This is a guest post, re-posted from The Anglophilic Anglican.

In agrarian practices we see a deliberate way of life in which the integrity and wholesomeness of peoples and neighborhoods, and the natural resources they depend upon, are maintained and celebrated.

“What makes agrarianism the ideal candidate for cultural renewal is that it, unlike some environmental approaches that sequester wilderness and portray the human presence as invariably destructive or evil, grows out of the sustained, practical, intimate engagement between the power and creativity of both nature and humans. In agrarian practices we see a deliberate way of life in which the integrity and wholesomeness of peoples and neighborhoods, and the natural resources they depend upon, are maintained and celebrated.

“Agrarianism builds on the acknowledgement that we are biological and social beings that depend on healthy habitats and communities. However much we might think of ourselves as post-agricultural beings or disembodied minds, the fact of the matter is that we are inextricably tied to the land through our bodies – we have to eat, drink and breath – and so our culture must always be sympathetic to the responsibilities of agriculture.”

— Norman Wirzba (“Why Agrarianism Matters – Even to Urbanites,” In The Essential Agrarian Reader, edited by Norman Wirzba, University of Kentucky Press, 2004)

Or, as the late great social commentator, Paul Harvey, once put it, “Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

There is no question that I am philosophically an agrarian, and I have rarely, if ever, been so happy as when I was one in practice, too (at Spoutwood). One of the greatest disappointments of my life so far is that I have not yet been able to obtain a small piece of land to live on and farm (or at least garden, and maybe raise a few chickens) as I believe our Creator, and also many of our Founders – Jefferson in particular – intended.

Perhaps one day, Lord willing…

 

Guest post from The Anglophilic Anglican – a blog truly worth adding to your regular reading list.

In defense of Western Christendom, and of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful!