The Medieval Farmer Was a Money Collector
Hello Big Team!
This week we’re in a frustrating holding pattern as I continue to await the arrival of the hard copies that will soon be signed and on their way to all of you. They’re a few days overdue now, and I’m working on tracking them down. Once they arrive, it will be a mad dash to destroy my local post office with more than 1,000 outgoing packages, and shortly thereafter, you will be sitting down to peruse your copy of Farm (and Other F Words).
To keep you pumped through the wait, the art this week is all reviews from Big Teammates who have read all or part of the book already.
For example:
Only the sauciest takes from Errol, who has a great new episodes out recently over at The Checkout.
The Medieval Farmer Was a Money Collector
I’m not exactly sure how I came across this Merriam-Webster article about the Anglo-French origins of the word farmer, but I stumbled into it somehow and have been thinking about it a lot ever since.
Today, the word “farm” is sacred. The place, the idea, and the activity are widely thought of as part of humanities deepest roots. We’ve been living on farms, one could say, for thousands of years. But this etymological information puts that idea that “we’ve been living on farms for thousands of years” in a totally different light. Because farm, or ferme, prior to the past few hundred years, was not a private, independent, charming little homestead, it was just a word to describe rent, and rented land in particular. The idea that the vast majorities of people, agricultural laborers mostly, have been living on “someone else’s” land for dozens if not hundreds of generations, and paying for the privilege (in many cases, impoverishing themselves for it) is not nearly so wholesome.
Considering this history, and the relationship between the word “farm” and the old Anglo-French “rent” seems to me a sort of epi-etymological indication that “farmer” has always truly been the word to describe the land owner, rather than the laborers who actually do the farming. In the US in particular, we’ve blended these two groups together, assuming that most if not all owners also do the work, and that most workers eventually become owners. That is no more the case today than it has ever been.
When I think about the broader idea of economic rent, which is specifically “an amount of money earned that exceeds that which is economically or socially necessary,” it seems like the idea of “farmer are rent/tax collector” still holds true. Today, two million US farmers own $3 trillion worth of farmland in the US. That farmland is taxed at lower rates than almost any other kind of property in the country. And on top of the tax benefits, US farmers have received about $5 billion annually in federal payments since the mid-'90s. Farmers, i.e. private farmland holders, are still collecting enormous rents, in many cases, from both their tenants and the taxpayer.
The vast majority of us, in other words, are still living on the farm— or on land or other property that has been “farmed out.”
Just goes to show I guess— even our European ancestors knew some stuff.
Sarah’s Official Bollywood Classics
I’m on a mini-working-vacation at the moment (thought I better get away for a few days before the books arrive and I become chained to the label-maker), so here’s a little vacation from talking about agriculture for you all too. At the request of one of my lovely editors, I’ve assembled this list for the Bollywood novice who’s interested in wading into the glorious sea of Southasian musical films but doesn’t know where to start.
As I might have mentioned before, I fell in love with Bollywood because I fell in love with Shah Rukh Khan in the movie Dil Se. But Dil Se is a terrible first Bollywood movie (I know, because I tried to get Bryan to watch it and he fell asleep 8 minutes in). So, for your first movie, I’d recommend something a little more modern— trailers are linked below so you can get a flavor. Hot tips; make sure you find somewhere (Netflix, Hulu, some YouTube options) that has solid subtitles. Bad subtitles can make a movie wayyyyy funnier, but also way harder to understand. Also, in case you didn’t know, Bollywood movies tend to run about 3 hours, but honestly, so does your average Marvel or Harry Potter movie or whatever, so everyone can just sit right down with the “Bollywood movies are *so long*” drama.
Let’s do this;
Student of the Year is a great intro to who is recently young and hot in Bollywood. Alia Bhatt shines at the pinnacle of a love triangle fueled by intense academic competition. The men are also gorgeous, as is every set and all the costumes.
2 States is very fun and pretty light-hearted, but warning: there is a *lot* of intimacy for a Bollywood movie. Like, they bang in the trailer. SRK made like 100 romance movies without so much as a kiss on the mouth (things I did not think I would write in this newsletter). So just, be prepared that most Bollywood movies are not like this.
3 Idiots is a classic starring Aamir Khan, another exciting Khan of Bollywood. There is definitely comedy in this movie, but there’s also some grippingly sad drama so, prepare for that.
Dilwale is newish *and* stars SRK and his all time greatest female costar, Kajol (fight me). It has a great mix of action, Fast and Furious-style car scenes, comedy, romance, and really over the top musical numbers.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. No new Bollywood rec list would be complete without a Ranbir Kapoor movie. He is an incredible dancer.
Ramleela is good if you need even more action that Dilwale can offer, but also want a familiar story. Very strong Romeo and Juliette energy in this one.
Jab We Met is not quite as new, but is a real classic. Very approachable as a first film, and Shahid Kapoor is in his prime. Funny and heartwarming.
Tamasha is one of the newer films in this list. Very international, catchy soundtrack, but more drama than comedy if that matters to you.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a movie I will never stop stanning for. It’s just truly the peak of charming and feel-good Bollywood. And also utterly ridiculous Bollywood.
And if you’re interested in digging into the archives for some reeeal classics, Netflix currently has both Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham, the greatest Bollywood movie of all time, and it’s little sister, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which may be the more accessible one to start with. People also love Lagaan. I think it’s fine.
Last F(ew) Things
I’ve gotten the chance to attend a few lunch and learns and monthly meetings to talk about the book in recent days, and they’ve been a blast. If you would like to have me join you and your friends, family, coworkers, or nemeses for something similar, I’m still accepting requests, if you have a virtual book club, meeting, class, family reunion, rap battle, podcast, casual mutton-bustin’ competition, etc. I can say hi and talk about agriculture and maybe hawk some books. My “Invites” tray remains open. Shoot me an email (and I can pretty confidently say, if you have sent me an email recently, I think I’ve responded to them all?).
If you’re new to Big Team Farms and want some explanation for what the F you just read, check out The Intro Newsletter and more recent additions by visiting Big Team Farms online.
Do you have announcements that would be relevant to the 1,400 or so members of the Big Team? Feel free to shoot me messages about projects, resources, job posting, etc. And to everyone who’s done that already, or who has asked questions that I haven’t yet responded to, look out for those in the next couple of newsletters.
I started watching Startup on Netflix this week, and even though it’s pretty all over the place, I think I like it? We’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel in my world for TV— we’re trying to get into the 2015 show Marco Polo, but we’re just a few episodes in. Otherwise, still waiting on Loki. I’m on vacation right now, which means there’s a TV with cable, which means one thing and one thing only. Way too many episodes of Forensic Files.
Don’t forget to share this email! And a big shoutout to Big Teammate Jamie Wertz for sharing this extraordinarily phallic pepper with us that they saw on social media.
Stay safe out there, dear ones. Don’t forget, if you have funny gifs, thoughts, comments, stories, questions, feedback, catchy song lyrics, good podcast recommendations, or anything else to tell me, I’m right on the other end of this email.
Rock on,
Sarah