The Western Relationship to the Land

Agriculture is a relationship.

It’s a relationship between Man and Nature.

Or, if you want to be specific, it's a relationship between farmers with a particular land and crop.

In this case: it's apples, apple trees, and the apple farmer's connection to a place. 

Ok, so agriculture is a relationship, we've covered that.

But what do we know about relationships and how do the fundamental properties of relationships appear in agriculture? 

One universal property of relationships is the "economy of care."

This economy is easiest seen in that ole quantity-versus-quality tension but it's a simple rule: 
The quantity of relationships you have directly effects the time and concern (the care) you are able to give. 

For instance: If a doctor is limited to 10 patients per day the the doctor will budget time and concern per those 10 patients (budget and economy are synonyms.) But if the hospital system tells the doctor they must see 100 patients in a day then the amount of time and care will be diluted. Things will get overlooked, patients will feel cheated and mistakes will happen. 

Same is true for the teacher/ student relationship and same is true with farmer-to-land relationships 

There is NO DOUBT stretching the quantity effects the quality of relationships. 

And yet every farmer and business owner I know thinks they'd be more successful if only they could scale up their production. 

Like lemmings to the ocean, we are chasing an illusion that completely contradicts the irrefutable laws of relationships. 

Someone else's financial numbers (the illusion) leads us, the herd, to the sea ignoring the very qualities, the intimacy, of what lies right there beneath our feet. 

I'm no exception. It's bred in me too.

"Get more land, plant more trees, incorporate crops harvested from other farms into our operation..."

This knee-jerk reaction is bred into us by a culture that is incurably progressivist (and by progressivist I mean philosophically: We are a people who assume good things happen if we just keep pushing in this direction. Progressivism is a way of being "based on the idea of progress in which advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition" - straight from the dictionary) 

My point is, western people have all the wrong instincts. By now we should've proven to ourselves we're unfit to lead this planet. It's time just to stop moving, stop growing, and look down. Care.