Lorraine Garkovich - Harvest of Hope: Family Farming/Farming Families

HARVEST OF HOPE

Family Farming/

Farming Families

LORRAINE GARKOVICH

JANET L. BOKEMEIER

BARBARA FOOTE

This book is dedicated to the generations

who have been and will continue to be

a part of the living legacy that is Basin Spring Farm

and to all the other families who live and make a living

on Kentuckys farms.

Copyright 1995 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky
Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.

Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Garkovich, Lorraine.

Harvest of hope : family forming, farming families / Lorraine

Garkovich, Janet L. Bokemeier, Barbara Foote.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8131-1921-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Rural familiesKentuckyCase studies. 2. Family farmsKentuckyCase studies. 3. KentuckyRural conditionsCase
studies. I. Bokemeier, Janet L. II. Foote, Barbara, 1945- .
III. Title.

HQ536.15.K4G37 1995

306.8509769dc20 95-16689

This book represents a harvest of hope. Nearly ten years ago we began talking about the need for a book that would present farming and farm life in the words of those who live it. Much of what most of us know about farming and farm life comes from brief visits or the memories of relatives who once lived on farms. Like old photographs, these images offer snapshots of farm life that are frozen in time. But the reality is quite different. Todays farm families face a world of change, and their lives reflect that dynamism.

Unlike other books on farming and farm families, this is a unique look at contemporary farm family life through the eyes of farmers and largely in their words. Most other books view farming as a business either in terms of the technological innovations that are changing its nature or in light of new policies directed at making farming more competitive and profitable. Most other works on the modern American farm assume a rational economic perspective that seems to deny the fundamental importance of family relationships and family heritage in shaping the nature of the farm business. This book rests on the belief that, to understand the nature of the farm business, it is necessary to understand the stories of the families that operate the farm businesses. Our challenge as authors has been to build an analysis of contemporary farm life that would capture the complexity, diversity, and dynamic nature of farm family businesses. It is an analysis that highlights the contradictions, mixed blessings, myths, and realities of a business and a way of life that have a powerful hold on the American imagination.

The three authors met when Barbara Foote interviewed Janet Bokemeier and Lorraine Garkovich about an earlier study of farm women. Then, as now, Jan and Lori were professors of rural sociology. They have spent their careers in agricultural experiment stations, conducting research and working as extension specialists. Jan has conducted research on families living in both metropolitan and rural areas. Lori has worked with rural communities and families as an extension specialist and has done research on family and community change. At the time, Barb was working as a freelance journalist for the Louisville Courier-Journal and writing a feature on farm women.

What was to have been an hour interview stretched into nearly three. After we commented on the multiple roles of women on the farm and in their off-farm jobs and the stresses these many demands created for the women and their families, there was a look of shared understanding on Barbs face. She began to talk about how she and her family had struggled with the need to find some kind of off-farm income to make a go of it and how this had affected them: I thought I was the only one who felt this way, that we were the only family that had to go through all this. There was a sense of relief that she was not alone. We all began to believe that Kentucky farm families shared experiences and viewpoints that transcended the particular characteristics of their farm operations. And we believe that farm families throughout the nation would nod their heads and say, Yes, this is how we live, work, and feel.

Although the farming experience is different in many ways from the work done by most Americans, we also believe that farm families day-to-day lives mirror in fundamental ways the experiences of families in small towns, suburbs, and major cities. All families struggle with the pressures that come from a social world changing so rapidly that the guidelines and rules and expectations of yesterday do not apply today. All families share the pressures that come from struggling to do too much in too little time. All parents worry that they may not be doing enough for their children or that they are expecting too much of their children, and they wonder what kind of family and community heritage they will be passing on to them. All couples must contend with how to share the work and decisions that are necessary to keep a family together and strong in a changing world. And many families work in multigeneration businesses that require the extra effort to balance the needs and desires of an extended family with the demands of a modern business. The reader will come to realize that in many ways farm family life is a mirror reflecting the dreams, hopes, fears, struggles, and triumphs of many other American families.

Barbs story of life on Basin Spring Farm, owned and operated by the Foote family for several generations, is the thread that ties together the stories of the eighty other farm families who shared their stories with us during the summer and fall of 1988. The names of their home counties have been fictionalized to illustrate the essential character of their commodity base.

The poems are Barbs reflections on and responses to life on the farm and in rural America. Barbs accounts of life on Basin Spring Farm begin each chapter except chapter 1, introducing the stories that are shared by other farm families. Jan and Loris analysis provides an interpretive frame for these stories, without, we hope, altering the farm families intended meanings.

What you will read will often sound like a neighbor talking. The eighty Kentucky farm families represent a group portrait of American farm families. As in any group picture, we see similarities that show that the individuals share a common heritage, as well as the differences that make each individual unique. They share some values and beliefs, but often the meanings and consequences of even these shared ideas are different for the various individuals and families. The families are different in the ways that they face the risks inherent in farming as a business. Some embrace the challenge, the gamble, the pitting of themselves against nature and the odds. Others worry and look for ways to bring certainty and security to their business ventures. But all of them must make choices. Every day there are decisions to be made that will affect their businesses and their family lives. Excerpts from their stories as told to us are set off in italics in the chapters ahead. Farming, like all life, is about trade-offs, weighing the costs and benefits of different strategies and then accepting the consequences.