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| "Feeding the Helpless,"depicting my brother who is a great herdsman and farmer caring for an orphan baby from his Angus cattle. He especially cherishes the newborns whose mothers do not make it through calving process. We are proud to practice sustainable agricultural methods on the farm here. Photo courtesy of my family collection on the farm Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. |
Ask any farmer you know if it's been a good year. It's not a simple answer and lately the answer has been harder to handle for many in the agricultural profession. If you survive the last year, sometimes just that alone qualifies as a "good year." Last year, our family farming operation saw it's fair share of difficulty just as many did. The land does not and is not as able to give back as it once did. Sometimes it is hard with the governmental regulations going into place to break even. The weather has not cooperated in the same ways of the past, mainly due to the people who practice corporate farming around us mowing down every single tree and green foliage that would attract the one thing that helps grow crops and grass: rain. The southwest Missouri region where once all I remember seeing was green everywhere is becoming gray and dismal with CAFO barns cropping up in remote and previously untouched prairie lands.
And when the rain does come, instead of gently showering crops that are growing, it comes in deluges similar to the monsoons experienced in Arizona that make mud the best commodity produced as well as causing the nasty runoff flow from these contained animal feeding operations' lagoons to go into and impact the local water tables. Over irrigation of lands after a rain further depletes the precious water supply around here. Missouri has always been blessed with plentiful uncontaminated water sources -- until now.
While visiting friends in St. Louis over the New Year's holiday, a "boil water" alert from the suburban water company serving the area came over my friend's telephone line. She turned and said, "That is the first time we have ever had one of THOSE announcements! What do I do?" And it was a little scary to her. My response was to load up, go to the local market or - gag - Walmart and get as many gallons of water as possible until the alert passes (this person has two dogs plus themselves to worry about) and start boiling water because sometimes the alerts do not end when the water company thinks they will. As someone who lived in North Central Arizona, we had e-coli alerts and other water cautions. My response to her exclamation was, "Well, now that the Right To Farm bill passed, you might get used to this kind of thing and look into water conservation methods." When we knew something might happen like this in Arizona, my usual response was to fill up the bathtub, as well as get out the empty gallon jugs of water and other appropriate receptacles so that we'd have drinking water for a few days before having to go out of town to find uncontaminated water sources. Somewhere in my Arizona home, there were often stored "emergency" stashes of water because the one thing that a human or animal cannot live without is water. Wars have started over water rights.
With the holidays come lots of reflection on life, times, friends and family. Those considerations have become part of my New Year's resolution for 2015: Learn More About Everything. In the quest of that resolution, the holiday money that made its way into my Christmas stocking went for books -- used books on Amazon are some of my favorite guilty pleasures. So … after perusing the selection of books at friends' homes in St. Louis who are involved in environmental causes, my used book purchases were as follows: Food, Inc (saw the documentary, want to read the book) edited by Karl Weber; The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption and the Control of our Food Supply by Marie-Monique Robin (this one was on the night table next to my bed in my friend's home and kept me awake a few nights); two books by Michael Pollan: Food Rules: An Eater's Manual and In Defense of Food plus a kind of "freebie cheapie book" thrown in to the bundle by Amazon's electronic assessment of my reading needs - Monsanto vs. The World by Jason Louv. As reading time permits, it will probably be my practice to use quotes from these reference guides in future postings when a phrase inspires me to share.
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| "Fall Prairie Grasses," photo courtesy of Photoartdb Consulting. Copyright 2015. All Rights Reserved. |
Some of you know that I attend the Lamar United Methodist Church and have great respect for my Pastor Mark Turnbough and his messages. He often relates his messages to the challenges of different people in history, like Albert Schweitzer, Emily Dickinson, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and others who have made a mark on our history. He also relates the real world conditions back in the time when Jesus walked the earth. This historical connection makes the sermons more relevant and real to the listener. It makes the message connect to the real world. We said prayers for France as they now endure becoming the target of terrorism for something we prize greatly in America: practicing Freedom of Speech. It makes sense to remember that during the time of the Revolutionary War when we were fighting for our new country and independence, who came to help us and support our efforts against the British? The French! Without our allies, we would not have become the United States of America but would have remained a British colony.
