indicated census years.
There were vestiges of the family or general farm at least up to the 1970s in the
Ozarks, living on what they produced and selling surplus produce to a local market.
Charles Hill (Interview, October 15, 2010) grew up during the 1940s and1950s working
on his father’s farm in Pleasant Hope, Missouri. The farm had 59 acres, used mostly for
cattle, though the family also subsisted on a large garden and grew tobacco. He
remembers that his father also sold strawberries to Ramey’s Supermarket in Springfield
during the 1960s and 1970s.
16
By the late twentieth century, the efficiency in transporting food in trucks
improved and many local markets closed down due to larger grocery chains purchasing
produce from places as far as California. The tradition of purchasing local products had
practically disappeared in the Ozarks in the 1970s. Conventional agriculture continued to
grow as an efficient market-driven system producing the maximum amount of food and
fiber at the cheapest available cost to the consumer (Lyson 2005). Lyson states:
Agricultural industrialization, propelled by mechanization, the increased use of
chemicals, and advanced biotechnologies, has proceeded almost unabated since
the 1920s. During this period, farms have become larger in size and fewer in
number. The use of land has intensified and yields per acre of farmland have
increased dramatically. The amount of farmland has decreased while capital
investment on farms has increased. And farms have been woven into ever tighter
marketing channels. [2000:43]
Conventional agriculture is efficient and successful at achieving its goals, but
provides very few economic benefits to non-corporate participants. Conventional
agriculture (also known as industrialized agriculture) has proven detrimental to the
environment and to the quality of food, and it removes essential social network
connections. Conventional agriculture has reduced food to a commodity as “units for
observation, analysis, experimentation, and intervention” (Lyson and Guptill 2004:372).
The farm is no longer a place where farmers connect to the community but rather where
production occurs (Lyson 2005). The farmer practicing conventional agriculture has been
removed from being their community’s caretaker of food and is now a laborer, or
according to Roland Kay, the farm operator is a manager and an individual “problem
solver” (Lyson 2005:93).
17
LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENTS IN THE OZARKS: GREENE AND CHRISTIAN
COUNTIES
Farms participating in local food movements are practicing what DeLind (2002)
and Lyson (2000) have termed civic agriculture. Civic agriculture is a locally based form
of agriculture and food production system directly linked to a community’s social and
economic development (Lyson 2000). In other words, civic agriculture is a localized
system where food is raised and grown in an area and sold directly from the grower (or
farmer) to consumers through different channels, and incorporates participants from all
aspects at the civic level in an attempt to provide access to fresh food for everyone. Civic
agriculture as a localized food system encompasses all participants in its practice,
including advocates, consumers, food system workers, business owners, educators, and
policy makers (Bittermann 2007; DeLind 2002; Chung, Kirkby, Kendell, and Beckwith
2005).
These participants in civic agriculture distinguish this form of agriculture from
conventional agriculture by methods and problem solving at the local level to obtain local
produce rather than the capital intensive, structured methods of conventional agriculture
(Lyson 2005). Farms practicing civic agriculture may sell their products through local
channels, such as farmers’ markets, community supported agricultural (CSA) projects,
food cooperatives, and buy-local campaigns that promote the most direct relationship
between the producer and consumer. The direct connection a local farmer as the producer
has to the people is essential for community development. Lyson argues that
“communities with an economic base of local farm producers have a higher social,
18
economic, and political well-being than communities with an economic base of a few
large absentee-owned farms” (2005:94).
Since the 1980s, people in the Ozarks have begun to respond to their loss of
connection to local producers and produce. The Springfield Plateau region in southwest
Missouri has a number of channels for farmers to connect and sell their products to the
consumer. The local food movements in Springfield and the surrounding county include
farmers’ markets, CSA projects, community gardens, a local farmer cooperative, and
nonprofit organizations.
For the available census data in 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1997, 2002, and
2007, the number of farms in Greene County that reported growing produce for sale was
respectively 15, 10, 10, 16, 10, 20, 17, and 18 (US Census of Agriculture 1969, 1974,
1978, 1982, 1987, 1997, and 2007). For each of the same census years the number of
farms in Christian County that reported growing produce for sale was respectively 5, 2, 3,
5, 4, 8, 8, and 8 (US Census of Agriculture 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1997, and
2007)2. Since the census in 1964, it appears that the number of reported farms that are
growing and selling produce in Greene and Christian counties has slightly rose (Figure
3).
Farmers’ Markets
Farmers’ markets have undergone rapid growth recently in the United States. The
USDA’s website reports that in 2010 there were 6,132 listed farmers’ markets in the
2
The data for the census years may be affected by the minimum criteria for defining a farm, which has
changed at least nine times since 1850.
19
United States, compared to 2,863 farmers’ markets in 2000 (USDA, accessed October 25,
2010).
The purpose of farmers’ markets is to rebuild the one-on-one relationship of the
farmer (also known as the producer or vendor if they are selling at a market) with the
consumer. The benefits from this relationship are mutual to the vendor and consumer.
The vendor receives a direct profit from selling his or her products and the consumer gets
fresh and nutritionally rich produce.
Figure 3. Graph showing the number of reported farms that grew and sold produce in
Greene and Christian counties during indicated census years.
20
The vendor also has an opportunity to receive feedback directly from the consumer, and
the consumer has the opportunity to learn where the product comes from and how it is
produced. Many people come to farmers’ markets for the atmosphere as much as for the
products (Andreatta and Wickliffe 2002).
Each farmers’ market may have its own rules and regulations of operation. A
market manager at a farmers’ market directs the market policy, which indirectly
influences the consumer’s experience, as Susan Andreatta and William Wickliffe
discovered in their study of farmer and consumer expectations at a North Carolina
farmers’ market (2002). A market manager may conduct on-farm visits to look at produce
quality and to ensure vendors are abiding by the market’s rules.
There are eight farmers’ markets in Greene and Christian counties, four of which
are located in Springfield, Missouri (Schumer 2011). The Greater Springfield Farmers’
Market (GSFM) is the oldest market; it started in July 1979. The GSFM attracts local
growers from around the area by requiring them to pick their produce a certain number of
hours before the day of the market. There are three other farmers’ markets in Springfield:
the C-Street Market, the Eastland Farmers Market, and the Downtown Farmers Market.
The C-Street Market, being the second largest farmers’ market in Springfield, has no
restrictions on where the produce originates and what vendors sell at the market. This
market attracts produce vendors who are new to farmers’ markets, as well as craft
vendors, and adds an eclectic variety of products.
The farmers’ markets also accept the Missouri’s food stamp EBT card. This was
made possible by Specialty Crop Block Grant funds through the Department of
Agriculture’s marketing service and was initially provided to nineteen farmers’ markets
21
throughout Missouri (Springfield Business Journal 2008). Missouri Department of
Agriculture Director Don Steen said, “By making purchases easier and more convenient
for consumers, more will be able to purchase many of the locally grown produce and
fresh foods that our farmers offer each week at markets” (Springfield Business Journal
2008:21).
Farmers’ markets in Springfield have not had permanent locations designated
specifically for a particular market. However, this may be changing. Beginning the
summer of 2011, the GSFM will add an additional day to the market’s weekly schedule.
The market will be open Thursday evenings during the summer in downtown Springfield
at Jubilee Park, with free parking at a nearby parking garage. This additional day for a
farmers’ market downtown is to accommodate people who work and live in Center City
and is a pilot project to determine the amount of support for a permanent market, possibly
downtown, with an eventual pavilion (Schumer and Mason 2011). Schumer and Mason
quote Rusty Worley of the Urban District Alliance:
The Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market needs a space with character. Soulard
Market in St. Louis, River Market in Kansas City, those have wonderful
character, history, amenities and protection from the elements. The Springfield
farmers’ market has been here thirty years and grown to the point where it’s
important to give them those types of amenities, too. [2011:16]
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Projects
Community supported agriculture, as it is currently practiced, originated in Japan
in 1971, though the concept of a CSA project is also mentioned as originating in Europe
(Cone and Myhre 2000). Jan Vander Tuin introduced the methods for a CSA project to
the United States in 1985 (Jansee 2010). The ideology behind a CSA project as it is
practiced in the United States is that both the consumer and producer share an invested
22
relationship with the product. This relationship is practiced through a consumer’s
membership in a farm’s CSA project. To become a member of a farm’s CSA project, a
consumer purchases one or more shares from the farm before the upcoming harvest
season in exchange for regular parcels of (mostly) vegetables, fruits, and or other
products. By purchasing a share before the harvest season, the member allows the farmer
to organize and cover production costs, such as purchasing seed, equipment, and living
expenses. Depending on a farm’s structure, members may offset their share’s price by
volunteering on the farm.
This core aspect of a CSA project of purchasing a share before the harvest season
means both the farmer and member share a risk that the harvest season may be plentiful
or scant. Ideally, this shared risk and the possibility for members to volunteer on farms
will develop a type of community, but as some farmers and researchers have discovered,
most members’ primary reasons for becoming a CSA member are to support a local
farmer and receive fresh produce (Durrenberger 2002). In addition, most members would
rather pay the full cost for a share than volunteer to be a part of a community when they
fulfill those needs elsewhere such as church groups (Lang 2010).
Currently there are four CSA projects in Greene and Christian counties (Local
Harvest’s website, accessed March-June 2011). The prominent CSA project in Greene
County and north of Springfield is Millsap Farm, a family-operated CSA project.
Community Gardens, a Local Cooperative, and Produce Auctions
Communities are adopting many different forms of civic agriculture that are
uniquely based on the ability of urban and rural communities to address their needs to
23
obtain local produce (Lyson 2005). Citizens in the Ozarks are trying out different projects
to grow local produce. For example, in 1997, Sister Doris Semmes started a community
garden named “God’s Garden” in Springfield, open to anyone willing to come and
harvest what they wanted. In 2010, the 1000 Gardens Project took over God’s Garden
(Leicht 2010). The 1000 Gardens Project is a local group directed by Aubrey Taylor and
connected with the Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance LTD (more on this below) with the goal
of promoting gardening in the area and reconnecting people with the earth.
