Agriculture is a
unique culture
- Monday, August
28, 2006 6:57 AM MDT
LaJunta Tribune
Democrat
It has finally
happened. It's only
taken a couple
hundred years, but
it finally happened.
Now that there's
less than one
percent of us left
in agriculture, the
American
Psychological
Association has
created a whole new
area of study to
deal with us.
For decades the APA
dedicated themselves
to separating humans
into races, ages,
cultural heritage,
and socio-economic
classes. They
developed highly
sophisticated
theories and studies
designed to help
Americans deal with
change, stress,
guilt and disaster.
None of them worked
on farmers and
ranchers. Rural
counseling
consistently had the
highest failure rate
and the most
unsatisfied
customers of any
area of
psychological
practice.
It took the
efforts of a
immigrant laborer's
son to make the APA
take a longer and
more serious look at
America's food
producers.
Val Farmer grew up
on farms. His family
didn't own one, but
they worked on
several. When he
went to college to
study psychology in
the '70s he found
some huge holes in
the curriculum. He
started telling the
powers that be that
agricultural people
are different. That
we have different
values and a unique
way of looking at
life.
Farmers and ranchers
live where they work
and work where they
live. There isn't a
time clock, the
business doesn't
close, and weekends
are just more work
days.
If a farmer is going
to be successful, he
has to enjoy what
he's doing. That
means he enjoys
work. Work isn't
something you hurry
away from, or put up
with to earn
vacation time, or
even get paid for.
It's the reason you
get up in the
morning.
No other occupation
has so few retirees,
and no other
industry has so many
active participants
over the age of 70.
Few farmers and
ranchers retire. The
ones that do tend to
die within a year.
That may be because
they don't retire
until they have a
fatal illness, but
more reports show
that unless they
find something else
to do, they die of
depression. To a
farmer, work is his
purpose in life.
They may use it in
different ways, but
ranchers and farmers
have one thing in
common - dedication
to the land. No one
is more proud of
their heritage than
a farmer or rancher
on his granddaddy's
place. To lose that
place is
devastating.
According to Dr.
Farmer, that concept
was totally foreign
to the APA. In
today's mobile
society, there was
no place in
psychology for
someone emotionally
devastated by the
loss of a patch of
dirt.
In rural America,
the family is still
a unit. Despite
vicious power
struggles and
delicately balanced
authority figures,
multi-generational
businesses are the
norm. Grandchildren
know their
grandparents as
people, not
pictures.
Children grow up
fast. They learn to
run heavy equipment
while their urban
cousins are still
riding bicycles.
Seeing life created,
born, and end is
just part of their
day. Rural kids make
decisions that
effect their
family's financial
future regularly -
and they know it.
They also know
exactly how strong
they are, and
exactly how hard
they can work. Scars
come with bragging
rights, not court
cases. They
understand and
respect guns - and
they don't use them
on each other. They
can be depended on
to finish a project
without supervision.
No wonder the
military,
construction,
mining, and most
other industries
give preference to
rural kids. They
already have a skill
set and a work ethic
and are project, not
time clock,
oriented. And they
don't respond to
counseling like
urban children,
probably because
they don't consider
themselves children
- with good reason.
The APA discovered
that while urban
people are
surrounded by other
humans, they
actually know few of
them, but rural
people know
everybody for miles
around - their
business and family
problems. One study
showed that the
average
farmer/rancher knows
over 150 people on a
first name, personal
basis, and many
others through
family lines. A
disaster in one
family can cause
ripples of anxiety
and depression
through the whole
community.
The APA discovered
other differences
also.
Courting rituals are
different. While a
city girl might be
impressed by a
degree, fancy car
and good restaurant,
a country girl wants
to know how big the
ranch is or how new
the tractors are.
“Yeah”, groused a
participant at one
of Farmer's
community events. “I
moved to the country
because I inherited
this farm. I liked
the community, so I
sold that run-down
old farm to buy a
nice house and a
fancy car so I could
find a wife and all
the girls I dated
wanted to know was
how big my farm was!
Anybody want to buy
a nice house in
town?”
The other members of
the audience just
laughed at him.
Honor is very
important to the
majority of rural
people. Honor and
honesty are the most
important values a
person can have
according to rural
opinion polls. Those
are also the two
values that set
small communities
apart.
Rural people value
the elderly. While
less than 20 percent
of urban nursing
home patients ever
have a visitor, only
about 15 percent of
nursing home
patients in rural
areas don't have
visitors at least
once a year. Not all
those visitors are
family, friends stop
in for a visit too.
The APA found that
farmers and ranchers
have a unique set of
problems too. As a
group, we expect too
much of ourselves
and when we
disappoint
ourselves, we tend
to turn to alcohol.
Alcoholism is a
serious problem in
rural areas, and it
is increasing as
rural economies
collapse under
regulations and
shrinking profit
margins.
Suicide is also
increasing as farms
and ranches go under
and those proud
grandsons and
great-grandsons
would rather be dead
than lose their
honor or give up the
ground they love.
It has taken three
decades of pressure
from people like Dr.
Farmer, but finally
the APA has admitted
that agriculture is
a unique culture.
Its people are
different and need
to be addressed as a
unique subculture of
American society.
Ironically, while
they divide urban
people into colors,
racial heritages,
ages, financial
situations, and
education levels,
agriculture is just
agriculture. The APA
eliminated all other
divisions under our
heading. It seems
our rural values
supersede color,
racial heritage,
age, wealth, and
education.
Isn't it nice when
our highly-educated,
urban neighbors
finally accept what
we've known all
along? Rural people
are different.