Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Who Will Take Care of People?

“I told my mom and I told my boyfriend, and they said I might change my mind.” The speaker was a college-aged woman working on the farm. We were pulling tomato worms off plants, as I remember it, and just passing the time blabbing as you do when the work doesn’t take all your brain power. The subject was babies, and she had thought it through. She didn’t want to be responsible for another life. She had been part of a big family, and knew what it was to take care of younger folks.

She looked forward to paying off her student debt, and she wanted to travel. She wasn’t looking forward to working in an office or a lab. She wanted a permanent solution and had decided to pursue a tubal ligation. Sometimes that’s called “having her tubes tied” or “female sterilization.” That operation is reversible, but provides complete protection from pregnancy for as long as it is in place. It takes another surgery to undo it.

My conversation with this young woman has passed through my mind several times lately. Maybe kicked off by the TV news about migrant kids at the border. Or maybe kicked off by reports of children killed in Palestine. Or maybe kicked off by reports of climate change induced by our carbon emissions. All the same story.

In every case, the mayhem happened because of demands on resources. Too many people, too much pressure on land, water, even air. The countries with the highest population growth are often the most polluted and the most unfair. If you’re a woman in one of these countries, your will to resist pregnancy is limited. Birth control strategies may be out of your reach and your dependence on males in the community may be complete.

But, here in America, we are lucky enough to have choices. So it’s up to us to lead on the subject of population control. Let’s begin with the young people who don’t want kids in the first place.

Why isn’t there encouragement for young people to make up their own minds about whether to have a family? Or, if they already have a family, on whether to have more? Why is the discussion mostly off-limits? It’s the hardest thing to think about … letting young people decide how to plan their families. Grandparents want more cuddly little ones and aunts and uncles want more cousins around. There’s this thing about family legacies, passing on inherited traditions and hard-won businesses. Family farms. Family businesses. Family recipes.

The downward trend in the birthrate due to COVID-19 has been pretty well-covered by the media. Demographers agree that the COVID dip is part of a downward trend, but rather than see it as a matter of choice or of a benefit to the environment or a benefit to personal economies, it’s covered as a problem. Economist Phillip Levine told PBS the COVID-19 decline in 2020-2021 is part of a “much larger childbearing problem.”

One professor from the University of Southern California, called the decline “a crisis” and pointed out that losing Americans in the workforce leaves a gap in supporting the elderly, especially when Social Security is financed by the working folks. It doesn’t seem to occur to these guys that immigration can take the place of homegrown workers. This has been the way America has grown since the beginning.

I’d love to take that USC professor on a tour of the nursing home where my mother spent her last years. It was mostly staffed by immigrant men and women who gave excellent care to the residents. Part of their wages went to social security, of course, supporting the system. As they worked, the nursing home helped them with English skills and training. A little time on the job and they could gain citizenship.

Other positive examples of immigrants being intentionally blended into society are easy to find. Rural communities often benefit. Small towns, especially isolated ones, are under pressure from population loss as the kids become educated and find jobs in the city. There’s still a necessity for labor, agriculture being as it is, and creative societies will take immigrant families in, help them adapt to modern American life and educate the kids. Once an immigrant community becomes established, they can support businesses of their own. Want authentic Mexican food? Look for a family restaurant in a country town you’d otherwise pass through without stopping.

As for my young friend? She’s traveled with her boyfriend to organic farms on two continents with Willing Workers on Organic Farms, or WWOOF. I saw her recently when she was at home, and she was anxious to head back to her boyfriend, her farm, her unique and chosen life.

Having kids? It was the farthest thing from her mind.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History”. Email: margotmcmillen@ gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2021

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