jose the farmer

today in speaking with the landlord of jana's apartment building i found out that he grew up on a farm in mexico and wants to buy a farm here in the united states. but he says 'i got stuck'. the main reason he sees it as impossible is that his wife does not want the lifestyle of a farmer, or what she imagines it to be. jose really wants out of this whole mess though. i can really feel it in the way he speaks. he sees that there's something very wrong with the way we are doing things in this society.

he says if we would pay farmers more for their valuable product then things could change for the better. he spoke with a kind of resignation about the chemicals in most foods these days. he wonders what is in the food he is buying. that information is not always available. anyway i can see he has a deep sense of what good food can be, which comes no doubt from growing up on a farm with 'all kinds of animals'. i asked if there were pigs. 'many of them, yes'. he said they are really smelly but they never had a problem getting rid of them. he really lit up when he talked about the farm.

there is a pretty big back yard at this apartment. maybe he would be into starting an urban farm...