Take it from someone who has spent a lot of time working on farms- farms are workplaces, and working on farms does not make you any more virtuous or whole than working in a factory or anywhere else. And it's certainly not the solution to health crises www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/h... - ThreadSky

ryanackett.bsky.social • 43 days ago

Take it from someone who has spent a lot of time working on farms- farms are workplaces, and working on farms does not make you any more virtuous or whole than working in a factory or anywhere else. And it's certainly not the solution to health crises https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/health/rfk-addiction-farms.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qU4.adgo._dHNj0XqmKRk&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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cmmu.bsky.social•43 days ago

Healing farms that raise chickens??😳

mrunfocused.bsky.social•43 days ago

And then there's this gem: "The farms could also be available to young people who no longer wished to take anti-depressants or medications such as Adderall, which is used to treat A.D.H.D." Because taking safe, effective medication as prescribed is just like being addicted to meth. /s

djwaglmuffin.bsky.social•43 days ago

maskedfarmer.bsky.social•43 days ago

Read it as "hard withdrawal camps"

artsyhonker.bsky.social•43 days ago

As someone who does small amounts of gardening with people who are struggling with addiction as part of my pastoral work, this could sometimes form *part* of a care strategy, but farming is not going to cure addiction and working with this population is not going to "fix" farming and food systems.

artsyhonker.bsky.social•43 days ago

Like, what I do is "incidental pastoral work while gardening", not therapeutic gardening, because we don't have those kinds of resources. I have some opinions about the over-professionalisation of care but responding to addiction requires support for the human beings affected *and* tackling causes.

artsyhonker.bsky.social•43 days ago

In fairness I stopped reading the article partway through because life is too short to get that angry, but I imagine this could be done well or done really, really badly. Given how badly many agricultural workers are already treated, the latter seems likely.

ryanackett.bsky.social•43 days ago

Yeah, as a big time fan of the Catholic Worker movement and its history, I think there are lessons to be learned about the failures of its attempted agrarian aspects

ryanackett.bsky.social•43 days ago

I'm sure eith the appropriate care just about any medium can be a pathway to healing, but there is nothing inherently magical about farms, and you certainly can just ship people in need of care off to do hard labor

ryanackett.bsky.social•43 days ago

Cant* of course

artsyhonker.bsky.social•43 days ago

I mean, you *can* but it's a terrible idea.

artsyhonker.bsky.social•43 days ago

My understanding of the agricultural labour sector in the USA is limited but includes things like "lots of undocumented migrants working in terrible conditions for illegally low pay to produce sub-par fruit and vegetables, many of which are ultimately discarded"

baldurheimdall.bsky.social•43 days ago

It's an old concept. Mid-19th century, Dr. John H. Kellogg, where he made the accidental invention of Corn Flakes.

jonahroy.bsky.social•43 days ago

It looks like garden therapy is being used (like art therapy sometimes is) ... nothing wrong with that, but it is only one small piece in a complex, controversial rehab program.

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