The Joads Will Rise Again!

The trouble with writing about Bakersfield is that I am going to have to dispense with the cute tongue-in-cheek, slightly-exaggerated malapropisms that have so quickly become my style du jour.  People live here – not least of all my fiance, my future brother-in-law, and my future-mother-in-law.  Not to mention, I’m getting married here in about two months.

So, instead of highlighting the 40-degree swing in temperature from day to night (hello, Russia), or the fact that I encountered a truck with the bumper sticker, “EAT MY CARBON!” (perhaps the motto of another large, Communist country we visited…), I will instead attempt to provide the most truthful account of Bakersfield, California that could ever be delivered by a born-and-bred East-Coaster who has chosen Brooklyn as his permanent home.  Forgive me if I misstep, it’s with all conscious understanding.

—

Day one: Bakersfield, CA.  In my quest to discover the soul of America’s largest producer of carrots (Quick!  Go check the package in your refrigerator!), Emily and I ventured deep into farm country, which begins about four miles outside the city lines (or at least, after most of the houses stop).  In Bakersfield, “farmland” means a variety of things: A field of sheep graze right next to a grove of almond trees.  Man-made beehives, used for collecting honey, pepper the dairy farms where hundreds of cows are roaming freely.  And nestled in between it all?  Oil derricks.  They up-and-down their way through most of the fields and farmland because, as Upton Sinclair wrote in, Oil!, “Dad had explained it – money had done it.”

Gone are my wistful memories (collected from books and television) of “farms” as a place where farmers raise livestock, grow vegetables, and occasionally dabble in unique home-decorating techniques.  I say this honestly, when I thought of farming, I thought of Farmer John.  Here in Bakersfield, however, Farmer John has specialized!  One farm, one product.  Farmer John now plants almond trees, and almond trees alone, and should hereby be known as Almond Farmer John.  Or Carrot Farmer John.  Or Oil Derrick John.

You get the point.

So, Cliff Notes: Bakersfield, CA is a farming town where farmers seem to grow only one type of product on their farms, much to the mutual benefit of all.  But, “Not so!” says the Academy-Award-nominated documentary, Food, Inc. According to the filmmakers, it is this specialization that leads to increased prices for consumers, lower wages for workers, unethical shortcuts in feed production (ie: feeding a beef and corn mixture to…cows) which in turn leads to mad cow disease, swine flu, and this.

Now, this may or may not be the case.  I haven’t done nearly enough research to know, (although, I admit I enjoyed that movie).  While I’m inclined to dislike cruelty to animals, I have nothing against cruelty to lettuce plants, provided there’s no negative environmental impact.  The verdict is out on that one, but if I discover the answer while I’m here, I’ll get back to you.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode: The Kindness of Bakersfield (the people here are really, really nice). ~Rob

Oil derricks.

Carrot Farmer John.

This is from our last trip to Bakersfield, but it still says a thousand words.

Under America's other Arch.

Advertisement