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interview: naylor
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Interview: George Naylor
National Family Farm Coalition, Iowa, USA
Interviewer: Avery Cohn
Q: There were two terms used a lot at the workshop that are sort of related:“family
farmer” and “campesino.” What do these mean? As president of the National
Family Farm Coalition, what does the term “family farmer” mean to you?
George Naylor delivers his presentation
at the workshop. Photographer: Steve
Taylor.
A: The concept of family farms goes back to the
founding of our country, and Thomas Jefferson’s
regard for the yeoman farmers and the
importance they played in democracy. They were
independent and didn’t have to worry about
losing customers. They had a certain amount of
wealth, so they could express their political
opinions. It became an important concept in
contrast to the slave system. Family farmers,
small businesses, and wage laborers all joined
together to oppose slavery.
Being free and independent was an important
concept for a long, long time. That’s an
important contrast. The family farmer isn’t
exploiting other labor. They might exploit their
own family’s labor. Corporate agriculture depends on hired, exploited labor, or on
exploiting the labor of family farmers who are only nominally independent.
Q: So, like Jefferson, you see the political independence of family farmers as
important to the political process?
A: Yeah. There are a lot of business people who are afraid to speak out because they
are afraid of losing customers and offending people. A family farmer isn’t in that
situation, although some family farmers under corporate contract with big hog
confinement operations might be blackballed if they speak out. In my own
community, some people won’t sign petitions against hog confinement companies
because they already work for them – or think they might need to in the future.
yale school of forestry & environmental studies