Religion often has been a struggle for me over the years, but traveling has taught me much and built my respect for the world's religions demonstrating how universally men and women seek a higher power to explain life's sometimes unfortunate happenings. We have had a few this year in Southwest Missouri. The passage of the "Right To Farm" legislation has saddened us as we talk more to those who unknowingly voted for it, who then upon learning more about what it really meant for the future of sustainable agriculture, are regretting their decision today. The fight continues on that one. My dear sister-in-law with her brothers and sister lost their mother right before Christmas. My sweet Aunt who took the place of my mother when she passed has suffered a series of strokes. My brother has had some health struggles, as have I. In the midst of the end of 2014 and beginning of a new year and building hope for a better 2015, Pastor Mark has been doing a series of sermons on coming to prayer.
Last Sunday, his message was how a person should come to prayer in three ways: Humble, because God is great in the wisdom that can come with His presence and we should be humble as we kneel to ask for help or forgiveness; Helpless, because we are all helpless without the support of those who love us and God's intervention; and finally Honest, because God already knows everything so why not just let it all be out there in our prayers or confessions. While pondering his words, it occurred to me that farmers also come to the land in these three ways. Humble like the pioneers and generations before us, farmers came to the land asking that it give back and promising to work and care for the land. Helpless because without the help of Mother Nature and her partner, God, making decisions to grant rain, provide the right weather conditions for the land to flourish, the crops fail. Finally, Honesty is the best policy in dealing with your neighbors, your fellow farmers, the agricultural community and human beings. We remain humble and helpless in trying to do the best thing to the land and the herds who graze there, which promised so much and has had so much taken from it as CAFO's pollute the resources it provides around us: the water, the air and the soil. Helpless as we watch "For Sale" signs crop up around us because many are discouraged in their efforts to make their farming operations profitable, sustainable and the government shows its support of corporate farming practices more everyday. At the end of everything, there is honesty in dealing with our fellow human beings. A handshake is no longer good enough in this world, you have to have a contract to support it. Corporations and the government have not been honest about the legislation they have been trying to implement. Other countries in Europe have recognized the dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and CAFOs -- outlawing them before they force their limited natural resources to be depleted and destroyed. My brother does not use GMOs in his operation and has not for a long time, but that might have to change if agribusiness does not come to its senses. Why do we choose to ignore the learnings from others across the oceans? Are we so arrogant that we disregard the actions of those who have less land and show more intelligence in trying to protect it? And a song from my past certainly illustrates how that helpless feeling can leave a person feeling these days.
Recently, a friend shared an article published in Hawaii from a gent who "claimed" that he started the Anti-GMO movement and now regretted it. His writing was self-serving, pompous and dead wrong in the lack of facts and a real-world practicing understanding of the issue; though he is supposedly a renown writer and scientist. Passed the article on to my brother, a real-world practicing farmer for generations, and he would love to debate the guy in a real-life situation. After reading the article, my first thought was "When did Monsanto give him the grant for his next research project?" Because the entire article smacked of propaganda guided by a corporate public relations giant. He had "drank the kook-aid" poured out by someone who had less honorable intentions. The unbelievable claim of this gent that he "started" the movement is what really got to me. Having been interested in GMOs for a while due to my celiac disease and other environmentally-driven issues related to them, I'd NEVER heard of this guy and his research. Maybe I needed to learn more on that one. One person does not a movement make, but Millions do. One person can speak out and be a leading voice in a dark room that calls together others who have felt the same way. Had never heard this guy's voice, so he did not influence my decision to oppose GMOs, CAFOs and other negative impact elements on sustainability on our planet. Now, my respect for him is gone despite his impressive academic credentials and curriculum vitae.
There are many questions pondered upon regularly about saving our land and are often prayed upon on nights after a new setback. How long will God allow us to destroy the planet that was given to us with such love and care? Unfortunately, the answers are not coming to me yet, but will strive to learn more in 2015 and try to make a small difference in whatever way one person who lives next to a factory farm can do. Thanks for reading the words in my blog, commenting and doing whatever you can do to help us further sustainable agriculture in Missouri and around the world. It's a winding path into our fields that are growing less green every day. There will be more cloudy days ahead as we seek answers, but we can look forward to greener pastures, cleaner food sources and a better life for future generations if we find those answers. Stay strong. Keep fighting the good fight.
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| "Headed to the Back Fields," photo courtesy of Photoartdb Consulting Copyright 2014 |
Comments are by this individual writing the blog and no other company, nonprofit or other organization has approved or endorsed them. Am not a scientist, so can't claim my own scientific research but just comment on what is happening. These words are my sole opinion and no one else is responsible for these remarks. Anonymous comments not accepted. Stand up for your opinion. Thanks for your thoughtful and kind responses. Please keep language clean and our farmlands green. :)
