Guest Column: Back to basics

One of St. Johns County greatest attributes behind Tourism is Agriculture. And, Hastings as the Potato Capitol of Florida was the best place to host the traditional Hasting Potato Cabbage Festival. From the attendance at the Festival it appears that many are getting back to the basics and their roots.

This event was an example of American farming families coming together through community spirit to celebrate our counties Agriculture heritage.

As quietly as it is kept Agriculture has been a tradition in our family for generations, and farming greatly influenced my life. This Hankering for farming and agriculture extends from both parents, but more so from our mother’s family who are Tennesseans, and part of that Johnson Clan, yea that Johnson! Those experiences as a youth helped form our conservative views.

Actually, the Council of Aging will be featured a film about my mother’s life on the farm during Older American Month, entitled the Good Life. This was a series of interviews of seniors who seemed to be living a good life. The film was produced by Flagler College students, and after watching the student’s great work on all the films I realized how much of an influence my mother and her family have had on us. And, it inspired me to pin this article on Agriculture, and our lives.

As kids my older brother who is an NCAA graduate, and I spent our summers in rural Tennessee on our mother’s family farm. We spent our summers there at our own request, because we were inspired by our roots thanks to our parents and relatives sharing stories and visiting the south prior to that time. It’s a Southern Thang…

Thankfully, our “parents” also wanted us to have a strong work ethic, and know about the basis, i.e., from where we once came, and much like the Beverly Hillbillies who never forget where they came from even though they struck it rich with Oil!

Heck to this day, my brother who is a top Anesthesiologist in Tampa drives a Ford 250 Diesel, and he is married to a Wisconsin dairy farmer’s daughter (literally). She too is an NCAA graduate. Frankly, I feel more comfortable in a pair of redwing boots, Columbia pants and shirt on a John Deere Tractor or a Ford truck, with a gun and a dog. Do not let the Brooks Brothers, Harts, Schaffer, and Marx, or Sir Joseph A. Bank’s customs made suites, and Washington, DC or northern attitude or upbringing fool you.

Likewise, many St. Johns County families are still involved in Agriculture. But, over the last fifty years the number of farmers within the county and US has decreased, which is sad! Because, at some point in time we will have to import more of our food and it will not be cheap nor top quality!

As an economic case in point and according to the University of Florida, IFAS Extension St. Johns County leads the State of Florida in the production acreage of potatoes and cabbage. An estimated 24,960 acres in the County are devoted to potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, turf grass, livestock, nursery stock, timber, and various small truck crops.

The economic impact of Agriculture and Natural Resource industries is over $171 million. These industries provide 2,638 jobs. Specific impacts include:

• Vegetables $45,000,000
• Environmental Horticulture $48,000,000
• Labor Income $77,000,000
• Indirect Business Taxes $13,300,000

In the American model land ownership was an essential prerequisite for voting rights, which was built on relatively easy paths to individual farm ownership. However, the gradual modernization and mechanization of farming, greatly increases both the efficiency and capital requirements of farming. This led to increasingly large farms owned by individuals or corporations.

It is the farm foundation that we call “getting back to basics.” These basics include self-sufficiency, self-reliance, independence, family and God.

Life itself is simple, based in Agriculture, and the basics. How so you ask? We must plow, till, plant the seeds, water, pray and reaping a harvest, and pray again for the harvest. Hence, we reap what we sow.

Agriculture is the number two industry in Florida as it is in many southern states. And, many families evolved from the basics of farming into other professions such as Medicine, Law, Public Service, and Ministry. Our desire to spend our summers on the farm was one of the greatest decisions of our lives, and it prepared us for today’s business environment and life in general.

Unfortunately, farm ownership has decreased substantially over the last 100 years as has self-worth, self-reliance, and independence. There by, causing some to become more dependent on government or socialist programs to provide for them.

Not sure about you, but I am getting back to the basics and back to American democracy model that was laid out for us in the American Constitution by our founders fathers who set a great example of what America is about… Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness as you define it.

Thanks Mom

Derek Boyd Hankerson
St. Augustine, FL