A 4th of July Letter From The Farm
A few reflections this morning, on America's 249th birthday...
As a child, I got my first taste of farming at my best friend’s grandparents' farm in Kansas, 160 acres that had been homesteaded in the 1800s by their ancestors.
I saw the hard work, the long days, the family put in, not to get rich, but to get by. To preserve their way of life for another day.
They were raising food for America, just like farmers still do today.
America was founded by farmers. George Washington was a farmer. So was Thomas Jefferson. James Madison. John Adams. These men didn’t just talk about liberty and independence; they lived off the land. They understood hard work, seasons, soil, and livestock. They saw farming not just as a job, but as the backbone of a free society.
Washington once said, “Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man.” Jefferson believed that “those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.”
Farming wasn’t just part of their lives - it shaped their thinking. It made them practical, self-reliant, and fiercely independent. In many ways, it’s what gave them the moral grounding and courage to stand up to a monarchy and build something entirely new.
Today, on July 4th, we should celebrate America’s founding and its endurance, but also our roots, past and present.
What would America's Founding Fathers think of our food system today?
We (America) aren’t very agricultural anymore.
Today, fewer than 2% of Americans are farmers. According to the USDA, between 2017 and 2022, the number of farms declined by 141,000. That's about 75 farms closing every single day.
The vast majority of our food comes not from small family farms, but from massive corporate operations - many of them backed by Wall Street, foreign investors, and billion-dollar processors. Independent farms are being bought up, pushed out, or buried under regulation and bureaucracy that favors scale over integrity.
Around our farm here in Maine, I see it with my own eyes. My neighbors - men and women who spent their lives working their farms - don’t have the wherewithal to stop or retire. Who’s going to buy an old dairy farm in Maine? Certainly not the young people, farming isn't for them.
When we lose our farmers, we lose more than food - we lose the very soul of this country. We lose local knowledge. We lose real stewardship of the land. We lose people who raise animals with care, not chemicals. We lose families who take pride in feeding their neighbors, not shareholders.
We import so much of our food. Did you know 95% of the grassfed beef sold in America is imported? (From places like Uruguay and Australia.)
That "all-American" burger from a fast-food chain? It's mostly beef from Mexico.
What would Washington or Jefferson think if they could see us now?
They’d ask, “where are all the farmers?”
I’m not writing this to make anyone feel guilty this holiday. I just hope we can all take a moment - while we enjoy our cookouts and fireworks - to remember that the fight for independence didn’t end in 1776. Today, it’s about keeping our food system free, local, and accountable.
Supporting American family farms isn’t charity - it’s patriotism. It’s choosing to preserve a way of life that built this country and can still help save it.
Without farmers, there is no freedom. Not in 1776. Not today.
From our farm - and our partner farms - thank you for your support,
