In the southeastern corner of Vermont, a community of farmers quietly struggles to maintain a way of life that has existed for generations. They are not motivated by financial gain, political correctness, headlines, or celebrity, but by a love of the land they work, the animals they raise and the history of that process. Like the heirloom crops and breeds they have kept alive, these farmers are preserving a form of land management and use that may prove to be agriculture's future rather than its past. Within a nation at odds with itself over how best to move into the future, by maintaining a link to the past, the agrarian movement plays an increasingly important role in providing alternatives to the unsustainability of industrial agricultural practices while also cultivating an increasingly rare sense of community. Within these communities flourishes a respect for the land, its animals and for one's neighbors that I feel is, as a model, vital for our future.
Whether from multi-generational farming families or escaping from city or suburb in search of a life more fulfilling, each individual is reliant upon the wellbeing of the community as a whole. The history of farming and of the families that farm is written in the landscape and contributed to by each newcomer. At first glance romantic, this is a backbreaking and unforgiving way of life offering little respite and less monetary gain. Many will fail. Some will take their new-found knowledge to a less competitive area. New farm or old, I am awed by the quiet kindness and respect which underpins this struggle: the gentleness of a hand caressing a ewe as she delivers a lamb which, nevertheless, is destined for the table. This same sheep farmer explains to me the necessity of every animal contributing to the well-being of the farm whether in the production of meat, milk or wool, and then goes on to affectionately describe the personality of the ewe he is currently shearing. From a beef farmer, I learn to address each of the animals he so lovingly cares for by name. He explains to me the privilege of sharing in their lives from newborn calf to two years of age when they are taken to slaughter. There is no hypocrisy in this, merely the reality of life on a small working farm run by decent people: the result of an understanding of the balance between necessity and respect.
A long term project addressing all seasons, I will share with others what these people so kindly share with me. The project has just begun its second year and I look forward to filling in those areas I have yet to cover as I now revisit the seasons a good deal wiser. As relationships develop, I will expand upon a second aspect of the project: a more personal exploration of the lives of some of these farmers during down-time and between farm chores. I will likely focus on younger individuals as they struggle to establish themselves in an increasingly competitive market while also establishing a family and a homelife. It is important to me that I depict how a farm is created from the ground up as even those now operating for generations once began. Whether the multi-generational Vermont Shepherd, one of the oldest sheep farms in Vermont and the oldest sheep dairy farm in the United States, or the year old Rebop Farm with its three dairy cow, the hardships and pleasures lived through are largely the same.
With this project, I hope to address what I believe to be an imperative: that we become more aware at a local level of what the land has to offer us when healthy and properly managed while becomeing more appreciative of those who sustain it for the benefit of us all. The benefit of such awareness far exceeds our dietary interests. These farmers embody the symbiotic relationship humans have had and can continue to have with the environment: a relationship built upon respect and appreciation that extends to community. We cannot afford to let this way of life, this relationship with the land and with one another, be relegated to our nation's past rather than held as a model for the future. My intention for these photographs is not as historic record but as a motivating example for our future while also offering a glimpse into the lives of a handful of Vermont's small-farm farmers.
