The future of farming

We all know the future of farming.

Ag hedge funds buy up all the viable farmland in the world and lease it back to "farmers."

Those "farmers" will be tied in to the big agro-chemical multi-nationals who will guarantee a steady profit stream so long as the lessees agree to use the latest genetically-modified agro-products from ADM and Monsanto and the rest.

These are the "farmers" who feed cities, as the bumper stickers never tire of reminding us.

But there are other farmers who feed families and neighbourhoods, and there is reason to be optimistic about their future.

I recently had a tour of Caitlin Hall's organic farm outside Harriston. No GMO shit on her property. She's part of the Community Supported Agriculture movement. She runs her farm entirely outside the Monsanto-ADM sphere of influence.

And here's why I feel good about the future.

I was there because my buddy Kipling's daughter is interning on Caitlin's organic farm for the growing season. Kipling's daughter is a P. Eng who generally books her time at around $100 an hour. She's at Caitlin's farm as an intern for a $50 per week honorarium.  That works out to about a dollar an hour.

She has a passion for organic farming. She would like to run her own CSA organic farm someday, and she is at Caitlin's place to learn.

So are three other interns who are working for Caitlin this season, all highly educated and very passionate young people.

They have nothing but contempt for the industrial farming promoted by the agricultural hedge funds and the agro-chem multinationals.

These dollar-an-hour interns are the future of farming. They are learning the trade and will soon enough be running their own CSA farming operations.