I’ve been staying in Brunswick, Georgia for the past few days, because… well… I’ve had this unbearable sunburn that led me to the nearest hospital. Brunswick is where I happened to be while driving down the freeway.
My legs turned purple, my ankles swelled like some kind of exotic fish, and gigantic blisters formed, but refused to pop until just yesterday. My legs felt like the very essence of atrophy (death), and I was concerned that I might be developing a blood clot in my right thigh.
Turns out, I was apparently being dramatic. I’ll deal with the hospital bill later. But when I was at the hospital, I met a security guard who took his job because he couldn’t afford to work on his own farm. His name is Terry, and his story adds a unique perspective to this project.
Terry’s wife manages the small farm, which includes goats, cows, and a plethora of crops and vegetables. Terry helps whenever he can. They do a lot of canning. He explained that his income has suffered over the years because the beef industry is owned primarily by three companies: ADM, Cargil, and Monsanto. Combined, these companies own 80% of the national market according to Terry, and that makes it hard for Terry to compete and maintain his small farm.
As we continued our conversation, I learned that Terry doesn’t give his cows any kind of shots or hormones whatsoever. “Seriously?” I asked. Yep. His cows don’t need shots, because his cows don’t produce the bacteria you would find at a massive feedlot. He also said his beef is better than anything out there.
“When you have that many cows on one piece of land, you create a lot of germs,” he said. “I won’t even rinse off my boots when I go to a feedlot. I just throw the boots away. I can’t afford to get my cows infected.”
He also explained that “some of the tractors now-a-days” come with luxury features, including GPS, stereo systems, air conditioning, and a fancy computer interface that allows stealth-like operation on the fields. Terry said these tractors cost up to $800,000.
“I have a 50-year-old tractor, and it works just fine,” said Terry. “I don’t understand why they have to get the latest, greatest farm equipment. If it breaks, how are you supposed to fix it?”
But automation is obviously the key motive for purchasing an $800,000 machine, and a lot of people are losing their farms due to automation.
About five years ago, I went to a Farm-Aid concert featuring Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Dave Matthews. Neil explained that hundreds of family farms go out of business every week in the United States because of corporate farming. He urged people to buy local, even if it costs a little more.
When I lived in Southern Oregon (just before moving into a van), I rented a house on a 300-acre dairy farm. The couple that owned the farm couldn’t afford to maintain the business without each having separate day jobs. She worked at a beauty salon, and he worked as a baggage handler at the local airport. On several occasions, they mentioned that they might not be able to keep all their cows because they simply couldn’t afford to feed them.
And in Coburg, Oregon, I stayed on a dairy farm for a month several years ago, and that farm is on the brink of bankruptcy. Apparently, the cost of operation is too high to maintain a competitive edge against bigger companies.
So now I’m curious… What do you think about corporate farming? Do you care if your steak was formerly a germ-infested, walking sess pool that only reached your dinner table because it was infused with anti-bacterial hormones and chemicals that prevented it from dying early of sickness, or do you support family farming even if it costs a little more money?
Okay, so that’s a bit leading. But honestly, do you care? Can you afford to shop local? How do you buy beef, and why? Where do you buy it? I’m curious.
I’m new to your website. Just discovered it in connection with your visit to Grand Rapids, MI coming in September. The topic of the ‘food chain’ is important. Where do I buy beef? From a local farmer who turns it over to an Amish butcher who cuts, trims and packages the meat before freezing it. I buy half a steer at a time for my freezer. It’s there with the strawberries I bought locally in June; the blueberries from our local farms I bought in July; and a growing number of containers of frozen peaches and vegetables. I’ll can the relishes, tomatoes, jams, and pickles. Why? To avoid all of the hormones, bacteria, high fructose corn syrup and other contaminates present in so much of what sells in the grocery store. Because I believe my family will enjoy greater health for a longer time. I grew up on a family farm. I learned early the value of ‘real food’. I work full time as the CEO of a mid-size nonprofit, but I still make time to make sure my family has healthy food to eat. I think it’s one of the most important things I do. Thanks for your blog!
