Are you a specialist, responsible, or both?

First off, I want to thank all who have signed up to receive this blog and the farm news. It brings me joy to know that so many believe in what we're doing. It is creating a community that is mutually beneficial and that is exciting.

Many things struck me as I read through the second chapter of "The Unsettling of America" by Wendell Berry. At the top of that list was identifying the difference in people who are "specialists" and "responsible". These two areas can reveal mankind's inner propensity for hypocrisy. A broad look reveals, "the corruption of community has its source in the corruption of character". We have leaders or high ranking execs that operate herbicide and pesticide companies, while their children have cancer caused by the products their companies produce, yet rationalize it as "the cost of doing business in the real world". Not to point fingers, not one of us has come to a place where we are exempt from living destructively in some regard. The problem lies in what we "think" and the contrast in what we "do". Specialists have not yet come up with a cure for this problem, in contrast, we have the support of intellectuals, professors, clergyman, politicians, and consumers to justify the ends to our means. In a culture that has embraced the specialist mentality, have we unknowingly removed our God given mandate to be responsible? As a Christian, I believe that one day, I will have to give an account for my actions. Heck even the idle words that come from my own mouth will need to be accounted for according to Scripture. That mandates me to be responsible. Creating prestigious titles has given us the means to gain endorsement and possibly the funding to pursue whatever will make our lives "easier" by disregarding the other areas of impact. Much like the pharmaceutical you may see where this drug may help this one symptom, but it carries the risk of horrific side effects. However it has gotten enough endorsements to gain funding and manufacturing and dispersion. Why? Because it has proven to be temporarily beneficial in this one area and there is enough people interested in this temporary relief to make it profitable in the end. This is again endorsed by "specialists".

The common theme is that people seek to become specialists in one area or another. I'm not arguing that is a bad thing necessarily. If it comes at the cost of being able to see the whole picture because you're just focused on one pixel of the picture, then that's a problem. Being a specialists should be an addition to stewarding the other areas that make up the picture well. I know this is a controversial view, but to approach it from any other position produces weakness in one or more areas. It further divides us and eventually reduces the quality of the whole. That is where being responsible comes in. Responsible calls us to create the whole picture. Not just responsible for the purple pixels, which we will favor because it's what we're responsible for. There may need to be special attention to a certain color at some time, but when you are responsible for the whole picture, you know how it will effect the picture if you pay too much attention to one color. The whole thing then lacks.

You see this in a manufacturing process where an employee is familiar with a final product but is trained on doing one individual task. Not knowing what part they are really playing, they are told to put the piece in this machine and press this button. When the process is complete, take it out and put in a new one and press the button. I love to ask new people, "What are you doing"? They explain "I'm placing this piece in here and pressing this button, remove and repeat". I say "Hmmm, do you know why"? Most employee says "Uh, no, it's just what I was told to do". I explain to them that this is why "your" process is happening. I show them the entire process from beginning to end and watch the look of confusion start to fade away to one that shows purpose. When we have purpose, we can have integrity in that purpose because it's what we are "responsible" for. When we don't understand the whole picture, the picture becomes compromised.

Many areas of our culture is suffering from the "specialist" mentality. "Educators that have nothing to teach, communicators with nothing to say, medical specialists skilled at expensive cures for diseases that they have no skill nor interest in preventing". "More common are the inventors, manufactures, and salesman of devices who have no concern for the possible side effects of those devices". Do you think that whoever came up with rendering petroleum in such a way to make plastic had the thought about the time it would take it to decompose? Or that it would become so prevalent that they can find trace amounts of it in our food and even our blood? Again, there is no elite group that has come to this "super intelligence" that can live a non-destructive lifestyle completely, but are you doing your part to reduce the amount of destruction you leave in your wake?

Do you give thought to the companies that you support with your hard earned money or do you just look for the cheapest products? Is your doctor speaking to you about how to prevent disease or just trying to sell you on taking another pill? They are specialists after all. Is the current system failing enough to give pause to consider what you are responsible for? For many, the answer will be "No", but those of you reading this that are part of Embrace Farm PMA the answer is already "Yes" and I am thankful that you have opened your eyes to want ethically raised, organically fed, pastured poultry. Our poultry products are an extension of our character and we don't take that lightly. When we have to give an account of what we are responsible for, we want it to be acceptable to the One that made it.

Farm News

It's been hot! If you're alive and in the Carolinas, you know this!

Be on the lookout mid July for an online Pre-Order Form for Pastured Organic Chickens, cuts and other products

In the meantime, stay safe. Drink plenty of water

We have moved to doing the Saluda Market and Columbus Market every 1st and 3rd week of the month.

Thanks to all of our members and folks that have shown intersts in us and the farm. We truly do appreciate you!!

Your local stewards,

Gordon & Elizabeth