Multiple communities have also cooperated to initiate a local foods program
linking several towns. Near Greene County, in the cities of Fordland, Mansfield,
Seymour, and Rogersville, a school and community garden program called “Healthy
Roots” was initiated by the Fordland Clinic in 2009. The goals of the Healthy Roots
program are to educate children and adults about relocalizing the food supply, raising
local produce, and the health benefits of local foods (Baxter 2009). The Fordland Clinic
started the program after they received grants to fund the project. The clinic has shared
the grant funds with associates in the cities of Mansfield, Seymour, and Rogersville and
has collaborated with local officials, Master Gardeners, and senior citizen groups.
Other people in the Ozarks have created the Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance
(WFNA) cooperative not only to connect small farmers and consumers in the Ozarks, but
also to re-localize the area’s food supply. There is not a more ideal place for the creation
of a cooperative than Missouri, a place known for an influential cooperative, the Missouri
Farmers Association. The Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance LTD (WFNA) and the WFNA
cooperative have been gaining regional support. Ruell Chappell and Galen Chadwick
created the WFNA LTD not-for-profit in 2009 to re-establish the local food supply in
24
Missouri—otherwise referred to as “re-localization” by Chappell; re-localization is a
movement to re-establish the processes of growing, raising, and processing of foods to
communities (Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance’s website, accessed October 25, 2010). One
of the purposes of the WFNA is to help growers create cooperatives and eventually reestablish the processing and distribution centers that closed down in Missouri by the
1970s due to conventional agriculture’s tightened transportation channels (Tang 2010).
WFNA’s founders have also partnered with the Ozarks CRAFT (Collaborative
Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) project’s host farms. Host farms play a key role
in the Ozarks CRAFT project. CRAFT’s host farms offer internships, apprenticeships,
and educational workshops to “train the next generation of sustainable vegetable,
livestock, fruit, and flower farmers” (Curtis Millsap, Ozarks CRAFT’s website, accessed
September 1, 2011). Curtis Millsap, who owns Millsap Farm in Greene County,
coordinates the Ozarks CRAFT project, which operates under the Springfield Urban
Agriculture Coalition (SUAC). SUAC is a non-profit organization in Springfield whose
executive director is Melissa Millsap. This past year, SUAC and Drury University
received a $300,000 three-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health that will
fund the Dig In R-Twelve (DIRT) project (Riley 2011). Project DIRT will build ten
gardens at different schools in Springfield and have educational courses for students.
SUAC’s mission is to “promote healthy lifestyles and environments through hands on
education about production and consumption of locally-produced, natural, healthy foods”
(Riley 2011:1B).
Other local foods channels have begun in the past couple of years. A local foods
store, named Homegrown Foods, opened in May 2010 and has been gaining momentum.
25
Started by Amanda Millsap, the sister of Curtis Millsap who operates Millsap Farm,
Homegrown Foods, located in Springfield, has products from local farmers, ranchers,
bakers, and coffee bean roasters. Currently, Amanda is working to establish a processing
center for local producers, and she sells produce and fruit from small farms in Springfield
and the surrounding area. These include Fassnight Creek Farm, owned by Dan Bigbee,
and Urban Roots Farm, owned by Adam and Melissa Millsap.
Missouri also has several produce auctions located throughout the state. Like
other produce auctions, Amish and Mennonite growers started the largest produce auction
in Missouri, the Central Missouri Produce Auction located in Fortuna, Missouri (Jenkins
2010). The Central Missouri Produce Auction emulated the original and still active
produce auction in Leola, Pennsylvania, which was started in the mid-1980s. As of 2010,
there were sixty-four such produce auctions in the country (Jenkins 2010).
Local Food Movements as Civic Agriculture and Resistance to Alienation
The local food movements in the Springfield Plateau region, and specifically
Greene and Christian counties, have created growing networks of local food growers,
educators, city developers, business owners, and customers. These people are
stakeholders in the production, consumption, and education of local foods, which is also
tied to the local economy. At the center of these networks are the farmers who grow the
local foods and strive to reconnect people with their food’s origin and its growers. Some
farmers, farmers’ markets, and the Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance cooperative use current
social media outlets, such as Facebook, to connect with their customers. They also
coordinate with the help of local news stations and city planners by providing seminars
26
and public talks. The local food movements in the Springfield Plateau region and
specifically Greene and Christian counties encompass local foods stores, farmers’
markets, CSA projects, community gardens, and a cooperative. The interaction of these
elements integrates the processes of production, consumption, and education surrounding
food into the community and its local economy, creating what Thomas Lyson termed
civic agriculture. This is in contrast to conventional agriculture’s treatment of food as a
commodity, where food is grown at and transported from unknown locations and sources.
The local food movements in the Springfield Plateau region of the Ozarks are
related to Karl Marx’s concept of alienation, described by Peter Dickens as the
“separation by capitalism of people from the product of their labor, from their own
creative capacities, from external nature, and from other people” (2004:256). As
previously stated, Lyson (2004) has described food as being commoditized by
conventional agriculture. Commodification of food serves to alienate people from their
connection to the processes surrounding food. Conventional agriculture and its industrial
production of food disconnect skills and processes (e.g., the growing, preparation, and
cooking of food) from people within a community (Dickens 2004). “Industrialized food
production, combined with the globalization of the industry, has resulted in a form of
estrangement from the cycles of the seasons and from the ecosystems necessary for their
production” (Dickens 2004:141).
Dickens (2004) points to farmers’ markets as an example of resistance to
alienation because people who come to the markets are able to talk to the farmers and
learn where and how the food is grown. There are also references to reconnecting with
food and nature in the literature on local food movements. In Andreatta and Wickliffe’s
27
study, farmers responded that they “enjoyed working outdoors in fresh air” and “feeling
connected with nature,” “taking care of and improving the land, especially in areas that
are prone to erosion” (2002:172).
Cone and Myhre (2000) stated that those who participated in CSA projects
responded frequently about connecting with the land and community. CSA participants
responded with comments such as, “I wasn’t expecting this or anything, but it became a
hugely spiritual experience for me. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of watching all the
generations of people working [in the fields],” and “It feeds your imagination, because as
you’re eating the food, you can visualize the land it’s coming from, you’ve met the
people who are growing it, you can think about them” (Cone and Myhre 2000:195). This
discussion of local food movements as resistance to alienation will be continued in the
Discussion section.
Local Farmers: Tradition Versus Modernity
The number of local food movement channels and participants has increased in
the Ozarks, specifically in Greene and Christian counties, since The Greater Springfield
Farmers’ Market began in 1979. But (to restate this study’s main question), do the
farmers who are growing and raising local foods to sell through these channels, such as
farmers’ markets and CSA projects, show continuity to traditional Ozarks family farms,
or are these farmers’ practices new and discontinuous from traditional Ozarks family
farms?
In comparing the farmers in the Discussion section, I will be using Horton’s
interpretation of tradition and modernity when answering this study’s main question. In
28
describing traditional cultures versus modern or “scientifically oriented cultures,”
tradition, in its strictest form, does not allow for the concept of options or choices
(Horton 1967:155). According to Horton (1967), tradition is a total acceptance and void
of contrary possibilities whereas an “awareness of alternatives” indicates modern forms
of thought, allowing for contrary possibilities (156).
29
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Robert Rhoades has stated that anthropologists can be effective in researching
agricultural development because “they [anthropologists] offer a human-centered
perspective on farming, cost-effective methodologies, and theories that dynamically trace
linkages between farm household or unit, environment, technology, crops and animals,
and the larger socioeconomic milieu” (1984:40). To achieve this human-centered
perspective on strategies local farmers are currently using to exploit their land to grow
and sell their product for market, I conducted participant observation, interviews, and a
literature review on the history of farming in Greene and Christian counties. The strong
local food movements within and around Springfield and the feasibility of conducting
research in the city in which I was raised were reasons for choosing this area for this
research.
Participant Observation
Conducting participant observation allowed me to be a part of the day-to-day
operations of the two farms where I volunteered, Fassnight Creek Farm and Steinert’s
Greenhouse. Working at these farms gave me the opportunity to communicate with the
farmers on a regular basis. I volunteered at these two local farms from December 2010 to
June 2011 and spent an average of twelve to fifteen hours each week working with the
farmers, learning the methods they use, and about farming history in their families.
30
Dan and Kelly Bigbee own Fassnight Creek Farm, located on a residential street
in the city of Springfield. My tasks as a volunteer at Fassnight Creek Farm varied
depending on the season, and by what Dan needed to accomplish by harvest time in late
spring. From December to early spring, I split logs using a log splitter. Dan uses some of
the logs to burn but mostly sells the wood for supplemental income. In mid-February, I
helped plant onion starts (young plants), and through spring, my tasks included planting,
harvesting, dispersing fertilizer pellets, spraying for weeds, hoeing, and using a hand
plow.
Troy Steinert and his mother Theta operate Steinert’s Greenhouse in Christian
County along Highway 160 just south of Springfield. I started volunteering at Steinert’s
Greenhouse in January 2011. During the winter at Steinert’s Greenhouse, I helped
transport cold weather plants from the starter greenhouse to the cold frames. The cold
frames are insulated, pointed wooden frames lined with chat3 and a black tarp covering to
keep out weeds. A roll of clear plastic sheeting that can be rolled on or off is used to
cover the cold frame. Throughout the winter and spring, I spread mulch, helped prepare
roses, prepared an assortment of potted plants, constructed an irrigation system, and
transported plants to different greenhouses on the property.
Volunteering at the two farms offered a unique experience for participant
observation because each farm has its own method for farming. Volunteering at Fassnight
Creek Farm gave me the opportunity to receive hands-on experience of how the land in
the Springfield Plateau region is directly used to grow produce and fruit. At Steinert’s
3
Chat is waste made up of crushed limestone and dolomite from lead-zinc mining in the regions of
southwestern Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Chat is used to build roads and is associated with the
Scottish engineer John Loud McAdam and his road construction method called macadamisation.