Wow what a cool thing you are doing. I saw your van twice while you were here in Brunswick. It’s terrible to hear about the farmer, but I’m not really surprised. I hope your sunburn gets better soon and you are able to continue on collecting amazing stories. Hopefully you’ll be able to get some that have more positives, with people over coming this rough time.
Good luck Aaron!
I think what you are doing is very important. Be careful. Keep up the good work. The photos are excellent. The stories eye opening. I’ll be donating as my unemployment allows. Regards from DC-wish I’d caught you while you were here.
Aloha from the 50th State, Hawaii, Island of Maui.
Well, I want to comment on this meat thing. Living on an Island in the middle of the Pacific is a wonderful life, but we too are feeling the pinch as we watch our tourism numbers dwindle. Unemployment is usually around 2% here, but with the world economy like it is, hotels and airlines have laid off thousands. And Aloha Airlines went bankrupt.
As Islanders, we tend to be fairly fugal and recycle as much as we can, but when it comes to putting food on the table, local products are definitely a first choice, however, price has become the modifier.
We have a great cattle company here called Maui Cattle Company that pulled together three ranches to co-op a USDA approved packing plant. One ranch could not afford to build it, but three ranches working together made it possible. The Beef is 100% steroid free, corn fed and is raised on the slopes of Mt. Haleakala, a dormant volcano , that supplies the cattle with beautiful weather and a million dollar view. The meat is rather pink in color, but it makes for absolutely wonderful, tender and flavorful steaks. Since there is no winter, the cattle tend to have less fat content, but that just means that it is healthier meat. The prices aren’t too bad, but try and find it at your local supermarket–you won’t! Aside from one market (Long’s Drugs) you cannot buy this beef unless you are in a restaurant and then it is at resort restaurant prices. They have tried to get the big markets to carry the product, but they can’t afford to undersell it to meet the big markets’ pricing scheme. Safeway won’t carry it because they prefer to sell from the mega beef companies that you spoke of in your blog. The locals need to feed the kids cheap, so they fall for the special pricing associated with the mega beef. If the Safeway store would buy the local beef, it would sell out in a minute, but they won’t buy it because the profit margin would be too low and they have quotas for the amount that they have to push on us from the mega beef industry.
We buy it whenever we can find it, but the demand is only coming from the restaurant merchants and the Maui Cattle Company has had to go in that direction, away from the mainstream consumer, to stay afloat.
If you are reading this and you are a Maui resident–buy local beef–you have to look for it in the small refrigerator in the very back of Long’s Drugs, but it is worth the search. One taste and you’ll be glad you tired it. If you are reading this and live on the mainland, come visit us, we need you and when you are here, insist on local Maui beef–
MAHALO AARON and I think that what you are doing is very important as well. Have you thought of having a van on this website that we can write on? Also, I’d like to buy a t-shirt when you start making them.
Email where I can donate the funds…
Stevan K. Holt
Yo, Arron, I found the t-shirts and the donation area–Thanks!
sh
Just heard of your site, and what your doing is awesome.
As for the question you asked about meats…
Here in San Antonio there are quite a few farmers’ markets, and there are meat vendors that sell things like beef, lamb, pork, goat, seafood… prepared and packaged just as if it were in the grocery store. The only difference is that here you can talk face to face with the people who raised the animals, know what it was fed, how it was processed, etc., and its mostly all-natural organic.
I have to admit, you can really taste the difference. Its great! My favorite is fresh bison tenderloin
and the price is usually in the same price range as the grocery-store items.
My family always buys meat from our local meat market…it is better meat and is usually cheaper than your “meats” from Wal-mart
I shop for all natural and organic beef at my local Whole Foods Market. A few bucks more, but it’s super quality and the taste is so much better. I will say that I don’t eat beef often at all (maybe a couple of times a month), and I buy chicken typically (still organic and natural).
I love your web site.
I found your site through Yahoo.com on the main page. Very cool.
We live in northern VA. We try to buy local whenever possible. The local grass fed beef runs around 16 bucks a pound, and it is not good. I tried it once and it was tough and tasteless. The local chicken and lamb products are very good, but again very expensive. There are no butchers here. I try to buy what is marked organic and antibiotic free meat, when I buy meat. While it is now possible to find BGH free organic milk everywhere, you are hard pressed to find organic beef. Isn’t that strange?
