Back on the Farm

continuation from post-diner scene

Most of the time, things ran according to the idealistic layout; there was an obvious level
of transparency & democracy toward the peer-based interactions. That was the bright,
sunny side of Meta's designs; it gave the community a relative sense of
maneuverability, of power to exercise upon each other & toward the community as a
whole. Hugo was beginning to have suspicions about this so-called open community.
Even the name of their social community forum, MetaCircle, implied a closed-off, almost
secular design. To everyone who faced inside the circle, power seemed to be freely
shared, but this power was to be fed into who or whatever was outside the circle (such
as Meta & their internal hierarchy). Although it was uncommon, there were several
instances Hugo remembered when Meta stepped in, using executive authority &
censoring, banning or even deleting account privileges. Everything the MetaCircle
shared was monitored; if a contractor/account member was spreading slander,
propaganda, or offensive material, consequences would inevitably ensue. Most of the
time it was a comment deemed a little too colorful-usually between two contractors with
a history of bad blood-but once Hugo had seen an account deleted & a contract
completely terminated. That one particular individual was his neighbor, Terrence.
Hugo had asked Terrence about the termination, more than once. Terrence wouldn't
offer definitive answers. He would always say vagaries such as, "I didn't like what I was
getting into" or even more cryptic, "I refused the offer I couldn't refuse Hu." When further
pressured, Terrence finally admitted that he couldn't discuss the details of the
termination, under penalty of law. He had signed a disclosure agreement, one that
clearly outlined that if Terrence or anyone else who was privy to Meta's contract-i.e. his
family-revealed any details of their contract or, more importantly, on the particulars of
the termination, he would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. "I'll lose
everything if I blab." was how he put it. Hugo didn't press much after that. He didn't want
to be the one responsible for driving a decent family into squalor. Still, Terrence offered
hints whenever Meta seemed to be brought up in their dealings with one another. "Don't
act, don't even think outside the lines with these guys" Hugo remembered the steely
glare radiating from Terrence's dark green eyes upon dropping that bread crumb. This
occurred several weeks after Terrence was dropped from Piedmont's MetaCircle.
Seems their circle, like every circle created outside the realm of the mind, was far from
perfect.
Hugo hit the old, bottomed out cattle guard crossing onto his property. The distinctive
clanging of metal hiccupping between rubber & road snapped him back into the present.
Despite the day's gloom, despite the unsure feeling he always seemed to get after
talking to Terrence about Meta, he couldn't help but look around & admire his
handiwork. On the driver’s side of the road, about 200-300 yds. from his house, were
the 4 greenhouses he'd built himself, using the Meta materials & blueprints provided
during the construction. It had taken 3 months to complete; Meta had estimated 4, but
he worked long hours & once he built the first one, the others went up much quicker. 2
of the houses used rather basic farming techniques: Raised soil or potting mix beds,
watered by drip irrigation & an occasional extra bit of hand-watering. Hugo had worked
in a nursery when he was in his 20s. Their methods were almost identical to the design
Meta had drawn up, making his work all the speedier. The other 2 were a bit more
difficult to install. They employed much more sophisticated horticultural technology:
Relying on ebb & flow tables, strange Rockwool cubes, coconut husks, lava pellets for
growing mediums & a variety of other hydroponic instruments & methods. They were
almost entirely self-automated systems, running on a confounding, even temperamental
set of digital timers which fed them a nutrient solution he mixed once or twice a week.
The "nutes", as the MetaCircle defined them, were mixed & concentrated depending on
the plant life cycle & the weather, but there were other, more specific factors to
consider, such as leaf yellowing or curling-indicating over or under fertilization, pests,
fungi, you name it. The last greenhouse was so sophisticated it required him to install
specialized misters which ran along the crops, spraying a variety of solutes; Hugo relied
primarily on the Meta technical instructions to tackle that finicky beast. The various
nutrients & other mixtures all came in conspicuously marked, industrial-sized jugs. All
the labels read were "Meta-Blend" & were marked with an alphabetic/numeric key. From
the plant specialists, he was told what to mix, how much & how often. Despite the varied
greenhouses, Hugo knew that all these crops were certainly exotic for the region; far too
delicate & tender to survive in the harsh, dry desert without the specialized care that
Meta's greenhouses provided. Hugo's main dilemma: he only wished he knew what half
of these plants were grown for. Some were herbs, some vegetables, but there were
several types of vines or other "misc. ornamentals" to which Hugo had received no
information, from anyone why he was growing them or what they were used for.
Whenever he took note of their unusual flowers, their creeping stalks (many of which
required pruning) an unsure feeling began to churn in his stomach. All he was told was
that it was advised not to do anything with them other than what Meta instructed. Hugo
remembered Terrence's words & situation every time he thought of doing otherwise.
As he neared the fork to the entrance of the greenhouses, he groaned. "Again?" He
thought. "That's 3 times in the last 10 days, goddammit." 2 Meta trucks were parked in
front of the greenhouses. Another oddity about farming for Meta was how little he
actually had to do beyond the basic building, installation, & maintenance-like mixing the
nutrient solutions. Meta would bring in seeds, clones or grafts for each station, do
weekly inspections, harvest & collect when it was time. Each time he announced a new
part of the installation phase was complete, techs would come out, inspect, & begin the
cycle of planting, monitoring & harvesting whatever crops they saw fit. Despite the
growing alienation, he was afforded several perks: For ready-to-eat crops, he was
allotted a reasonable portion of the harvest for his own food. He was also entitled a
respectable percentage of "fair market value" (with the crops he could look up from
various outside sources, he generally received around 33-50%. Where they set the line
on how much he could get, Hugo had no clue. He assumed it was some sort of
government mandate that Meta was obligated to fulfill. After all, such generosity from a
company whose sole drive seemed to be profit was highly unorthodox.) 
One time. Hugo had asked Raul where he or anyone interested could buy the crops he
grew. He wanted an intimacy with his labor. "Meta distributes to a number of
processors, manufacturers & exporters". He was then given a list. Practically every
major multinational food & sustainable product company was on this list. His alfalfa
could be feeding Arabian Horses or it could be feedlot for dairy cows in Wisconsin.
There was simply no way for him to trace where his crops ended up. He found this
rather disconcerting, but again, heeding Terrence's advice, decided not to draw too
much attention by making a fuss over it. He kept his mouth shut, did his work & reaped
the rewards. What he had pulled in from the first couple harvests were promising: the
portion of food he was receiving was more than enough for him. He tried to share with
Terrence & his family, but they refused. He asked why. "Hugo, I'm honored by the
gesture, but me & mine won't eat that robo-food." When Hugo took a bite of a whopping
1.5lb hybrid beefsteak-cherry tomato, smiled & said, "you don't know what you're
missing out on" Terrence chuckled, but still refused. Hugo found others to give his extra
supplies away to however. One lady, Vera, showed him how to can & preserve the
more succulent specimens, saving them for when his family would finally arrive. Later
on he got his first harvest check in the mail. It was far more than he expected. He called
Dace & Raul, making sure there wasn't some kind of mistake. "Be sure my friend, that is
no banking error. Keep up the good work. Dace told me she loves your photos & your
advice on the MetaCircle forums." It was shortly after cashing this check, that he had to
call Charise. "Hun, that is nothing compared to what they're gonna pay if I get the
bonus." How, & why she was stalling to leave Chesterfield after showing that many
zeros on his bank statement still baffles Hugo to the day.
He was going to turn into the greenhouses & get the skinny from the techs, but, seeing
none of them outside, decided to catch a shower & a real meal first. He was whipped,
but the day was far from over.