31
Greenhouse, I was able to work with farmers who use imported dirt for their greenhouse
plants.
Interviews
Throughout the course of this project, I have conducted informal and formal
interviews with people involved in the local food movements in Greene and Christian
counties. The bulk of my interviews have been with farmers in the Springfield Plateau
region of the Ozarks. Other people I have interviewed include a farmers’ market
manager, farm hands, and people who used to have a small farm or large garden in their
family. Prior approval for this project was obtained from the Missouri State University
IRB (February 15, 2011; approval #11325).
Formal interviews were semi-structured and conducted at farms, vegetable stands,
and farmers’ markets. Specific questions were structured around these themes: produce,
farming methods, sales, general questions about the farm, history of farming in the
contact’s family, and questions about family and community. Quotes in the Findings
section are from the conversations and interviews that occurred between December 2010
and June 2011.
32
FINDINGS
Fassnight Creek Farm
The Farmer and the Land. Dan Bigbee was raised in Missouri and earned a
bachelor’s degree in horticulture at Missouri State University while working at a local
nursery, Wickman’s Gardens. Dan worked at Wickman’s Gardens for seven years before
purchasing the seven acres of land across from the nursery near Fassnight Creek from
Mr. Phipps in 1986. According to Dan, Mr. Phipps grew produce on the land and sold it
at the farm. Mr. Phipps’ customer base was mostly wealthy people in Springfield who
refused to travel to The Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market, then located on the
northwest side of town in the early 1980s.
In 2006, Dan added eight acres that extend from the original seven acres to the
other side of Fassnight Creek. Three years ago, Dan purchased another four acres located
a couple of streets to the west, a portion of which he farms. Dan’s family does not live at
the farm but in the area. They have a sales barn4 that is located near the farm’s entrance
on the front seven acres and, this past spring, a high tunnel greenhouse was built behind
the sales barn (Figure 4).
The front seven acres are rocky (normal for the Springfield Plateau region) and
slope to the back eight acres toward Fassnight Creek. The back eight acres are in a flood
zone and receive drainage from nearby residences. Dan describes his farmland as “having
4
Sales barn is a term I have heard used by farmers and denotes a building, or an area in the building, where
their customers purchase items. Dan’s sales barn is an actual barn he uses to store his harvested produce
and the sales area typically has displays of flower arrangements, tables displaying produce for sale, and a
roaming cat that inhabits the barn.
33
a lot of different hard surfaces and drainage systems that influence it, and at times floods
it in places if I receive about four inches of rain.”
Figure 4. Map of Fassnight Creek Farm. Aerial image was taken from Google Earth on
August 25, 2011.
What is Grown and Where it is Sold. Dan grows a full range of vegetables and
ornamental plants at Fassnight Creek Farm. He is able to harvest two crops of
vegetables—an early and a late season crop—and occasionally a third crop. Tomatoes are
his top seller, followed by green beans, corn, cucumbers, peppers, and several varieties of
squash. Other kinds of produce include carrots, greens, spinach, arugula, marjoram,
potatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, beets, sugar snap peas, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower,
leaks, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, and eggplant. Dan also purchases starter onion
34
plants of different varieties (e.g., Candy, Red Candy, Super Star, Walla Walla, and White
Bermuda) from Dixondale Farms in Texas.
Most of the produce is sold at the farm; the rest is sold at The Greater Springfield
Farmers’ Market and other outlets, such as at a chain grocery store’s small, urban-styled
market in downtown Springfield, called the Bistro. After several local produce sellers
declined an offer from a representative of the grocery store, the representative contacted
Dan at his farm about selling some of his produce at the downtown store. Dan took their
offer. Dan said, “Even though the Bistro may not make a whole lot from selling my
produce, I see it as a good promotion.” Dan mentioned, “One difference between people
coming to my place and a grocery store is that the people know what they are coming to
see when they arrive and have a positive attitude.”
People Involved at the Farm. The number of people assisting Dan at Fassnight
Creek Farm depends on the season. Dan usually takes care of the work required on the
farm during the first part of winter and, as the middle of winter approaches, Dan has two
people, Felix and David, working afternoons. Felix and David have worked for Dan a
number of years. David, who also works at Wickman’s Gardens (across Fort Ave.), has
been working with Dan the longest, for nine years.
Kelly Bigbee, Dan’s wife, normally takes care of the administrative work and
correspondence for the farm. As spring approaches, she makes lip balm, soap, and flower
arrangements that she sells at the farm and at the farmers’ market. This season, Dan is
having his two daughters, during their school’s spring and summer break, start a
Facebook account for Fassnight Creek Farm, which Dan felt “would give customers a
35
closer connection to the farm by seeing photos of the progression of the season and
talking to them.”
By late spring and early summer when the sales barn opens and customers stop
by, Dan may have a student intern from Missouri State University’s Department of
Agriculture or a family friend running the sales barn and taking care of the watering
during part of the day.
Toward the end of March, I helped Dan prepare for the construction of a high
tunnel greenhouse, made possible by a Department of Agriculture grant and volunteers.
Sixteen volunteers paid and signed up through the University of Missouri extension
service to come out to Fassnight Creek Farm and gain hands-on experience, building the
greenhouse over the weekend.
Basic Methods. When Dan purchased the seven acres, Mr. Phipps continued to
live in the house on the property. As Dan said, “He [Mr. Phipps] wanted to make sure
someone else would take up farming on the land.” Dan would also end up learning most
of his methods from Mr. Phipps.
“Two years went by,” said Dan, “I continued to work the farm and believed I
didn’t need the man’s help. At some point around the two year mark, I needed the man’s
help and found myself knocking on the guy’s door every day asking for his advice.”
Despite the knowledge Dan had gained from his degree in horticulture and experience at
his family’s gardens, he realized it was not enough to work the land until he started
talking to Mr. Phipps, who knew the land intimately. “He was a second father to me,”
Dan said of his relationship to Mr. Phipps. Mr. Phipps passed away March 1, 2001
(Obituaries, News-Leader 2001).
36
Dan uses what he has learned from Mr. Phipps to care for the growth of the
produce on his farm. Dan grows produce like onions from starter plants, while other
produce plants are started from seed. Dan purchases his seeds from several different
places; he particularly likes to purchase them from Morgan County Seeds located in an
Amish community in Missouri. Dan grows some of the plants from seed directly in the
fields while other plants are started from seed indoors, until they are a few inches tall and
ready to be planted in the fields.
Where the crops are planted is influenced by the geography of the land, the
drainage from the hard surfaces of nearby residences in the neighborhood, the overflow
from Fassnight Creek, and time. Dan said, “I have learned to put certain crops in certain
locations and account for variables and how the land lays out.” However, he also plants
some vegetable crops where he can fit them; some crops may not be planted in the same
spot from year to year. For example, ornamental plants like sunflowers, peonies, and
coxcomb flowers grow near the farm’s entrance by the road. Tomatoes are in the same
general area as the ornamental plants, on the hill of land by the road before it slopes down
to a flood zone. During the growing season when I volunteered, leeks and onions were
planted in the flat fields in the flood zone next to the carrots. The seed potatoes were
planted in a couple of different areas.
Dan uses fertilizer pellets on some of the produce plants and ornamentals. The
fertilizer is scattered by hand as the worker walks up and down the crop rows. Some
plants like the potatoes receive fertilizer pellets before they start to grow, and other
plants, like the spinach may receive fertilizer after they are grown. Dan has learned by
experience when particular plants need fertilizer.
37
Helping out fellow farmers is necessary for everyone to succeed at selling local
produce. Dan is friends with Troy Steinert, who owns Steinert’s Greenhouse near the
border of Greene and Christian counties. During the harvest season, Dan will bring
produce such as peaches and melons from Missouri’s boot-heel region to Troy’s farm to
add to his produce selection. Dan also networks with Adam Millsap, a local producer
who lives near Dan’s farm and owns Urban Roots Farm.
Dan uses what farm machinery and equipment he is able to afford or borrow from
a friend. Older farm implements such as a hand plow can be found in use on the farm as
well as a tractor and harrow. A nonfarmer friend of Dan owns one of the two tractors on
the farm, which Dan lets him keep on the farm in exchange for its use. On one day in
March, I plowed four straight rows for Northern Grown potatoes using a hand plow and a
couple of metal stakes tied with string for guides. On another occasion, after Dan plowed
part of a field with a tractor, I used an old iron rake to remove large rocks out of the
plowed ridges so they would not cover the seed plants. Removing the large rocks with a
rake seemed tedious, but was the most efficient method, and it was necessary because
removing them allowed room for the seed plants to grow.
Innovative Strategies. Dan said, “After about the fifth year [after purchasing the
land from Mr. Phipps], I became confident in my methods and could then see what other
people were doing and apply whatever I felt I could into my system.”
Dan’s methods are not static. He is open to incorporating new methods into his
system if they help him get his produce to market before other farmers, an important goal
for Fassnight Creek Farm each growing season. On the first day I showed up to volunteer
at Fassnight Creek Farm in late December, I received my first glimpse into Dan Bigbee’s
38
strategies of growing local produce to sell. His strategies of saving time, trying something
new, and starting production as early as possible were incorporated in his act of setting up
irrigation lines consisting of PVC pipe along a neighbor’s fence that bordered one of his
fields. He explained to me that the irrigation lines are something he just started this
season for this field and it saves him time from watering. The irrigation lines are also a
step to help speed up his production. If he is able to bring his product to market sooner
than other growers, Dan can ask a higher price with little competition.
On a different day, Dan said to me, “It doesn’t matter if it’s a small garden plot;
you never know what might be useful.” For example, Dan uses a small section of a
sloped field near Fassnight Creek for composting and grows potatoes in the compost. Dan
said he got the idea from a man who worked as a landscaper. The man would take
discarded material for compost, such as limbs, leaves, etc. from his customers and add
lime and fertilizer to the mixture. While the material decomposed into soil, the man
would grow potatoes, and when the compost produced enough soil, he would sell the
organic soil to his landscaping clients.