Hi Aaron I just saw the article the WP did about your project and as a fellow artist I applaud you. I live in rural San Diego and there are plenty of Farmers Markets with tons of local produce to buy, meat is a little more scarce to find at them but some groceries carry them. My problem is I can’t afford to buy it. My family has been hit hard by this recession and we’ve had to cut expenses in every possible way, we eat a lot less meat now.
Do you have an online submission for your van? It would be cathartic for me to tell my families story to be included in an art piece. I hope you stay healthy and find the giving hearts on your journey.
I’m fascinated by your website. What an amazing project and I can only imagine how this will impact you in life. I wish you had a film crew with you to document it for the rest of it. While the economy has been awful, I’d say over the past year I’ve done pretty well. I’m not trying to brag, just follow along for a minute. It was 2004 when I lost a very good job. As a result I about lost my house. After bouncing from odd job to odd job I finally sold my house in Florida in October 2005 and moved my pregnant wife and one kid in with my parents in Michigan. I worked several more odd jobs until I landed a $10/hr job in October of 2006, nearly a year after arriving in Michigan. After months of neglect my credit card bills we too much to handle and I filed chapter 7 bankruptcy in February 2007. 2007 was a great year for me. Bankruptcy was the last thing that pulled me out of a bad situation. We were given a free trailer home just a few months after moving to Michigan and now we were able to actually get the bills paid. After working that job for a couple of years and sending out dozens of resumes all over the country I was referred for a good job in my chosen field by a former co-worker. Last March moved my wife and 3 kids back to Florida and got my career going again. I had 10 jobs between the job I lost in 2004 and the job I took in 2009. I took a hard fall and came out wiser for it. I fell before most people did and am on my upswing. I think we will pull out of this in the next couple years so while things are looking bad now, please keep trying. Keep looking up! I will be praying for you.
I would love to say that the farmers story has inspired me to buy local beef, however, that local beef is more expensive. You may thing it doesn’t matter because there’s only a slight difference, but my daughter and I aren’t making it anyway. So no, I won’t buy local, but I honestly wish I could.
I stumbled across your story today on yahoo, and I am inspired by your project. You are documenting history and sharing so many stories that truly need to be heard. Thank you! Where are you now? I’m sorry to hear about your sunburn, and I was wondering if your hospital stay changed the schedule. I live in Rhode Island, and I hope I didn’t miss you by just two days! I would hate to have missed this remarkable piece of American history.
No, I don’t buy beef, local or mass market. I don’t buy any meat, fish, or eggs, ever, because I don’t have any interest in “enjoying” unnecessary, unhealthy things that come from murdering animals. I do buy a small amount of dairy, feeling guilty about it because I know that most dairy farms, instead of retiring their cows when they stop producing, send them to slaughter. Our country, and our farms, will be a lot healthier economically and psychologically when we all realize that killing animals is in no way necessary for our physical or economic health.
Im wondering where Heather from San Antonio buys her meat from? Ive lived in SA all my life and got married and moved out about a year ago. I would love to find a place where I can buy fresh meat (if I can afford it) rather than buy from walmart or HEB. I have become so disgusted with the quality of the meat that comes from these places. Just the other day I went and bought chicken brought it home and proceeded to cook it that night, only to discover it was rotten. And it wasnt due to expire for a long time after. This has happened to me on numerous occasions and I have heard the same complaints from many other people. So I guess its about time I do some research and look for the home grown local stuff. I’d much rather my money go to local farmers than these stupid chain pieces of filth like Walmart or HEB!
Anyways, I love what your doing and I wish you the best of luck.
Hi, my name is Jessica Myers, I am a 25 year old transient with a college degree from The Ohio State University.
