Gene Logsdon, the Contrary Farmer

"Why does no one speak of the cultural advantages of the country? For example, is a well groomed, ecologically kept, sustainably fertile farm any less cultural, any less artful, than paintings of fat angels on church ceilings?" Gene Logsdon, Living at Nature's Pace: Farming and the American Dream

Gene Logsdon (1931-2016) lived and farmed in Upper Sandusky and dispensed his unique brand of folksy wisdom through dozens of books and articles, and later his blog, The Contrary Farmer, until his death in 2016. He was one of Ohio's greatest treasures, at least in the agricultural world. He was the Wendell Berry of Ohio, albiet less known, an agrarian philosopher fluent in novels and nonfiction, infusing his works with his gentle, stoic humor, and real-life farm knowledge.

Throughout his writings one will find the concept of "garden farming," which is the antithesis of factory farming. For the garden farmer, "time spent is part of the profit; in factory farming, time is money." Gene observed that most farmers pay for expensive inputs, then try to extract the most from a piece of land, and hope prices are high enough to produce a profit. He himself was a artisan who loved practicing his craft, and the joy derived from the practice was profit in itself. The work he did on his farm was done by hand or with small tractors, without the need for large, costly machinery.

At first glance it might seem that as a successful writer making a living from his work, and with the luxury of viewing his farm as a work of art, Gene is presenting a utopia not available to farmers without jobs in town, totally dependent on farm income for livelihood. Garden farming however, is defined by one's relationship to the land and the work, not whether the land is a source of profit.

He gives the example of the Amish who show a profit year after year, on family-run diversified farms. They've kept operating costs low and easily weather lean years, and when commodity prices rise, they make a bundle.

The crux of garden farming is loving what you do, loving the spot you do it, and loving the company in which it is done, whether insects, wildlife, and livestock, or your friends and family. Gene was essentially expressing the problem of modern farming as just a job, with land as the factory floor. One leads to mindful stewardship of the land to the benefit of life, human and otherwise. The other is just mining the land, to the eventual detriment of all involved.

I learned many practical things from reading the books of Gene Logsdon, but I treasure most his concept of living on the land as something approaching art. Ever since I learned the term, I've thought of myself as a garden farmer. I've illustrated this post with photographs from my farm, and I hope I've done justice to the term, and to the life and ideas of one of Ohio's greatest farmers and thinkers.