Trying something different to see if it will help get his produce to market sooner
is normal for Dan. On a day in late January, when I had a chance to talk to Dan, I asked
him if he had planted his lettuce seed. Dan said he had not planted the seed but he was
first going to purchase heat shielding and hay bales to put over the lettuce seed. Dan
explained that the heat shield was normally used for green houses but he was going to use
it to go over the lettuce seed. This process would speed the growth of the lettuce so he
could sell it sooner. This method of growing lettuce was the first time for Dan. When I
asked him about trying this method for the first time, and whether he normally plants
39
each crop at the same time each year, he said, “If a small farmer doesn’t do something
different each year in this business you’ll end up losing it all.”
Dan has also been using a free card reader that will accept EBT cards for lower
income families funded by the Department of Agriculture. “This year,” Dan said, “[food
stamps] should help a lot.” I asked him how he was reimbursed for the food stamps. Dan
replied, “I’m reimbursed by direct deposit since food stamps are put onto a card for the
user.”
Strategies to “Make Ends Meet.” Dan has found over time that his family had to
have other sources of income throughout the year; the profits from farming were not
enough to sustain them during the fall and winter. To supplement their income, Kelly
works part-time at Wickman’s Gardens and (as previously mentioned) makes lip balm,
soap, and flower arrangements out of the ornamental flowers that are grown on the farm,
such as sunflowers, coxcombs, and peonies. Through her business, Flower Child, Kelly
sells these products at the farm and at the farmers’ market.
Dan said, “I found since I started farming, it was necessary to find different parts
that fit in the gaps in order to supply income flow throughout the year.” To fill these
income gaps, Dan is able to sell onion plants from February into April, and starting about
mid-April or June ornamental plants begin to mature for sale. Produce-sales begin about
the middle of May and last into October, and starting in September Dan cuts and grinds
up wood for firewood and mulch to sell into early spring.
Dan also trades plants with other farmers, shares his knowledge at workshops that
he sometimes accepts payment for, and gives school tours. Some of what Dan grows or
purchases as starter plants he may trade to people with small garden plots, friends, or
40
Amish communities in Missouri. For example, the starter onion plants arrive on wooden
pallets about a week before planting, usually sometime in February. The most popular
varieties with Dan’s customers are Candy, Red Candy, Super Star, and Walla-Walla.
During February when we started planting the onions, Dan used some of the starter onion
plants to trade for seed at some Amish communities in the area.
When the farm is not producing enough for customer demand (due to excessive
heat or inadequate rainfall) or to add variety for his customers, Dan purchases from
produce auctions. Dan sells this produce at the farm or trades with friends who have
farms of their own like Troy Steinert, who owns Steinert’s Greenhouse.
About once a year, Troy Steinert has a tomato plant workshop at his farm
(described in the Steinert’s Greenhouse section, below). Dan participates by sharing his
knowledge of growing and caring for tomato plants with the people attending the
workshop, and this exposure may bring in more customers to Fassnight Creek Farm. Dan
also gives school tours of his farm and helps some of the Amish communities near
Seymour, Missouri with canning and constructing high tunnel greenhouses in
Higginsville, Missouri. Dan told me, “I would like to eventually provide hands-on classes
at the farm for people to attend for three to four hours.”
Splitting logs for firewood was my first task in late December at Fassnight Creek
Farm. Dan warned me at the time that some of the tasks he would ask me to do may not
seem related to farming or planting, but that it all contributes and leads up to the planting
season. Dan and Kelly’s strategy to be able to earn income throughout the year is a semisubsistence strategy of farmers who have to work part-time to earn additional income.
41
Reflections on Farming. During my time spent with Dan at Fassnight Creek
Farm, he shared many insights about his experiences from farming.
I asked Dan why he farms. “It’s in my blood,” he said, “I could not see myself
doing anything else. I enjoy farming because it is unpredictable and provides something
new every day.” Even though Dan feels that he is born to farm, it is not enough unless he
can support his family by farming. I asked Dan about the recent history in Missouri of a
decrease in the number of farms that sell vegetables and fruit. Dan said, “I would agree
that there was a decline in vegetable growing knowledge but there is an intent to educate
people now and information is available more than what there once was, but one thing is
clear, if there wasn’t more opportunities to making money by growing and selling
vegetables, there wouldn’t be an increase in local foods. The local food movement has
helped my operation exponentially.” Dan feels that finally, after twenty years, he has
more opportunities, such as requests to speak at certain events, an increase in the number
of customers, and three to four minutes on the Garden Spot, a local news station’s
television segment, aired once a week.
Steinert’s Greenhouse
The Farmer and the Land. Troy Steinert and his mother Theta operate Steinert’s
Greenhouse, located in Christian County just a few miles south of Springfield, Missouri,
on Highway 160. For fifty years, the Steinert family raised cattle and eventually switched
to operating greenhouses. Theta and her late husband got the idea of greenhouse farming
from his father who had been operating a greenhouse for some time. Theta said, “After
they built one greenhouse, they would reinvest their profits into building another
42
greenhouse.” They have been operating greenhouses for over forty years and next year
will be Steinert farm’s hundredth year.
On the east side of Highway 160 at Steinert’s Greenhouse is a complex of
greenhouses, a sales barn, scattered buildings, and several cold frames, which are small
greenhouses close to the ground that extend the growing season (Figure 5). The farm is
on a hill of land that is too rocky to cultivate but suitable for pasture or buildings. Troy
told me that when they were building some of the structures on the land, they had to hire
a blasting company to clear enough rock and dirt for a basement. On the opposite side of
Highway 160, Troy tends several acres along the James River.
Theta used to run the farm with her late husband, but these days she is in the
process of turning over all operations to her son Troy. Troy is the only farmer in his
family besides his mother’s brother. Troy, who is in his fifties, has children of his own
and though his family does not reside at the farm, Theta lives at the farm in the house she
shared with her late husband.
What is Grown and Where it is Sold. Troy grows okra, beets, beans, and
peppers on the farmland near James River. Though Troy grows a selection of vegetables
in the fields, the majority of the plants are grown in the greenhouses. Many varieties of
ornamental plants, such as petunias, mums, hostas, roses, ferns, etc., are grown, arranged,
and cared for in the greenhouses, as well as plant-starts like nasturtiums, green bean,
tomato, and various varieties of herbs.
The plants and produce are sold on site at Steinert’s Greenhouse when the sales
barn and the greenhouses behind the sales barn open to customers in the spring. The
produce is placed on tables in the middle of the room at the sales barn.
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Figure 5. Map of Steinert’s Greenhouse. Aerial image was taken from Google Earth on
August 25, 2011.
The five greenhouses behind the sales barn are opened to customers and are filled with
plants in hanging pots and sitting on tables with screen-mesh tops. Outside, around the
sales barn area on beds of mulch, are larger plants and starter trees.
People Involved at the Farm. During the winter, Troy and Theta maintain the
farm, and when spring approaches (usually about the time the roses arrive), Troy and
Theta notify the five people who work for them in the spring and summer that they are
welcome to start. The people who work for Troy and Theta are regulars and as Theta has
44
told me, “they are considered family.” One of the regulars, Sherry, has been working for
the Steinert family for over twenty years, and another, Terry for over ten years.
Depending on the workload and the number of customers, the regulars are let go
at different times during the season. By late spring, Troy’s four children, who range from
grade school age to college, work at the farm during their spring and summer break.
Methods, Strategies, and Innovations. The methods that Troy has learned have
come from his experience working with his parents and by trial and error. Troy and his
family subsist on the profits from selling plants and produce at the farm.
Different sizes of pots and trays are used for the different varieties of plants, and
all plants use the same organic dirt but may have a different fertilizing mixture depending
on the plants’ needs. The Steinert family orders the dirt from a company named Fafard
each year and uses a hoist and chain to maneuver the large bags of dirt to a machine that
dumps the amount of desired dirt into the pots that a person has placed on the conveyer
belt.
The plants are placed in the greenhouses, either hanging on the greenhouses’
tubular frames or displayed on screen-mesh tables. Troy has set up most of the
greenhouses with an irrigation system. Troy said, “Depending on the pressure, the
nozzles usually drip continuously into the plant but may at times deliver a stream.” I
asked him if the benefits were noticeable and Troy said, “It saves us hours of labor and
frees up a lot of time.”
When I started volunteering in January, we began moving cold weather plants
(ruby and white cabbage, pansies, violets, lavender, and snapdragon varieties) from the
starter greenhouse to the cold frames behind the eastern greenhouses. Troy said, “The
45
purpose of moving the plants from the greenhouse to cold frames is for the plants to
acclimate to cold weather just enough to make them heartier and more durable.”
Moving plants from one location on the farm to another, such as from one
greenhouse to a greenhouse closer to the sales barn or to the cold frames, is a recurring
process at Steinert’s Greenhouse. It is about the only routine process on the farm; the
quantities of what they grow change from year to year. As Troy said, “Our customers are
always looking for something different to plant.”
Troy and Theta also diversify their methods at the farm; for example, they host
different events at the farm throughout the spring and summer. The annual Mother’s Day
Rose event is a popular event for customers. The preparations for the event begin in
March when the different varieties of roses arrive and need pruning and potting. By the
day of the event, most of the roses are blooming and are consolidated in the southeastern
greenhouse on the sales barn side of the road, nicknamed the Rose House. The event
brings together customers who are passionate about roses and involves demonstrations by
Theta, Troy, and Caroline (one of the regulars) showing how to care for the different rose
types and different products for roses.
Troy also hosts a tomato plant workshop at Steinert’s Greenhouse with the
assistance of Dan Bigbee from Fassnight Creek Farm. The customers pay a fee to learn
from Dan and Troy about taking care of tomato plants, such as how to start the plants,
dealing with common pests, and how much nutrients to provide the plants.
