The poetry of each motivation holds the seed. Love hurts but justice is not enough. What is it we do? Are we farmers or part of the broader farm support community? Or something altogether else? How do we do what we do? Are we organic farmers? Are we holistic in our approaches? Are we industrial farmers? What morality informs our methods? Do we care? Why do we do what we do? This is the most important question of all and it informs our best options for the successful cultivation of the small family farm. The poetry of each motivation holds the seed. But I left something out. That would be the introductory question. Who are we? Who are you? What makes us tick? You can see how it is that what, how and why would answer much of that. My wife’s cousin is the coach of the Gonzaga basketball team, Mark Few. A couple of years ago, at a family gathering, he expressed to me frustration with one of his new players; a boy who had been raised on a Washington farm. He said that the young man had incredible natural ability but lacked motivation. From me he asked “Lynard, you understand these people, how do I get him motivated?” I know Mark didn’t mean it that way but this felt prejudicial to me. This boy was being apologized for because he had been raised on a farm. It suggests the public sees farmers as a breed apart. But the more I thought about it, the more I could see some truth in the matter. We are a breed apart. We are often motivated in ways quite different from the mainstream. Even so or perhaps because of that, I refuse to be forgiven or excused because I am a farmer. I refuse to be a victim of, or because of, my chosen vocation. And I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE! Not so long ago the press was in a tither with the news story that our inimitable V.P. shot his fund-raiser/ hunting partner in the face. Luckily the man did not die from his wounds, and the story bloomed like a giant paper plate full of greasy ketchup-crowned curly fries. Finally Paula Poundstone, the comedian, set everyone straight when she loudly admonished over National Public Radio “People, let it be! It’s over. The victim has apologized!” Over the course of the last year and a half, Small Farmer’s Journal has been courted by media conglomerates expressing serious interest in acquiring us. In each case the prospective buyer spoke of the certainty that “green” would soon be the winning color in media. At one meeting, high up in a glass and steel skyscraper in Manhattan, the two vice-presidents of this conglomerate, controlling vast holdings in magazines, newspapers, television, movies, music, the internet, and U.S. / European cable infrastructure, were quick to confess that they knew nothing about organic or sustainable agriculture, nothing about environmental issues, nothing about food justice issues, nothing about the politics of locally grown. They told me they were committed to build THE green media conglomerate and they had one billion dollars in cash to spend. They had made overtures to me because their research people had told them they needed to acquire several existing niche market publishing companies with unquestionable credibility and we were identified as one company which might serve the alternative agriculture segment.

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