Coal & Northern Mississippi Farming -

Yokna Bottoms Farm

It was mid-March when we first announced the idea of a speaking tour as part of our internship with Appalachian Voices. Almost immediately our good friend Lee Smitherman of Oxford, Mississippi provided us financial support and invited us the area. As word spread that we might be in Northern Mississippi we were also approached by another good friend, Dr. Joseph Witt, a professor at Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS to give a presentation for Gaining Ground Sustainability Institute. Though we knew it would be important to share our story in an area far removed from the problems of mountain top removal, I couldn’t help but wonder—what could be learned?

When going on journeys like this, I remain in a state of perpetual astonishment. The people we meet, and the things we do seem as though they are puzzle pieces falling into place, a bit separated at first, but positioned exactly as they need be.

A week prior to our drive to Mississippi, we were offered a place to stay by Daniel Doyle, Executive Director of the Mississippi Sustainable Agriculture Network based in Oxford. When we met in person, it was evident that his hospitality would go well beyond providing a comfortable place to sleep. His work and connection to many sustainable farmers in the area was exactly what we needed. 

The is a definite connect between the loss of our agrarian lifestyle in the mountains and the current culture of destruction that tears down our mountains. Being in Northern Mississippi I was reminded of this and many essays from Wendell Berry’s What are People for? Wendell Berry has spent much of his life writing about the erosion of rural community, the detachment of people from the land and ultimately each other. He asserts that society has idolized the pursuit of higher education, ultimately removing new generations from the noble profession of working the land and remaining in communities that weave strong moral fibers to build genuine concern for all life. The newest generations who conform to these social norms, and the materialism attached to it, often end up in cities that seem to do absolutely nothing but consume natural resources. It is this life path and ultimate consumption that drives the destruction of our mountain homes.

Brown Family Dairy

But as we found in Northern Mississippi, there is much progress being made towards reconnecting with those agrarian roots. Mr. Doyle took us to the Brown Family Dairy where Billy Ray Brown is showing that the generational separation from the family farm can be overcome. Billy Ray’s father Larry Brown wrote about it in the book, Billy Ray’s Farm. We were also introduced to the simple, hard, and happy life being lived by Pablo Sierra, a Spaniard near Oxford who raises his own food, tends to his animals, creates pottery from clay he himself digs locally, and rides a horse for the majority of his transportation. I should also mention that Pablo bakes some of the best bread in the south at the Bottletree Bakery. These experiences, along with others visiting Yokna Bottoms Farm, melded together to show what has been lost and what can be found again in the mountains.


As we journey further north and then back home, we will be carrying Northern Mississippi with us, telling of our mountain home and what other people are doing to save the land, the people, and the future for generations to come.