The Steinert family also gets mulch from Dan at Fassnight Creek Farm, and
periodically through the spring and summer, Dan brings cantaloupe, peaches, and
watermelon from the Missouri boot-heel region for Troy to sell at his farm. The fruit
46
provides variety for the Steinert’s customers to choose from, to go with the produce
grown at the farm and purchased from other farms. Sherry, who has worked with the
Steinert family for twenty years, brings in tomatoes that Sherry and her husband grow to
sell at Steinert’s Greenhouse on the weekends. In addition to the produce, other items that
can be purchased at the sales barn are gardening tools, seed, and Amish made honey,
jams, and preserves.
The Steinerts order their extra produce from Eubanks Produce Farms in Lucedale,
Mississippi, and this year Troy started purchasing produce and fruit from the Lead Mine
Produce Auction north of Buffalo, Missouri, started this past year by Amish and
Mennonite families from around the area. The Lead Mine Produce Auction is held at
least once a week during the growing season. Troy informed me that the Amish families
in the community felt there was an unequal amount of business directed toward one or
two families. To settle this situation, the community studied how produce auctions are
operated, and decided that starting a produce auction would be the best solution for fair
business in their community.
Other Local Farmers
Nature’s Lane Farm. Brad Gray is a producer and has been the manager of The
Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market for the past two years. Brad grew up in a farming
community in Christian County (when it used to be a large fruit and canning area) where
he learned gardening techniques from his parents and grandparents. His father raised beef
cattle and his grandfather raised dairy cattle and had a fruit orchard. At the orchard, they
grew peaches, apples, strawberries, and grapes. Brad said, “As truck farming grew, dairy
47
farming became very difficult.” His grandfather eventually retired and Brad’s father
worked at a stockyard in addition to being a rancher on the side.
Four years ago, Brad and his wife Writa moved to Fair Grove, a town in northern
Greene County, and started Nature’s Lane Farm. Brad said, “North Greene County is
more fertile than south Greene County and small-scale growing is more beneficial for this
area than row cropping because of the rocks and soil fertility.” Brad described Nature’s
Lane Farm as having gentle rolling hills with rocky and loam soils. Brad said about his
land, “You have to put muscle into it to work it.”
Brad grows spinach, lettuce, green onions, radishes, okra, beets, peppers, garlic,
green beans, and carrots. Brad sells lettuce more than any other produce he grows,
followed by spinach, onions, garlic, and green beans. He has a produce stand at the Fair
Grove Farmers’ Market one day a week. Three days out of the week, he sets up at The
Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market (which he manages) selling produce from Nature’s
Lane Farm.
Brad grows only certain vegetables that allow him to farm around his schedule as
manager of the market. This means that Brad grows vegetables that have a fast
turnaround to avoid an abundance of weeds and that can be harvested more than once in
the season. For example, in the spring he likes to grow lettuce and radishes because he
does not have to deal with many weeds, and he will grow another crop of lettuce and
radishes in the early fall when activity at the farmers’ market starts to slow down. Brad
told me that lettuce and radishes normally have a forty to a fifty-day turnaround.
At the beginning of the year, Brad prepares a plan for the whole garden and
prepares his soils and trays for plant starts. Between January and March, he begins to
48
plant some produce plants in high tunnels. Brad uses raised beds with compost,
vermiculite, and peat moss, and rotates his crops in thirty 4' x 10' raised beds and two
high tunnels, one 30' x 96' and a smaller one 20' x 48'. He grows spinach and lettuce in
the high tunnels during the winter and starts peppers, okra, and tomatoes in them in the
spring.
He avoids using sprays like pesticides and sticks to growing produce that does not
require sprays to do well in this region. Brad uses a tiller and works mostly by hand to
avoid expenses from heavy equipment; however, he is thinking about incorporating drip
lines and plastic mulch to increase volume and keep up with customer demand.
Brad said, “I love doing it, watching a plant grow from seed to a full grown plant
producing vegetables and fruit. If I got to do anything in the world, I would be growing
food.” Brad believes in order to get the most satisfaction out of gardening, a person
should grow what they enjoy eating. He would rather specialize in certain crops, but due
to economic pressures he has to grow more of a variety.
Ozark Mountain Orchard. Krystal Lais, a farmer in her thirties, purchased
Ozark Mountain Orchard from her parents this past year. Her parents bought the orchard
about eleven years ago from a previous owner who grew fruit on the land for twenty
years. The farm is located in Christian County on a rocky piece of land on top of a ridge,
about a quarter of a mile wide and three quarters of a mile long. The farm has good
drainage and is about a degree warmer throughout the year than her surrounding
neighbors who live in the valley below.
Krystal also has family in the northern Midwest who raise cattle and grow corn
and soybeans. Much of what she has learned about farming has come from her parents,
49
and she continues to increase her knowledge of farming by attending seminars and
contacting the University of Missouri Extension’s agriculture services if she has
questions.
At Ozark Mountain Orchard, Krystal grows peaches, strawberries, blueberries,
red raspberries, zucchini, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, blackberries, apples, watermelon,
and squash. Of the variety of produce that Krystal sells, peaches and blueberries are the
most popular; she sells about twelve acres of peaches and three acres of blueberries every
year.
The produce is sold through different channels. Krystal has a large produce stand
in Springfield and at The Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market. Curtis Millsap of Millsap
Farm also purchases fruit from Krystal to combine with his CSA orders. Oouvda Winery
located north of Springfield purchases fruit from Ozark Mountain Orchard. Each
weekend, Krystal travels to St. Louis to sell produce at the Soulard Farmers’ Market.
Other vendors from southern Iowa and Minnesota purchase produce from her to resell,
and Krystal ships peaches to Hawaii.
Krystal hires several people to keep Ozark Mountain Orchard operating. Her
cousin takes care of the labor on the farm and she focuses on tending the produce stands
because she enjoys communicating with people. Krystal said, “I like talking to the
customers and interacting with them. My cousin, I think he would say he likes the
challenge because he grew up in Minnesota growing beans and here it’s rockier. He also
enjoys being outside.” Besides Krystal and her cousin, Krystal has six people who work
at the produce stands and four at the orchard. Most of the workers are regulars. Henry has
been with Krystal for eleven years and Jim for about eight years.
50
Krystal has her own equipment, such as a tractor, plows, and tillers, but Krystal’s
workers normally pick out the weeds by hand. Since purchasing the land from the
previous owner, Krystal and her parents have reduced the amount of spray they use and
have replanted the peach trees, which last only about seventeen years. Krystal and her
family have also added a wider variety of produce on the farm and have built a high
tunnel greenhouse with a Department of Agriculture grant. Most of their crops are
perennials, but after the harvest season they use wheat as a cover crop and search for
places to purchase their seed for the upcoming planting season. While certain produce
ripens at the orchard, such as watermelon, Krystal may purchase produce from other
farmers in regions where some produce mature at an earlier time in the year like in
Arkansas, so she can resell it in Springfield.
Millsap Farm. North of Springfield in Greene County, Curtis and Sarah Millsap
and their six children grow vegetables and vegetable starts, and raise chickens, turkeys,
goats, cattle, hogs, and ducks on twenty acres. Curtis is the brother of Amanda, who owns
Homegrown Foods, and Adam, who owns Urban Roots Farm (described in the Urban
Roots Farm section, below). Curtis, Amanda, and Adam were raised in Missouri and
were first introduced to growing produce by their grandparents, who had large gardens.
Spread over twenty acres, the Millsap family grows a wide range of produce:
spinach, chard, bok choy, artichokes, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beets, onions,
Brussels sprouts, peas, elephant garlic, squash, potatoes, zucchini, broccoli, melons,
green beans, herbs, pumpkins, and turnips. In addition to the produce, the Millsap’s raise
chickens, pigs, turkeys, goats, cattle, and ducks. Besides organic vegetables in a CSA
share at Millsap Farm, eggs may be added to the shares as well as fruit from Krystal Lais’
51
Ozark Mountain Orchard. Curtis distributes a lot of what he raises and grows through
Millsap Farm’s CSA shares, but he also sells produce at The Greater Springfield
Farmers’ Market and through Amanda’s local foods store.
Besides being a CSA farm, Millsap Farm is a host farm for the Ozarks CRAFT
project, like Adam and his wife Melissa’s Urban Roots Farm. Curtis, Sarah, and their
children work at the farm, but the family receives help from internships through the
CRAFT project and shareholders in their CSA project.
Curtis uses organic methods and techniques to extend the growing season. With a
combination of low and high tunnels, Curtis is able to start growing plants early. For
example, in January or February, Curtis has greens growing under a low tunnel while the
high tunnel provides cover and additional warmth. To replenish the soil’s nutrients in his
fields, Curtis uses natural fertilizers like cover crops and compost.
Curtis and Sarah strive to reconnect people with their food and move them away
from a “trend toward agricultural disconnectedness” through their CSA project and an
open door policy for people who want to visit and bring their families out to the farm
(Millsap 2009:58). Shareholders of the Millsap’s CSA are required to commit to two
harvest shifts per season because the Millsap family believes in connecting their
community and customers with how their food is grown (Millsap 2009).
Curtis and Sarah see themselves as stewards of their land and use only organic
methods on their farm, from soil building to pest control. Curtis also uses seasonextension methods that enable Millsap Farm to have a longer growing season. “Seasonextension methods allow us to extend the growing season year round to supply a steady
52
source of healthy and tasty local food. One way we do this is by growing greens and root
crops in our greenhouses and under low tunnels in the fields” (Millsap 2009:58).
