My Grandfather had a beautiful red Ford tractor from 1919. It was a simple machine. It did not have tires (those weren't invented yet ) and it was still running on his farm in 1976 when he sold it. Grandpa probably knew how to use a horsedrawn plow, but he used a tractor instead. Why? Because tractors are more efficient, take less work, and live longer than horses or mules.
Now that fuel costs more than it ever has in the entire history of oil, even after you adjust for inflation, some farmers are turning to a different kind of horse power - the 17th century kind that was popular before the Civil War. They're using mules.
Treehugger is reporting that farmers have returned to their roots and are using mules to pull their plows.
Some people will read this story and think how charming, how wonderful.
Some of us, no doubt, will read this story while sipping a $4 latte, and think how marvelous it is that farmers in the South are prospering using earth-friendly growing techniques. A return to the earth, a return to a simpler time. Well, pardon me, but that's just a bunch of hogwash.
It is one thing to choose to live in harmony with the land and quite another to be forced to do it because you are so poor that you can't afford gasoline or meat (ironically meat happens to be one of the things farmers produce).
When farmers are reduced to using mules to plant and harvest their crop it is not a good "sign" or a return to the earth, rather it is a startling harbinger of dark days to come. At best it represents another sign that America is losing its status as the world's richest second-world nation. At worst it is a signpost that we are sliding rapidly toward the status of a third-world nation divided into wealthy landowners, servants of the landed gentry, and peasant share-croppers who are unable to put meat on the table.
There is a division emerging between the energy rich, and the energy poor. And as always, the very poorest Americans will tear their hands on the soil while the wealthy benefit at their expense. Note again that the Treehugger story mentions that farmers cannot afford meat.
If you think that's a good thing too (after all, meat is sooo unhealthy), then be advised that on farms where there isn't enough income to put food on the table, the next thing on the menu could be the mules.
