This is the eighth report from the Reedley Peace Center, where we are holding a speakers series on people, land and water in the San Joaquin Valley. Called “In the Struggle,” it features individuals who have contributed to the human ecology of this place in the face of its dehumanization from the industrialization of agriculture.
“My mother thought I should be the
first American Pope,” Tom Willey confided to his large, warm audience Friday
night. He was explaining why she’d set
foot on his farm only once during his entire career producing food from the
soil, suggesting that she thought it was a waste of his fine Berkeley
education. Others might have thought the
same, but it was clear to me that this thinking man and his brilliant wife Denesse
of T & D Willey Farms have successfully applied themselves to one of the
most intractable problems of California Agriculture: saving the family farm.
They’ve done it first-hand, by
example and by experiment, by comprehending the difficulties and overcoming
them. They’ve also done it by
understanding the culture and the sociology of small-scale farming: the critical role family and neighbors play
in making farms sustainable, as well as soils and water supplies. They’ve done it by understanding the
political forces undermining family farms, and the historical precedents of
empires built on water shortage in semi-deserts dependent on irrigation. They’ve done it by recognizing the needs of
the eating public and filling them with good, nutritious food picked and packed
by the hands of well-paid laborers.
They started by leasing 20 acres
east of Fresno, with Tom farming while Denesse kept the bills paid with her
nursing jobs. It was “profitless,” Tom
said, until they went organic. He was
mentored by two neighbors, a Japanese farmer named George Yagi and a Black
farmer named Leon Poe, who taught him the ropes. In 1984, Denesse gave up nursing and
dedicated herself to the marketing end through farmer’s markets. In 1995 they purchased 80 acres in Madera
County, gradually moving toward selling their vegetables directly to
subscribers through their CSA.
“We wanted to demonstrate that a
couple could make a decent middle-class living growing people’s food,” Tom
said, noting that their net income over the last 10 or 15 years varied from
$60,000 to a whopping $300,000 one year.
“We’ve fed 800 families over the last 12 years,” Tom said, “which was
the most rewarding, the most profitable, and the most exhausting” enterprise
yet.
And when this fall’s eggplant crop
is done, they will be finished. The
Willey’s are retiring from farming, not failing. “After 40 years, I’ve gotten producing
mountains of vegetables out of my system,” he proclaimed. They’re retiring with a decent income to
continue their other vocational interests.
In Tom’s case, that’s writing, education and his radio work, primarily
his program “Down on the Farm” on KFCF (FM 88.1). Their CSA business has been transferred to
Fresno’s Food Commons, where young people are being mentored by experienced
hands like the Willey’s in developing the local food system this country needs.
Despite their success, Tom Willey
understands the forces working against sustainable, small-scale farms and food
distribution systems. The political
power of agribusiness he describes as a “floodtide,” noting the current efforts
by Westlands Water District to cinch their deal with the Feds as just one
example. He believes that the sustainable, polycrop farm system that feeds and
employs people well on the land is in deep jeopardy, as close to extinction as
the Delta smelt if we do not act, become educated and politically engaged,
particularly in decisions determining water distribution.
His advice? Those of you who know how to farm, find ways
to mentor those young people who are trying to learn; help them find new ways
for this alternative farming system to emerge and thrive. Don’t let your knowledge die with you: pass it on.
For the rest of us, get involved in
the political process. Go to those
“tedious, ding-dong meetings” regarding water transfers and groundwater
regulation, land use planning and budgets.
Why? “When things are really
screwed up,” Tom stated, “I believe that equals great opportunity.”
“There’s a way to do it,” he said,
summing up the path they’ve carved, as well as his hope for the future. We simply have to work together to make it
happen.
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Trudy
Wischemann is a fourth generation failed family farmer who writes. You can send your carvings to her c/o P.O.
Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a
comment below.
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