Curtis and Sarah have a long-term goal of building a network between local
farmers and their consumers. They also provide apprenticeships and workshops for new
farmers and eventually want to connect the new generation of farmers in the area with
older farmers who may no longer be able to farm but have a vast amount of experience
and tools. Besides passing on the knowledge of older farmers to the new generation,
Curtis has learned from speaking to older farmers:
Some farmers I’ve spoken to have said that the main reason they are still farming
is because they keep hoping that someone will come along who will want to care
for their land the way they did. Others have told me that their kids can do
whatever they want with the farm when they die, but while they are still alive, no
one is going to take the land that they’ve loved and cared for their whole lives and
turn it into another subdivision or chain retailer. [2009: 59]
Urban Roots Farm. Urban Roots Farm is located within a residential
neighborhood in Springfield, near Dan Bigbee’s Fassnight Creek Farm. Both Adam and
his wife Melissa have grandparents who lived in Missouri and had large gardens of their
own. Adam and Melissa grew up near Springfield and received inspiration from their
grandparents’ large gardens but their parents did not continue farming. Adam’s mother
was raised on a dairy farm and had no interest in making a living by raising dairy cattle.
Melissa’s grandparents had 800 acres in Meramec Valley near St. Louis, Missouri. The
majority of the land was sowed in soybeans and corn. Adam said, “Melissa’s dad wanted
to farm it but the woman he married was not interested in being a farmer’s wife and the
land was sold. There is about a fifty to sixty year exodus from family farming.”
53
Urban Roots Farm is a one and a half acre micro-farm on property that Adam and
Melissa purchased next to their home in the neighborhood. According to Adam, the
neighborhood has not been considered a friendly neighborhood in recent years; however,
that may be changing. When they started building the greenhouses, the neighbors would
walk by and ask what Adam and Melissa were doing and some neighbors have
volunteered to help them. Adam said, “An elderly couple who are our tenants would sit
out front and watch in front of our apartment. One day when the wind was whipping the
plastic as we were building a greenhouse, I walked around and seen them holding down
the plastic. They love it because our kids will go over and talk to them and [they] enjoy
getting up and helping.”
Before they purchased the residential property, Adam and Melissa discussed
whether to find five acres outside of town to farm, or work with what was available to
them next door. Adam and Melissa decided to purchase the property next door because
they wanted to be part of a community where they could educate people on how to grow
produce and to communicate with people in their neighborhood.
Adam and Melissa are in their first year of production and record how much food
they grow so they can calculate how many shares of a CSA project they can manage.
Adam said, “We intend to start a CSA project next year once we know how much we can
grow of what vegetables and what crops work for producing on the limited land we
have.” Along with the labor-intensive preparation of the land (removing rocks and
foundation material from an old apartment building that once occupied the property and
adding organic dirt), they have been remodeling a row of ground level apartments on the
lot.
54
Adam expects to have three-fourths of an acre in production this year. Adam and
Melissa grow Asian greens and a variety of vegetables such as potatoes, melons, beans,
bok choy and several varieties of mustard greens. They sell their produce directly at the
farm, Mama Jean’s (a local health food store), Homegrown Foods, and at The Greater
Springfield Farmers’ Market. Adam said, “A selection of certain produce we grow is
influenced by what people want. Some vegetables and fruit are space-hoggers.” Adam is
working out a deal with his brother Curtis to give him some space to grow “spacehogging” produce like watermelon.
Organic farming is central to Adam and Melissa’s life. When I asked Adam how
he prepares for the upcoming planting season, Adam showed me to his family’s living
room. Above a desk, adorned with a basket of oranges and a stack of organic farming
books, was a giant color-coded spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was a grow chart, outlining
where to plant each crop in the garden depending on the time of year, mainly for the
purpose of crop rotation. Since Adam and Melissa are using strictly organic methods,
they have to ensure the soil is replenished with the necessary nutrients throughout the
year. Adam and Melissa can look back at the spreadsheet and see how much of each crop
was harvested.
Adam and Melissa use organic farming techniques similar to that of Adam’s
brother Curtis, though on a smaller scale. Adam said, “We choose to farm organically
because it is unique in the area and it is what we like to eat.” Adam and Melissa do not
plan to seek organic certification for their farm because Adam believes the certification
system has flaws. “I feel it is more important to know your local farmer where you can
look at them, shake their hand, and ask them direct questions,” Adam said.
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Adam asks his brother questions on a regular basis, reads about different microfarming techniques, and, like Curtis, mainly bases his methods on Eliot Coleman’s5
techniques for growing produce year-round that Adam called the Four Season approach.
However, Adam had to adjust the Four Season approach to fit his family’s land. Adam
experimented with different techniques. At first he placed his high tunnel greenhouse on
skids (a technique his brother Curtis uses), but realized his brother is able to move the
greenhouses with his tractor. Adam said, “Dan [Bigbee] would let me use his tractor but
the land is too small to maneuver a tractor.” Adam tried a different approach to moving
his high tunnel greenhouses by attaching rollers to the greenhouses, allowing two people
to move a greenhouse weighing 4500 lbs.
Adam first experimented with spinach. He planted spinach in February by using a
low tunnel (a type of plastic sheeting used to cover the young plants during the winter)
and a high tunnel greenhouse that Adam rolls over the low tunnel. Adam said, “I would
crawl in the low tunnel in February and the greens were already sprouting.” Adam
compared the method to a seesaw effect: as temperatures rise and the plants mature, he is
able to roll the high tunnels off to another area. “The idea is to be able to grow the
produce early and price them at a premium,” Adam told me.
Adam mentioned that the high tunnels also help regulate the amount of
precipitation that crops receive. Adam said, “Since lately in this area of Missouri, we
have been receiving short periods of a lot of rain instead of a gradual amount of
precipitation over time.” This occurrence has an effect on certain crops, such as tomatoes
5
Eliot Coleman is an American organic farmer whose farming methods were popularized in his 1989 book,
“The New Organic Grower,” and is known for his Four Season Farm in Maine.
56
that absorb moisture easily, when they receive a lot of rain at once, tomatoes will crack
open while they are still green on the outside.
Urban Roots Farm is also a host farm along with Millsap Farm and several other
farms, such as Echigo Farm and Foundation Farm that are outside of Greene and
Christian counties (page 25). As a host farm, Urban Roots Farm is partnered with the
WFNA and the Ozarks CRAFT project.
Adam and Melissa view Urban Roots Farm as “one generation out.” Adam
explained this by telling a story about an encounter he had with one of their neighbors, a
woman in her fifties. When the neighbor visited and walked around the farm, she did not
recognize most of the vegetables, such as cucumbers, and asked Adam about the produce.
After Adam related this story to me, he said, “That’s why we consider ourselves one
generation out.” Since Adam’s and Melissa’s parents did not farm or have a large garden,
and from examples like his neighbor, Adam feels that much of the knowledge and
connection to how food is grown and raised has been lost to many people in the past fifty
to sixty years. Since Adam and Melissa have had to build their knowledge of organic
farming and figure out how to apply those methods to farming their land, they consider
their farm one generation out.
Even More Farms. The farms described above are samples of small farms in
Greene and Christian counties. There are certainly other producers who sell at farmers’
markets in Greene and Christian counties and whose small farms or gardens have come
and gone each year; however, some of the farms that have been established for a while
are Campbell’s Farm, Morning Glory Farm, and Sunshine Valley Farm (Figure 6).
Moreover, though it is outside the scope of this study, it is worth mentioning that I have
57
observed different groups of Hmong immigrants who sell produce at the Fairgrove
Farmers’ Market and the Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market. A young Hmong man
described that his family’s farm was outside of Christian County.
Mike Campbell started Campbell’s Farm in 1995. Mike grows a wide variety of
produce and uses sustainable practices for his family farm. Mike sells at The Greater
Springfield Farmers’ Market and customers can come to his farm and pick fruit. During
the fall season, the Campbell’s host Maze Daze. Maze Daze is a seasonal event for
families to come out to the farm and walk through the pumpkin patch and corn mazes.
Paul Timlin started Morning Glory Farm in 2008. Morning Glory Farm is an
organic farm with a wide variety of produce, such as asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries,
broccoli, cucumber, herbs, beets, tomatoes, onions, and peppers.
Since 1989, the Wooten family has operated a large orchard and hosted customers
at their café at Sunshine Valley Farm. Customers can come and pick their own fruit if
they choose and have homemade desserts made with fruit from the orchard. Of the
variety of fruit grown at the orchard, the Wooten’s are perhaps most known for the
eighteen varieties of apples they grow at Sunshine Valley Farm.
58
Figure 6. Map of some of the farms located in Greene and Christian counties.
59
DISCUSSION
This section will focus on two main points. First, the findings from this
ethnographic study show that a group of local farmers in Greene and Christian counties
exhibits some qualities that are comparable to the traditional semi-subsistence family
farms of the Ozarks. These are qualities that scholars like Rafferty (1980) and Jager
(2004) have used (pages 11-15) to describe the traditional family farms before farming
shifted toward methods of conventional agriculture, resulting in the disappearance of
small farms and other farms becoming more technologically driven and practicing
specialized crop production. Thus, these farms show continuity in traditional farming
practices in the Ozarks.
The second point is that despite having shared qualities, the farmers of this study
also demonstrate great variability among themselves. As Jager (2004) has mentioned,
traditional family farms that practice general farming cannot be narrowed to one
prototypical family farm. Though they share characteristics, each farmer faces his own
unique set of challenges on his/her land, making each farm unique. This variability
includes farms that show discontinuity from traditional farming practices and farmers
exhibiting modern attitudes and ideologies.
For a review of the farms in this study and some of their characteristics, refer to
Table 1.
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61
Shared Qualities Among Farmers
The traditional family farm (before the 1940s), as noted previously by scholars
such as Jager (2004), was typically a highly diversified, integrated, semi-subsistent, not
highly mechanized, land and labor intensive. Farmers had to adapt to changing conditions
from unknown variables such as the weather or insect infestations, and were versatile in
their activities, creating small hedges for their farms to avoid a total loss.
For instance, the traditional family farm was integrated; various aspects of
farming were linked; for example, growing cover crops in the fall to replenish nutrients in
the soil for planting spring crops. Farmers grew a diverse array of crops, selling the
surplus, in case a particular crop was lost to unforeseen factors. The farms may have had
modern equipment like tractors but were not highly mechanized operations; instead most
labor was accomplished most by hand.
