We, the Bad
Facing hard choices in Saskatchewan farmland
Katherine Finn
Project Manager, Bridge to Land Water Sky
The harvest season is well past and we have all found our scarves, gloves and wool coats. It is not winter yet but it is on its way. Coming out of the post office I smile and stop to chat with Ben. We have known each other for sixteen years and he has attended many of our land stewardship workshops through the Redberry Lake Biosphere Region. Our conversation covers politics, stewardship funding, the shame that kids spend more time watching screens than playing outside, to harvest and how this year was compared to last – the hardest drought we had had in 20 years. Ben says how he has shifted from ranching to farming, having had such a hard year and having lost so many cattle last year. Ben looks at the ground as if he can't look me in the eye, as he shares that he will have to push 400 acres of bush.
"I've spent the last 25 years building up my soil. I don't want to bulldoze the bush. All I want, is to be able to pass down my land to my kids. I don't know if I'll even be able to do that."
The hardship is there on his brow. Though his eyes are always smiling, the are not smiling now. He says "I've always been proud of being a rancher. There is nothing more honourable than growing food. Now I have to do this."
"All those people are going to see me as that bad farmer. One who just sprays, drains and bulldozes. We are the bad in their eyes. They don't see my 25 years of care and work. They don't see that if I don't' do this, the large corporate farm, will just buy up my land and do it anyway. Either way it will happen, but this way, maybe, I can keep my land."
I feel his hurt and trouble in having to do this.
"I don't want to do it. You should see when the bulldozers go in, what comes flying out of there. It's a living thing." He trails off. There is silence for a few moments, as if to honour the grief.
Seeing him there with no where to go in his mind, faced with this, in the shadows of rising costs and high diesel prices, and the despair of the drought still in everyone's mind and bank accounts. I realize how entangled land use decisions are. Despite having hundreds of stewardship prescriptions, from research desktops and government offices, the reality is that each field is seeded with concern, care, grief and loss. The decisions, including the ones that break our hearts, are driven by need, more often, than greed.
There has to be a way to bring relief, to these trials: can working with scientists really provide solutions?
Hope. Where are those seeds?
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www.BridgetoLandWaterSky.ca