When I was young, large city centers, like St Paul/Mpls, were supplied with food by farms on the fringes. There were huge [for those days] diaries right outside the city limits, areas now covered by suburbs.
When I was young, less than thirteen, circa 1948, I worked on truck farms situated in Northern Hennepin County. We would meet at the library in Northeast Minneapolis and trucks with canvas covered beds would pick us up. I can't remember how many kids there would be. We must have had benches to sit on, but I don't remember that either. I know it was comfortable and we had a fun ride.
We would scramble out at the farm and be given our assignments. I am sure I did several things, but the job I remember most was planting onions. A furrow was laid down and we followed with a basket of onion sets being careful to plant them right side up. We had a good lunch break. We were treated well, this was not slave labor. Well, at least, not until pay time.
At the end of the day, we lined up for our pay. Two young men would be standing there and as we passed, one would decide how much we should get and the other doled out the money. Most of us got a dollar, some got two dollars. I never made the two dollar category and I never knew how to get there. A dollar doesn't sound like much money but to a boy who had none, it was great. 1948 dollars were much bigger than now.
These truck farms surrounded the Twin Cities. The ones I was most familiar with were in Northern Hennepin and Anoka counties. They raised root vegetables of all kinds; carrots, beets, onions, potatoes etc. They, also, raised cabbage type crops. I believe they raised the crops that could be stored over the Winter. All the farms had capacious root cellars.
South of the Twin Cities farmers raised crops destined to be canned; sweet corn, peas, beans etc. Some of these vegetables destined for the canning factory were raised in outlying counties. In my own county of Kanabec, reps from the canning factories would recruit high school students to raise vegetables on their small family plots. They would supply the seed and collect the crop at harvest time. I talked to a woman who said she raised money for college by planting peas, beans and sweet corn. I believe this practice lasted until the late fifties or early sixties.
Now when I drive around, I rarely see anything people eat. In my neighborhood it is field corn, soy beans and a smattering of wheat and oats. The little wheat there is could go for human food, the oats probably feed the large number of horses in the area.
I don't even believe the corn and soybeans go for animal feed. I am sure some of it does, but a huge amount goes into industrial processes. The only human food is the high fructose corn syrup {can we classify that as food}.
If we go outside our area we sometimes run across a field of human food. On the way to St Cloud last year, we were surprised to see several acres of pepper plants. We are experiencing a food renaissance. The farmers markets are burgeoning. The Hmong and the Amish are raising food for us. Everybody I talk to is very interested in getting safe, organic food. Home gardening is prolifirating.
Sadly when we drive around the countryside, it appears that industrial agriculture is firmly entrenched. It puzzles me when I hear people say we don't have enough cropland to feed the growing population. I haven't noticed that we are trying.
Growing our food locally is the only thing that makes, economic, nutritional and ecological sense. I am happy California and Florida share their citrus fruit with us and I love avocados but we need to raise the basics ourselves.
People are getting together and learning how to garden and preserve food. We need more of it. We need to turn suburban lawns into gardens. Everyone of us needs to ask, "How could I feed myself if I had to?" Then make a plan.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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