Traditional family farms had their own unique challenges that farmers, with
intimate knowledge of their land, had to confront in order to succeed and produce crops
year after year. As pointed out by Jager (2004) (page 13), the qualities mentioned above
fit thousands of small farms and, especially, would fit small farms in the southwest region
of the Ozarks in the Springfield Plateau. A region where the land is characterized by
various types of topography and has marginal soils compared to regions north of the
Missouri River, where fertile soils now support large industrial farms.
The local producers I have spoken with, such as Dan Bigbee, the Steinerts,
Krystal Lais, Brad Gray, and Adam and Melissa Millsap, share the aforementioned
qualities of traditional family farms by growing a diversity of crops, showing versatility
in their activities, and adapting to changing circumstances to keep their integrated, labor
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and land intensive farms operating. These farms are also not highly mechanized; at the
most, these farmers own a tractor and/or a tiller. Specific examples of these
characteristics are outlined below for each farmer.
Fassnight Creek Farm. Fassnight Creek Farm is an integrated operation; each
step, from growing the produce at the farm to the multiple ways Dan supplements
income, is connected to the farm’s continued operation. Dan Bigbee grows a wide
selection of vegetables and ornamental plants at Fassnight Creek Farm. Dan’s wide
variety of produce also includes various types of some crops such as onion plants and
squash.
Dan said, “I have learned to put certain crops in certain locations and account for
variables and how the land lays out.” As Dan said, where the produce is grown at
Fassnight Creek Farm depends on the geography of the land and the time needed to
prepare the farm for the upcoming season. Dan knows the quirks of his land; certain areas
at Fassnight Creek Farm have unique hard surfaces that border his fields. Since Dan’s
farm is located within the city, there are different irrigation systems running through the
area, and the hard surfaces, such as nearby roads and driveways, funnel rainwater that at
times flood parts of his field.
Farming at Fassnight Creek Farm is land and labor-intensive. To prepare for the
growing season, Dan may spread out a mild fertilizer for some crops, and by spring and
summer the fields are full of a variety of produce. Dan uses a tractor and hand plow to
create rows in the fields for some of the plants, and the crops are planted and harvested
by hand. The old and new technologies of a tractor and hand plow on the farm are an
indicator of Dan’s practicality and versatility. Since Fassnight Creek Farm is located
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within the city, the angle of a field may have a shorter width on one end, making it more
practical to use a hand plow instead of a large tractor.
Dan has told me that, “If a small farmer doesn’t do something different each year
in this business you’ll end up losing it all.” If there is a technique that fits into his
integrated system and helps him get his produce to market sooner, than he will likely
make use of it. Dan’s characteristic of being innovative is connected to Dan and Kelly’s
ability to create small hedges to generate income throughout the year. In the previous
section, Strategies to “Make Ends Meet,” I showed that during the fall and into spring,
Dan sells firewood and makes mulch out of the scrap firewood. Kelly also makes flower
arrangements out of the ornamental plants grown at Fassnight Creek Farm.
Steinert’s Greenhouse. Troy Steinert and his mother Theta grow a diversity of
ornamental plants in his greenhouses and different types of produce in his fields. Troy
told me, “Our customers are always looking for something different to plant.” Customers’
preferences may change from year to year and Troy and Theta adapt and adjust to what
ornamental plants they grow to meet their customers’ interests.
Troy and Theta also have varied approaches to earning income on their farm.
Besides growing a wide selection of ornamental plants and produce, Troy and Theta are
also retailers. At the sales barn, they sell items such as garden tools and plant seed, and
supplement the selection of produce they grow with produce they purchase from produce
auctions and other farms. Troy supplements the produce he grows because his fields are
next to the banks of the James River that at times floods out his crops; in addition, some
produce varieties ripen earlier in regions south of the Springfield Plateau region, as in
northwest Arkansas. If the Steinert’s customers know they can purchase a variety of fresh
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produce earlier in the season and at one place then it is likely they will return to buy more
produce from Steinert’s Greenhouse.
Besides selling different items associated with gardening at their sales barn, Troy
and Theta also generate income for the farm by attracting customers to their greenhouses.
As mentioned previously, each spring and summer the Steinerts host different events held
at the farm. The annual Mother’s Day Rose event and the tomato plant workshop attract
customers and provide an opportunity for the Steinerts to build trust with customers by
demonstrating their expertise of growing and caring for ornamental and produce plants.
Steinert’s Greenhouse is labor and land intensive. When the greenhouse is open,
the regular workers are busy assisting customers and taking care of the plants. Troy uses
a tractor to plow the fields, and he plants by hand. For the greenhouse plants, the
Steinerts annually order large amounts of sterile dirt and recycle the used dirt the next
season. As an innovative solution to save the Steinerts hours on labor and money, Troy
devised an irrigation system for most of the greenhouses.
Nature’s Lane Farm. Brad Gray grows a diverse selection of produce at
Nature’s Lane Farm. Brad and his wife Writa grow produce that have a fast turnaround
from planting to harvesting. Growing these types of produce lets Brad earn extra income
as the manager of The Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market.
Nature’s Lane Farm is a labor and land intensive farm in northern Greene County,
Brad said, “North Greene County is more fertile than south Greene County and small
scale growing is more beneficial for this area than row cropping because of the rocks and
soil fertility,” and “you have to put muscle into it to work it.” Brad uses raised beds and
two high tunnels and works the land mostly by hand and a tiller.
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Like other local producers, Brad has adapted to using a high tunnel to extend the
growing season to increase volume for customer demand; in addition, high tunnels help
regulate the amount of rainfall the crops receive. In recent years, as noted by Adam
Millsap of Urban Roots Farm, a lot of the rainfall that the southwest region of Missouri
receives comes in sudden heavy downpours over a couple of days instead of a steady,
gradual rainfall over a longer period.
Ozark Mountain Orchard. Krystal Lais grows a wide selection of vegetables
and fruit at Ozark Mountain Orchard. Krystal and her family have adapted to increase
sales of produce by adding more variety to what they grow at the farm. Krystal makes her
small hedges by having a diverse selection of produce and selling through different
channels, such as having produce stands in Springfield, selling fruit to farms with CSA
projects, and having a vendor stand at Soulard Farmers’ Market in St. Louis, Missouri.
Krystal manages the produce stands and her cousin does most of the farm work.
Ozark Mountain Orchard is labor and land intensive like the other small local farms in
this study. Krystal’s cousin and the regular workers use a tractor and plows, but pick out
the weeds by hand. Krystal’s cousin, who was raised in Minnesota, considers it a
challenge to farm in this region of Missouri because the land is rockier.
Urban Roots Farm. Adam and Melissa Millsap grow a wide range of vegetables
at Urban Roots Farm. Adam and Melissa’s one-and-half-acre micro-farm is an integrated
system using crop rotation based on a specific schedule of when and where to grow each
crop and using a combination of low and high tunnels. Adam bases his methods on Eliot
Coleman’s Four Season approach, though he had to adapt Coleman’s methods to fit his
farm’s conditions within an urban neighborhood in Springfield. For reasons previously
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mentioned, Adam also uses the high tunnels to help control the amount of moisture their
crops receive.
Adam and Melissa hedge or vary their operation by maintaining a network of
non-profit organizations that includes other farmers who are connected to Adam and
Melissa through these organizations. For instance, Urban Roots Farm is under Melissa’s
non-profit organization Springfield Urban Agriculture Coalition (SUAC). SUAC’s
purpose is to connect schoolchildren to the processes of growing and raising food by
conducting education programs through garden courses. Through SUAC, Urban Roots
Farm is a partner with other farmers in the Ozarks CRAFT project as a host farm to
educate people interested in starting their own small farms or simply curious about how
produce is grown.
Urban Roots Farm is land and labor intensive. Adam and Melissa have become
familiar with their land through preparing it to grow a large garden, removing rocks,
foundation material from old buildings, adding organic dirt, and building the high
tunnels. Adam, Melissa, a couple of interns, and random neighborhood volunteers do all
the work by hand; the rows are plowed with a tiller, the high tunnels are on rollers and
can be moved by two people, and planting and harvesting are accomplished by hand.
Variability Among Farmers
In this study, the local farmers fall into a variable range: on one end are farmers
practicing traditional family farming and on the opposite end are farmers practicing
organic farming as a means to network and connect their communities with their food’s
origin. Troy and Theta Steinert of Steinert’s Greenhouse and Dan and Kelly Bigbee of
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Fassnight Creek Farm comprise one end of the spectrum of farmers practicing traditional
family farming and on the opposite end of the spectrum are Adam and Melissa Millsap of
Urban Roots Farm, as well as Curtis and Sarah Millsap of Millsap Farm. Krystal Lais’
Ozark Mountain Orchard, and Brad and Writa Gray’s Nature’s Lane Farm fall in between
these two ends of the spectrum.
Fassnight Creek Farm and Steinert’s Greenhouse. Troy, Theta, and Dan
practice traditional family farming; their methods are derived from practicality and out of
necessity. For Troy, Theta, and Dan, farming is an end in itself; not a means to foster
community by connecting people to their origin of food or to educate people about the
methods they use. Even though Troy and Theta host workshops on growing ornamental
and produce plants, and Dan contributes his expertise at these workshops, these
opportunities, though enjoyed by their customers, are a means to earn more income and
to continue farming.
Troy Steinert learned what he knows about farming and raising cattle from his
parents and through trial and error. Dan Bigbee earned a horticultural degree and learned
gardening techniques from his grandparents; however, this knowledge did not help him to
work the land at Fassnight Creek Farm when he bought it as much as the knowledge
about the land he received from the farm’s previous owner Mr. Phipps—whom Dan also
considers a second father.
Both Troy Steinert and Dan Bigbee primarily sell their produce right at their
farms. From time to time Dan may sell at The Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market but
the majority of his sales come from customers stopping at Fassnight Creek Farm to
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purchase produce. Troy Steinert sells exclusively at his family’s farm Steinert’s
Greenhouse.
