Stephen Leahy* - Tierramérica

TORONTO, Oct 13 2005 (IPS) — The eccentric life of farmer John Peterson, from the central U.S. state of Illinois, is the centrepiece of an award-winning documentary film that tracks the decline of family farms in the United States, and – in a surprise twist – a new resurrection.

“The Real Dirt on Farmer John” is a personal story of Peterson’s tumultuous life as a farmer who endures bankruptcy, the loss of most of his land and accusations of being a Satan-worshipping drug dealer. It is also a story about the enormous challenges family farmers face in the United States.

Since the 1930s, the Peterson family successfully worked 360 acres (146 hectares) of land about 160 km north of Chicago. It was an idyllic life until the 1980s, when crop prices fell dramatically, leaving most farmers, including John Peterson, deeply in debt. Banks auctioned off farms and thousands of farmers committed suicide during those trying times.

Despite his seemingly unending difficulties, Peterson finds salvation and inspiration in a surprising place: Mexico.

After suffering a deep depression, a chance visit to Mexico led to a two-year stay where he began to recover his passion for farming.

Having seen how drugs had ruined the lives of some friends, Peterson was determined to farm without chemicals, or “drugs for plants” as he calls them.

He returned to his Illinois farm with plans to be the first organic farmer in the area. But making the transition to organic production was extremely difficult and Peterson struggled for several years until a group of Chicago residents asked him to create a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.

His “Angelic Farms” is now one of the most successful CSAs in the United States. Under this system, urban consumers pay Peterson in advance for a weekly delivery of fresh, seasonal organic vegetables.

Peterson spoke with Tierramérica at the presentation of the documentary about his life during the International Environmental Film and Video Festival in Toronto earlier this month.

TIERRAMERICA – How did your time in Mexico influence your decision to become an organic farmer?

PETERSON – Mexican culture is more vibrant and it feels much closer to the earth. You can see it in the architecture; the way people dress and live. The United States had much of that once but it’s long gone. U.S. agriculture is lonely and desolate. Our farmers no longer have a close connection to the land. Mexican farmers helped me reconnect with the soil and ignited a new passion and determination to grow authentic, organic crops.

TIERRAMERICA – What do you think are the problems with the current U.S. farm policy?

PETERSON – The U.S. federal government is too closely connected with agri-business corporations. People who get many high-level positions in government have worked for big agri-chemical companies like Monsanto and others. As a result, government policy is completely tilted towards huge farming operations, the chemical companies and bio-engineering of crops.

On the other hand there is growing support within government for organic agriculture because the public is demanding it. It’s tiny but it is growing.

TIERRAMERICA – How difficult is it for U.S. farmers to switch from conventional farming to organic?

PETERSON – It requires different skills and a different mindset to farm without chemicals. Soil does become dependent on chemical fertilisers and it goes into withdrawal like a drug addict. So you have to survive that period, which can take three years. And then you have to find a market for your crops. I understand why people don’t switch (to organic farming), but there are people who do. It’s a different way of farming. You have to be half-crazed to stay long enough to make it work.

TIERRAMERICA – What is the future of U.S. agriculture?

PETERSON – All I know is using the past or present to predict the future doesn’t work. The booming market for organics with its 25-percent price premium is now very attractive to big companies including agri-business. Instead of organics leading a resurgence of family farms with people working close to the soil and raising their families, we could end up with large-scale organic production owned by huge companies.

I’d like to see small farms dotting the landscape again and I would love it if they were viable, but I don’t know if it is going to work out. I could be wrong – people could vote with their money to support small farms.

(* Stephen Leahy is an IPS correspondent. Originally published Oct. 8 by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)

(**Corrects surname. Should be John Peterson, not Anderson.)