Re: What happened to farming pride?

Posted by Sean in Calgary on February 12, 2005 at 11:46:10 from (139.142.63.139):

In Reply to: What happened to farming pride? posted by Youngfarmerguy on February 10, 2005 at 21:54:54:

I am sure I should just keep my mouth shut but that has never been my style so here goes. I grew up in the city but knew I never belonged there. So, 4 years ago I bought a 17 acre hobby farm outside Calgary and that is now home. I sit amongst pure unadulterated farm land. One of my best friend is the farmer half a mile up the road. His family has been on the land around here since 1905. He has 3 sons and all have gone to University but managed to find a way to stay involved in the family farm. There is no way that I could afford the mortgage by trying to farm 17 acres so I work in the city but I do my best to be part of the local community. When catle feed was so scarce that cattle were dying from starvation 3 years ago, I gave one of the locals all of the crops from our fields. He cut and bailed them but they were his for the taking - free. In exchange (at his insistance not mine), he gave me 15 tons of manure for my vegetable garden. When the local ladies quilting guild has a show, we pay our admission and go see it (trust me quilts aren't all the exciting to me but it was to support the community). Now for the part that might get me in trouble. It has been heart-wrenching over the last 2 years to see our entire community go into a tail-spin over the BSE crisis. Due to 3 BSE infected cows, the entire rural economy of western Canada is in a tail spin. It enrages you to see rCALF in Montana doing everything they can to keep the border closed to Canadian cattle and even admit publicly that there is no scientific basis for this closure, that they are simply making sure that they keep the price of Montana cattle as high as possible. I would love to be able to quit my job as a techno-geek in the city and be able to support my family with honest hard work, but there is just no way. Between governments and Mother Nature there is just no way. The bank would take the land away in 2 years. So, I do the only thing I can. I buy my meat from the local butcher, cut from local cattle, I buy my chickens from the Hutterite colony in the area and I either grow my own vegetables or buy them at the local farmers market. Whenever possible I use a local to do work I can't (mechanic, pharmacy, bakery etc.). I guess where I am going is that the desire to be an honest and hard-working citizen isn't totally gone but it is changing. I am not sure that all is lost but I would say for certain that it isn't going to ever be the way it was 50 years ago. All we can do is take every opportunity we can to support the rural businesses that got us to where we are instead of the big businesses that might get us something for 5% less money.

I know this has rambled a bit (I had to get the BSE rant off my chest too) but my point is that all isn't lost. There are still lots of people out there who want to see nothing but hayfields and cattle from one horizon to the other and are willing to do a lot of work to make that a reality.

Sean

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