What's agriculture's main crop?

The lilac blooms in the picture below were well past their prime when the picture was taken on June 1 half a dozen years ago. When we drove past those same bushes today, there wasn't a hint of color visible from the road. A few lilacs in the vicinity have more flowers in bloom, but most are just starting to open their buds. This past Tuesday, when I had to drive into "The Cities" most of the urban lilacs were in full bloom. Similar lilac lags have been noticed in other years. Could it  be attributed to the  urban heat island in Spring?

when will this year's local lilacs bloom?

Photo by J. Harrington

At least one of  the  patches of local trilliums have burst into flower sometime during  the past week or so. I noticed lots of them on Tuesday or Wednesday. Trilliums in bloom and goslings along roadsides are two signs that  Spring is fading into full-on Summer. June 1, in a little more than a week, marks the beginning of meteorological Summer. We may get some thunderstorms this weekend. Summer solstice is about a month from now. Despite the disruption COVID-19 has created, the seasons progress pretty much as usual.

trillium, a sign of North Country Summer

Photo by J. Harrington

Without so much as a segue,  please permit a question here. When  you think of farming and agriculture, is food the first thing that  comes to mind? Perhaps that's incorrect, according to some statistics from the 2017 Census  of Agriculture. To use Minnesota as an example, here's how some acreages break out:

Did you see vegetable crops in that list? Just barely, with wheat and sugarbeets, once we take into account that most of the uses of corn  and soybeans aren't direct human consumption. About 75% of soybeans are used as animal feed. With corn, about 40% goes for feed, 30% for fuel ethanol, and 13% is exported. So, the preponderance of agricultural acreages in Minnesota don't directly feed people by growing tomatoes and cabbages. Why then are we subsidizing farmers to grow field corn and  soybeans if it's not to ensure food supply for humans? Corn and soybean animal feed helps support concentrated animal feeding operations [CAFOs]. Please consider that the next time you read or see news about trade wars, farm programs, and tariff battles. Agriculture does not always equal food. It primarily provides industrial feedstock, which ≠ food.

[UPDATE: This is the system that must be changed:
Corn prices keep slumping, and Minnesota farmers keep planting more]

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

~Wendell Berry

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