farming | Andy Arthur.org

Can You Live Outside Society?

Andy | May 5, 2024

While I doubt that it is possible to truly live outside of society in America today, I think it is an interesting subject to explore. To explore living outside of society is to gain a greater understanding of the self and to try to see what the rural life must truly be like. I do not think this essay fully answers that question, but I think it is a place to start with some thought. This essay is based in part of my thoughts gained by meeting a small-scale farmer in Schoharie County.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about living outside of society is the neccessity of land and money to purchase that land. To own your own land, would give you a little piece of the world where you can excerise at least some soverignity over. And if it’s rural and large enough, and you cultivate that land the right way you can turn it into a life beyond society. It is possible through family connections or some kind of donation to gain land without money, but for most of us, we must work for land.

That brings up interesting moral questions: how to make that money, before you quit society? Do you go an immoral, but legal route to gaining money quickly or do you give up a high-profit lifestyle for working a less profitable job, but doing the right thing before gaining that farm? I can not claim to answer that question for you, but it would seem if you are trying to escape an intolerable society it would seem that any means possible might be okay. Then again, you are simply making things worst if you take that attitude.

Second, what land do you purchase? Something that’s very far away from a city, or something near enough that even though you live outside society, you can still participate as you want. Do you get land that’s easily farmable, or do you find land that is more affordable or farther away from the evils of civilzation that you are trying to escape? I would think if your trying to an individual who wants to live outside of society, you would need to have good land that you can grow and produce most if not all of what you need, once you finally quit society. Still, so much of modern society is centered around modern technology, that it is nearly impossible to live completely outside of society as we know it today.

There are many conviences that we rely on in modern society. Corporate agriculture produces food for us cheaply and tastefully, our buildings contain many industrial materials like sheetrock and aluminum roofing, our lifestyle is surrounded by automobiles and power equipment. Few who repudiate society and choose a rural life are willing to give up their truck, their tractor, or their chainsaw. Are you willing to give them up to be more free and more outside of society as we know it today? Yet to live with such items means your dependent on outside sources and influences, such as the need to go beyond yourself to purchase fuel and parts for such machinary.

At one level, things might be changing to make the individual more indepedent of the oil economy, yet be able to participate in it’s benifits. In the far away future, the farm and it’s equipment will be able to be powered by solar and wind energy, burning hydrogen in their engines. Already, you can see farms that use solar powered electric fences, where a solar cell on a fence post collects electricity that is relased from a capicter when an animal touches the fence. Certainly, this technology requires an outside purchase, as you can’t grow silcon nor steel to make this fence, but instead are reliant on it’s existance.

Maybe the future is promising for a free rural life, but not without still many connections to society as we know it. Thoreau never really escaped the society of his era, and it seems even more impossible today. We rely on technology to such a high degree, that we have to accept it in running our household, our homestead, or farm—you actually end up living in society. At best we can choose to live a partially isolated life in rural America, but we are tied to all that makes urban society so evil. People in rural Montana still have to live under government, obey laws, act a certain way. The moral of the story is you live inside society so you have to embrace it in one way or another. Be it living on a farm or in an apartment, your just as much part of a community, though the prior does afford a greater freedom of action.

Land Uses in Mohawk Valley

Andy | September 23, 2011

Today we look at land use in the Mohawk Valley. Here a series of maps along the Mohawk River, showing land use as a quad color image, based on NASS/Landstat data from the region. The images below use the following colors:

Red – Developed areas such as cities, highways, and other industrialized or otherwise developed parts.
Yellow – Agricultural areas, including all farm crops such as corn, hay, alfalpha, and other truck crops
Green – Woodland, brush, and barren lands
Blue – Water bodies

These images should pick up detail up to about 300 feet in any particular direction.

Overwhelmingly, the Mohawk Valley is about agriculture, although as elevation increases and farming is no longer profitable, then farm fields revert to tree cover. And while their are certainly single family homes and other rural residents under the tree cover, by no means is development the overwhelming use of the land.

Utica Area.

Most of the farming in the Utica-area, occurs south of the city, due to the sandy soils, short growing season, and elevation making farming unprofitable north of city. This map may actually distort how much land north of city is actually farmed, as many of farm fields shown on this map have been abandoned and are slowly reverting to brush and ultimately tree cover.

Canajoharie Area.

As you get around Canajoharie the amount of farming activity picks up dramatically, and except for a small section right next to the Mohawk Valley, most of this area is not developed.

Albany-Schenectady Area.

Heading towards Albany-Schenectady, you see more development, but notice how you don’t have to get far from the city for forest cover to be dominant feature, and not agriculture. A lot of this is rural residents, with acreage, and hobby farms around here. Farming stops when you get up on the Rensselear Plateau, although the farm lands right around Brunswick are quite profitable, until you start heading towards Grafton where almost all farming stops.

Land Uses in Mohawk Valley

Andy | September 8, 2011

How much of the Mohawk Valley is developed, how much is farmed, and how much is forested? These images give you a clear overview, with all agricultural cropland and pasture colored yellow, all forest lands colored green, waterways colored blue, and developed areas are red. This is based on LANDSTAT and USDA NASS Croplayer data.

As you get around Canajoharie the amount of farming activity picks up dramatically, and except for a small section right next to the Mohawk Valley, most of this area is not developed.

Weak Economies Protects Rural Life

Andy | November 7, 2004

It seems that one of the protectors of our environment and the rural life is the lack of economic opportunity in our wild areas away from the cities. Jobs and economic growth are necessary for population growth and subsequent suburbanization. The lack of purchasing power reduces consumption, which in turn reduces the damage on our environment.

This is clear from looking at economic and environmental statistics. Suburbs only spring up when there are jobs available. Areas with the most rapidly increasing pollution seem to have the most growth. Solid waste intake to incinerators and landfills is an extremely accurate predictor of GDP growth: the more money you have to consume, the more you have to toss.

Likewise, the old has to be preserved when there is not money to create new. Would have the city of Albany torn down all those historic houses to build the Empire State Plaza, where it not for the riches of New York City? Much of New England, which has suffered from high taxes and lack of opportunity enjoys that mistake of yesteryear: it makes sense to preserve when there isn’t the money to replace. People spend large amounts of money in beautiful crafty stores that we see in New England.

Likewise, the economic hardship of rural life instills a sense of pride in the land the people work. Rural people for the most part choose to live in rural areas, and not cities. People who work a farm all their life have to give up certain things, like vacations and nice automobiles. They choose to make the farm come first and the rest of their life come second. It is their choice that helps preserve open space and make things as beautiful as they are.

It is hard to deny the farmer or the laborer better wages for their toils. Don’t they deserve what city people can get? Such a notion denies the benefits are gotten from rural life and living in a small community. These people enjoy cleaner air, closer relationships with neighbors, stronger values, and a more free life. So before you start asking for an improved rural life with more opportunity, look at what you have now.