I definitely know what its like to live in a van. I’ve been doing it since February 2, 2009. I have put almost 22,000 miles on it and spent thousands on repairs. Any money I have made goes right back into my clunker. With a leaking gas tank its only a matter of time….already had a close call when the exhaust fell off on a Denver, co overpass. I tried going back to school for a year but that just felt pointless. I was getting straight a’s in a master’s program to be a high school history teacher. What is the point of getting a teaching job when nobody gives an F#$% about the future of this country anymore, let alone the teachers who devote their lives to education. I learned that immediately upon starting my observation hours at a local high school as well as a local middle school in Akron, Ohio. Kids as young as 12 getting pregnant or even getting high. Teachers overloaded with athletics dont put any effort into their curriculum because most students never even open a book after school, let alone complete their homework assignments.
My dad lost his job while I was still in high school, shortly after 9/11. He worked in a machine shop, some weeks 80+ hours of dirty and dangerous work. My mom works at a government funded facility for rehabbing drug addicts. There is no shortage of drug addicts to this day yet she was forced to take a pay cut. It was then that the so called ‘recession’ started. Things just keep getting worse and worse. My expectations for my life keep sinking deeper. Did I mention my 20 year old brother is stationed in Afghanistan right now?
I have some questions for Obama; What the hell are we going to do to create jobs in this country? What the hell are we going to do to end this war? What the F&(* are we going to do when the troops do come home and there are even more people unemployed and looking for jobs???!!!
I’m a vegetarian. =D
But I would so much rather have all meat/dairy products come from small, private farms. The quality will always be better and the animals treated more humanely. If only, right?
I like family owned farms, but our economy more and more are against it. Corporate farms – can you say samonella? food poisoning? Big companies don’t do sanitary too well now days. Just check out all the recalls. Something is always being recalled now days because of contamination. As someone who has had food poisoning and now has IBS, I care about where my food comes from. Would rather have food products from a small family farm any day of the week.
I do not eat meat and therefore do not buy it. Humans do not need meat to live. So, yes it’s great that these farmers dont’t inject the cows with hormones/antibiotics…but they do kill them later on. And, in awful awful ways. So yay for your you farmer who doesnt give your cow a shot, but you slaughter your animals the same way a corporate farm does. If you only all knew of all the suffering that takes place and how contaminated meat it with fecal mater, you wouldnt eat it anymore. Turn your head and look the other way…that’s what you’re going to do though.
Corporate farming sucks. Some of those type of operations (such as wine grape vineyards) are tax write-offs for companies like MetLife. Farming used to be where a hard working man or family could be self-sufficient, and it should remain that way, but these days these corporations make that impossible. It’s all about the obscene executive compensations, to hell with the little guy, and the vultures at the Treasury Department (IRS) gets the rest.
I totally understand Terri. My dad is a small farmer who raises Hereford beef cattle. It is the best ever. I can actually make hamburgers and not start a grease fire. My dad, who is now “retired”, still farms, but worked 40 years in the grocery business to support his farming habit. It is tough out there for small business, but a believe we are coming back around to depending more on a localized economy.
I just discovered your website due to my situation in this recession. I never heard of the “man in the van” project, but very interesting nonetheless.
I would like to comment on your story about Terry the Farmer in Brunswick, GA. There’s more to the small farmer story in the US that most Americans don’t know about and the US really doesn’t want us to know. Terry mentioned Monsantos. Monsantos is a pesticide company that has been controlling the food market. They are the evil conglomerate that is producing the genetically modified foods (that other countries will have no part of). Not only are those large cattle farms producing farm animals with growth hormones and antibiotics, but they’re are being fed these genetically modified foods produced by Monsantos (a pesticide company). If you never researched that ugly story it’s quite scary and shocking. Unfortunately Monsantos is in bed with the US Government. Donald Rumsfeld was a CEO of their sister company and many in Congress used to work for Monsantos. I stopped eating meat, dairy products and eat only organic foods for fear of consuming these genetically modified foods even through animal meat. They also have patents on their seeds. Government used to prohibit any patents on life, or life growing matter. Not anymore. I love meat but I will never eat it again thanks to Monsantos and the other evil food producers in this country that are in bed with the government. Why do you think we have a huge increase of illness in this country? I wish I could get of hold of some of Terry’s beef…I sure would like to eat a steak again but unfortunately I can’t. unless of course i meet a farmer like Terry.
Thanks for your response, Lisa. In fact, thank you all for your comments, ideas, and opinions.