Bread by Vader (rommelortega@gmail.com)

Harvesting the American Dream in Agriculture

(To fully appreciate this content, readers must have some knowledge about American history).

In the heartland, where amber waves stretch to the horizon, the symphony of seasons orchestrates a timeless tale. Here, the plow turns history’s pages, and the farmer—the unsung poet—sows words into furrows.

These lines from Microsoft Bing evoke from me a nostalgia of hardships and triumph of the American body and spirit. To “conquer” a wilderness was not easy, especially when only the basic survival knowledge was with the “pioneers.” In fact, in trying to create viable communities in the United States, they had to endure and meet death in many ways possible. But just like here in the Philippines, we meet and met benevolent natives. The locals taught the settlers on how to survive in the “new found lands.”

These “pygmies,” as what a French would call the American farmers fleeing persecution in Europe, will one day be a giant. And as prophesied by political scientists, the tail has now wagged the dog: Europe is now under the leadership of America…

The Pioneer’s Overture: The covered wagon creaks across the prairie, dreams woven into its canvas. Calloused hands break the earth, coaxing life from barrenness. Cornstalks rise like sentinels, their rustling leaves murmuring secrets of survival.

When I read from the net about these calloused hands I could only imagine our God in Tagalog: Maykapal (literally, we may interpret it as calloused hands because of hard and honest labor or calloused faces and hearts because of humiliations); either way, the Creator is the humblest of all and the hardworking for all. He does the heavy lifting in the Universe as we know in Dark Matter. And he promised that there will be reckoning!

The Industrial Refrain: Steam engines belch determination, forging a new era. Steel plows slice through stubborn sod, and the land yields abundance. Wheat, cotton, and soybeans become the currency of progress, traded in silos and whispered prayers.

Hardships beget inventions to lighten the burden; and, as far as I know, America shared her knowledge and inventions to the world – she earned in return as a matter of course. But people just like the Israelites of the old kept on complaining. The Government has to feed the people.

The Dust Bowl Sonata: A tempest of despair sweeps across the Great Plains. Soil dances with the wind, escaping desperate hands. Yet hope clings—a stubborn weed—pushing through adversity. FDR’s New Deal hums in the background, reshaping the landscape.

In my imagination, the humans caused the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is not good though to impute the blame on someone without knowing what truly transpired. Humanity himself caused a lot of crises in the world. But with bold policies and good vision from Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal happened. Good economics with compassionate government intervention could be a force for good.

The Green Revolution Cadence: Laboratories hum with possibility. Hybrid seeds, nitrogen dances, and pesticides waltz. Norman Borlaug, the wizard of wheat, conjures miracles—feeding millions, yet leaving questions in the furrows: What price do we pay for progress?

With the mounting pressures from population explosion, good hearted people responded. We just do not have the foresight on what it would bring to us. The balance of Nature is now affected by human activities. But foremost, people or the pinnacle of God’s creation, have to survive.

The Organic Lullaby: Earth-loving rebels reclaim the soil. Heirloom tomatoes blush, and free-range chickens scratch poetry into the dirt. Farmers’ markets bloom like wildflowers, connecting hands that nurture and mouths that taste truth.

We have choices by this time, the “eco-rebels” have seen enough; our Mother Earth had been subjected to too many chemicals and agricultural plantations destroyed her ecology. Some unintended but very few were with knowledge that they are destroying the Creation of God: the real rebels and not simply opposed but demonic ones.

The Precision Farming Rhapsody: Satellites whisper to tractors, guiding them with celestial precision. GPS lines etch symmetrical rows, and algorithms compose yield maps. In this digital dawn, pixels replace scarecrows, and data harvests hope.

The destruction and problems created by technology are now being solved by more technology. A situation of chicken and more chicken. When will humans stop? Maybe a great Sabbath for Mother Earth as well. As the Father of All had declared that all sabbaths that were not observed must be paid.

The Climate Change Ostinato: Storms rage, seasons blur, and glaciers weep. Resilient farmers adapt—drought-resistant crops, wind turbines, and solar panels. They sing hymns to resilience, knowing that the land remembers every scar.

When Father Sun heard the cry of Mother Earth, he now tried to help the mother of creatures. The most loving of all planets, caring to every whims of her children. His representatives on Earth are now subjected to derisions, after feeding the population and providing for all their whims. We want sugar, the sweet for our every meal! We want caffeine! More plantations! More pork and chicken! More destruction on the Earth. But still, the farmers were subjected to the Climate’s brunt, accepting the punishments due to the greedy ones.

And so, the American agrarian epic unfolds—a patchwork quilt of toil, sweat, and harvest moon serenades. Each furrow etches a stanza, each barn shelters a story. For in the amber fields, the land’s heartbeat syncs with ours, whispering, “Grow, adapt, endure.”

In all of this, the Farmers endure. Trying to adapt to reactionaries’ every demand. They, who have the power of the gun; commanding yet “produce nothing.” The farmers, eventually, would command: “Let’s destroy the arms to produce for the farms.” In economics’ opportunity costs; we would only produce farm tractors or trucks but not tanks at the same given resources, time and manpower. I am speaking of the whole world, not only of the Philippines that is subject to a threat of violence from China.

***The defense establishments worldwide produce many bullets and other armaments. Arguably, they could also be used for civilian purposes. Looking and translating our peak in heaven, it is also obvious to me that the economy in heaven has civilian (Saints) and angelic (Military)  components. If heaven is our mirror on earth, then no wonder that we also learn about war and not only peaceful activities. In the book of Revelation, the first battle was in heaven and it continues here on earth as war…

For your help or positive actions for our communities, you are enjoined to participate via our political party (about to be registered): Partido Makakalikasan Ng Pilipinas (Nature Party Philippines). You may email us at natureparty.ph@gmail.com or message us at 0995-2026-804. If you cannot directly join, you may become a member or help us financially via tithing or political donations: Gcash: +63921-266-1592.

For NGO work, for example, in the establishment of Green Commune, you can text 0995-2026-804 or email us at makakalikasan.organization@gmail.com.

For help establishing our Cooperative, kindly text us at 0995-2026-804 or email us at makakalikasan.marketing.coop@gmail.com. We are continuously looking for Green products and services to market. If you have one, do not hesitate to contact us. 

Lastly, kindly consider the Church and Pope Francis’ Laudato Si as guiding principles.