Why We Choose to Farm When the Store is Full
I was walking with a friend one sunny afternoon last October when he asked me, “It is 2025 and you can get anything you could possibly want at the store. Why do you choose to farm?”
We had a great conversation afterward, joking back and fourth, but that question is something I still think about often —not because it felt hostile, but because it revealed how differently we look at the food on grocery store shelves.
Honestly, his question is normal in modern American culture. Most people don’t see the cost, the labor, the distance, or the fragility of it all when they think about the food system. Most people also put very little thought into the food system at all. This mindset doesn’t come from bad people, but instead from a system that has been built to make it easy not to notice. Because food has become invisible, small farm life that still exists alongside modern culture, like mine, feels countercultural simply because it dares to look more closely and ask more questions.
Pickle Jars waiting for vinegar brine.
This was my first batch of homemade pickles with pickling cucumbers from my garden. My husband and daughter ran through these in less than two days
When I think about the cost of our food, money is rarely what comes to mind first. I think about the cost of flavor in our fruits and vegetables being sacrificed for productivity. I think about the cost of food traveling an average of 1,500 miles before it ever reaches a plate. I think about the cost of raising animals in ways they were never meant to live, in conditions where thriving is impossible.
In the moments of farming, when the days are long, my muscles tremble with exhaustion, and I work well into the curtain of nightfall, I think about all of this. I don’t choose farming because it is easy or convenient. I choose it because I believe local agriculture matters — A belief that knowing where your food came from and the story behind every plate matters. That belief drives me to show up every day and try to do it better than the day before.
Fresh Zuchini
The fried zucchini that came from this plant was incredible. Just about every morning, there was another fruit to harvest.
The honest truth is that I love this life so deeply that my heart aches for more of it. When I think back on my friend’s question, I think about how the grocery store shelves may be full, but fullness is not the same as nourishment. I long for the agency, the connection, the presence, and the resilience that come with this life.