All that is sacred
A farmer’s response to The Atlantic's article, “How to guess if your job will exist in the next five years?”
Earlier this week, The Atlantic published an article by Annie Lowrey pacifying white-collar fears regarding AI in the job market. She quickly used a comparison of equine power and coal power. She noted that equines became obsolete with mechanization, while coal was adapted, improved, and demand increased right alongside the efficiency of steam engines. She mused that white-collar workers were coal in this parallel, noting that companies currently employ six percent more software engineers, primarily to implement AI systems. The parallel between equine power and coal power is not exactly as cut and dry as it first appears. Lowrey encourages readers with a subtitle, “Ask yourself: Are you coal or are you a horse?” I know, without hesitation, that I would rather be the horse.
I’m a farmer and teamster, and I’ve been involved in agriculture for over a decade in various capacities. I hold a degree in Sustainable Agriculture with a minor in Draft Animal Power Systems from the Wendell Berry Farming Program of Sterling College, which is where I learned to drive and work with draft animals. I now run Spotted Ox Farm, a draft animal-powered market garden and CSA with the help of Annie and June, two Belgian draft horses. I also serve on the Board of Directors for the Draft Animal Power Network. Although I’m farming in Blanchester, Ohio, I am a proud Kentuckian with an abiding love for Appalachia, and I have deep family roots in Southeastern Kentucky.
In Lowrey’s article, she points out a shift in the mid-twentieth century when agriculture became increasingly mechanized. Before we discuss the efficacy of any power system, it’s worth noting that it took vast amounts of effort, campaigning, funding, and World War II for many farmers to finally accept tractors. If investors had not been wholly dedicated to backing companies, such as Ford, for decades, our equine coworkers may have never been displaced. While horses, along with their feed, could be purchased locally or raised on the farm, tractors often required taking on steep debt and buying fuel, both of which funneled money out of the local economy. The price of tractors and agricultural equipment continues to rise while commodity prices have remained stagnant for decades–trapping farmers in cycles of debt that are projected to rise even higher in 2026.
Next, you’ll remind me of all of the inefficiencies of draft animal power. They have to rest, we can’t work around the clock, they require daily care and feed. What a beautiful rhythm of life it is to spend evenings in the barn feeding my team, to perch on the turned plow on a sunny Spring day and catch our breath, to turn in at dusk and spend time with my family–granting my team, and myself, rest. What appears inefficient at first glance is actually the stuff that makes life worth living. Animals, especially those we’re in close relationship with, hold up a mirror to us - just like a human partner, they show us who we are. For better or worse. Working with horses makes me a better human and gives me the opportunity to grow every single day.
Furthermore, a tractor, like all machines, is only ever as good as the operator. On the other hand, a good horse will do you a lot of favors. When I was a new teamster, I drove many horses who knew the work much better than I did, steering us clear of cabbages on the cultivator, and always making sure we got home safe. I’m not interested in hitching my cart to anything artificial.
We had a choice during the Industrial Revolution between draft power and coal. Draft animal power was a living, breathing animal that could replicate, eat cheaply, support the community, and was a grounding force of daily life. While draft animals were integral to the local economy, coal has always been an extractive endeavor.
Inverted mountains may be “reclaimed,” but they will never be restored. More than just a scenic view, losing the integrity of a mountain causes flooding events that can have devastating effects. Coal companies are notorious for exploiting their workers. The Battle of Blair Mountain, part of the “Coal Wars,” remains the largest labor uprising in United States history over a hundred years later. As mining efficiency has increased, employment has dwindled. Wealth pours out of these communities, and all that’s left in its wake are scarred mountains and black lung. That is a parallel to AI if I’ve ever seen one. AI doesn’t benefit the community, build local economies, or improve the quality of human life. It doesn’t ask us to think for ourselves, to feel human emotions, or to self-reflect. How could it? We don’t yet know what will be left in its wake.
American farms employed more than 26 million equines in 1915, and over a hundred years later, there are still working horses on American farms and teamsters dedicated to the craft. These moments are constructed from, not one single turning point, but hundreds of small decisions. Embrace what is real, what is living and breathing right in front of us, or to look the other way as the smoke rises and the river runs red.