Urban Roots Farm and Millsap Farm. At the other end of the spectrum from
Troy, Theta, and Dan are Adam and Melissa Millsap who own Urban Roots Farm, and
Curtis and Sarah Millsap who own Millsap Farm. Whereas Troy, Theta, and Dan practice
traditional family farming, sell their produce mostly direct from their farms, and see
farming as a necessity, for the Millsaps, farming is a means to an ideological end of
helping people live healthier lives and connect to their communities. They are “on a
mission.”
Unlike Troy and Dan, Curtis and Adam practice organic farming methods to grow
the healthiest produce for their families by using pest control crops, cover crops and
compost for fertilizer, and they do not use synthetic insecticides. And whereas Troy and
Dan sell their produce primarily at their farms, both Adam and Curtis sell their produce
mostly through shares. Urban Roots Farm and Millsap Farm are CSA projects, which is
the ideal method for the Millsaps to connect to the communities where they live. Though
Adam and Melissa will sell their first shares of their CSA project at Urban Roots Farm in
the winter of 2011 or 2012, Curtis and Sarah require their CSA shareholders to commit to
two harvest shifts each season.
The Millsaps connect to their communities through using their farms as CSA
projects; in addition, Adam and Melissa’s Urban Roots Farm is operated under SUAC
and is a host farm, along with Millsap Farm, through the Ozarks CRAFT project. These
connections to organizations and other farmers in these organizations are a means for the
Millsaps to provide healthy food to their families and customers. Additionally, they form
69
networks to connect farmer-to-farmer, farmer-to-customer, and customers to their food’s
origin.
Ozark Mountain Orchard and Nature’s Lane Farm. Between these two poles
of variability of the farmers in this study are Krystal Lais’ of Ozark Mountain Orchard
and Brad and Writa Gray of Nature’s Lane Farm.
Krystal travels further away from her farm to interact with customers and sell her
produce while Troy and Dan sell the majority of their produce onsite at their farms and
the Millsap’s, primarily, use their farms as CSA projects. Krystal manages her fruit
stands because she likes to interact with the customers, while her cousin takes care of the
farm work with a couple of regular workers. Krystal sells her produce through a large
produce stand in Springfield and at the Soulard Farmers’ Market in St. Louis. Other
farms purchase her produce for resale in other regions like Iowa and to supplement their
CSA projects’ shares with fruit from Ozark Mountain Orchard.
Brad and Writa Gray started their own small farm four years ago in northern
Greene County, and do not have a farm that they have continued from their parents like
Troy and Krystal, or from a mentor like Dan. Brad does not sell produce directly from his
farm but exclusively at farmers’ markets and he has managed The Greater Springfield
Farmers’ Market for the past two years. This role as a farmers’ market manager creates a
different relationship than the role only as a producer, like Troy, Dan, or Krystal, who
interact on a one-on-one relationship with other producers or their customers. As a
farmers’ market manager, Brad connects the customer to multiple producers, but not to
the extent of connecting customers to farmers as the Millsaps; the Millsap’s intentions are
to build networks of farmers and connect to their communities through farming.
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Both Krystal and Brad have learned about farming and gardening mostly from
their parents and grandparents, as Troy and Dan did. Like the Steinerts and Dan, who use
fertilizer and some sprays, Krystal does not practice strictly organic methods, but she has
made a concerted effort to use less pesticide than her family has used in the past. Brad
said he uses organic methods to the extent of not using sprays like pesticides and only
grows produce that does not attract as many bugs as other produce in this region of the
Ozarks. Krystal’s and Brad’s choices of using sprays and or organic methods differ from
the Millsaps, who avoid synthetic fertilizers and sprays and adhere to organic methods of
strict crop rotations, composting, and organic sprays.
Traditional and Modern Farmers
The local food movements in southwest Missouri have, as Dan Bigbee said,
“helped my operation exponentially,” as well as that of many other local producers. The
increased economic opportunities for farmers may be just as much a consequence of the
land of the Springfield Plateau region as it is the zeitgeist of increasing local food
movements. The Springfield Plateau region has marginal soil quality and topography too
variable for large monocrop farms, a characteristic that contributed to many canneries
shutting down in the region when they could no longer compete with large farm and
canning operations elsewhere. However, this characteristic of the Springfield Plateau
region may now be a significant reason why local producers are able to grow a variety of
vegetables and fruit and sell them through various channels.
All the farms in this study were shown to share qualities with traditional family
farms; however, among the various local farms are four that show the most contrast,
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ranging from those that continue to practice traditional Ozarks farming and those that
practice a modern form of farming. The farmers practicing traditional farming are Dan
and Kelly Bigbee and the Steinerts, whereas Adam and Melissa Millsap and Curtis and
Sarah Millsap practice a modern form of farming.
In terms of Horton’s use of tradition, Fassnight Creek Farm and Steinert’s
Greenhouse practice traditional farming in the sense that they farm without regard to any
alternatives other than as a means to earn income for their family. Dan has continued
farming at Fassnight Creek Farm using the knowledge about the land and methods he
learned from his mentor, Mr. Phipps. Troy Steinert continues farming his family’s farm.
Farming for Dan and Troy is a lifestyle, an end in itself, to produce fresh food for their
families and earn income, and not a means to an end beyond that.
Adam and Melissa Millsap and Curtis and Sarah Millsap use Urban Roots Farm
and Millsap Farm as means to different ends from those of Dan’s Fassnight Creek Farm
and Troy’s Steinert’s Greenhouse. Adam and Curtis started their farms without a
predecessor and did not inherit prior knowledge about their land hence Adam’s reference
to Urban Roots Farm as being “one generation out” (page 58). Adam’s explanation of his
farm as “one generation out” shows the break with traditional family farms.
The Millsap’s practice reflexivity; they choose to use their farms as a means to
make their communities healthier rather than just as a way to earn income for their
families. The Millsap’s awareness of alternatives and their practice of building networks
of farms, schools, future farmers, and customers in order to educate people about the
processes involved in the growing and raising of food, make them modern farmers.
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Local Farms as Singular Existences
After investigating a sample of local farms and discovering the high variability
among the farms in contrast to that of large corporate farms and their tendencies of
standardized methods, it appears that small local farms have a commonality with Eric
Dampierre’s interpretation of “the singular.”
Dampierre’s explanation of the singular is based from the worldview held, or
once held, by the Nzakara of Central Africa. The singular refers to everything on earth as
having a “singular existence,” and “the singular” view holds that everything exhibits a
great variability (Dampierre 1998). One’s existence cannot be replaced by another’s
existence; beings are incommensurable, nothing is identical to anything else.
Traditional family farms and small local farms in this study resemble singular
existences by their range of variability. Fassnight Creek Farm, for example, could not be
replaced by another farm because no other small farm is identical to it. However, large
corporate farms practicing conventional farming methods are identical in their practices
and methods of management.
Building Networks of Resistance Against Alienation
Using Karl Marx’s concept of alienation, Dickens (2004) views industrial
agriculture and agribusiness as mechanisms that alienate people from the basic processes
of growing and raising food (pages 27-28). His sole example of resistance to alienation in
terms of industrialized agriculture was farmers’ markets. If farmers’ markets are a form
of resistance to alienation, then CSA projects and all channels of the local food
73
movements are also forms of resistance, since Lyson has described farmers’ markets and
CSA projects as parts of civic agriculture (page 18).
Like Dickens, Curtis Millsap identified people’s disconnect from the processes
surrounding food, and his family’s goal is to reconnect people to these processes.
Farmers I have spoken with, such as Dan Bigbee, feel that there has been a decline in
knowledge about how produce is grown. Adam’s story about his middle-aged neighbor’s
lack of knowledge about produce and Adam’s understanding that there has been a fifty to
sixty-year exodus from family farming (page 57) are examples of the Millsaps’ concern
with people’s disconnect from how food is grown and raised.
The Millsaps’ goals of reconnecting people with their foods’ origins through their
CSA projects, Urban Roots Farm and Millsap Farm, and their connections to
organizations such as SUAC, the WFNA, and the Ozarks CRAFT project, are networks
of resistance to alienation. The purpose of these networks is to reconnect the community,
from school programs to future farmers, with where and how their food is grown.
74
CONCLUSIONS
Through this study, I expected to find farms that were land and labor intensive
and farms sharing characteristics or qualities with traditional family farms. Predictions
were confirmed, as I observed through my volunteering at two local farms on a weekly
basis for six months. I did not expect to discover such a high degree of variability among
the farmers, from their motivations and attitudes to how they obtained their land, their
varied approaches to generating income, and addressing the varied challenges to growing
produce on their land. Among this variability were farms practicing traditional farming
along with farms practicing a modern type of farming whose farmers have goals that do
not end with farming but use farming as a means to educate and help their communities.
The farmers in this study are participants in Greene and Christian counties’ local
food movements, which is increasing in the number of participants buying and selling
produce, and increasing in the number of channels to acquire produce. Civic agriculture’s
channels, such as farmers’ markets and CSA projects, are forms of resistance to what
Karl Marx called alienation and some farmers are developing complex networks of
resistance to alienation. These networks include farmers and nonprofit organizations with
the intent to educate people on the processes involved in the growing and raising of food.
Knowing there is such high variability among local farmers is important for the
development of future policies intended to benefit small farms and local economies,
because it may be difficult to produce blanket solutions for all local farmers in a
particular region. Rather, it would be necessary to examine the needs for strong local
food movements for each community. A study or survey would go far in strengthening
75
local food movements by, perhaps, exploring strategies of new immigrant farmers and
surveying local farmers within a certain radius of the community in order to understand
their attitudes and motivations. Understanding local farmers’ motivations and varied
approaches to growing and raising food would help to determine where the direction a
community’s local food movements are heading.
76
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http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=Templ
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Well-Fed Neighbor Alliance
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