How to be agrarian without lifting a hoe
[Rod Dreher  03/09 11:03 AM]

A reader writes:

I thoroughly enjoyed your book. However, if the Agrarian way of life is not for everyone, as you suggest, perhaps you're missing the forest for the trees. The Agrarian life offers a variety of entrance points without putting a single hoe to the earth. Those of us "Crunchy Cons," or (as I like to call myself) "New Traditionalists" (semantics, yes I know), can "engage" in Agrarian ways of life by living as "supportive" Agrarians. The "supportive" Agrarian is one who stands as a vital and necessary (yes we are) link in the Agrarian embrace.

These Agrarian supporters take part in the practical morality of Agrarian life by buying shares in Community Supported Agriculture, or by acting as environmental patriots and supporting initiatives to preserve the lands that keep us fed, homed and awed, or by creating nooks of these supporting sensibilities in our suburbs and big and midsized cities.

Think of the Agrarian life as a commandment to be lived by all; one comes at it as farmer and another to support the farmer's foundation. Remember, when thinking Agrarian, think continuity, not necessarily triumph.