What are we going to make better today?

Several years ago, I learned something new about agriculture. The agriculture I had written about for more than a decade prior to learning the good news about farmers and ranchers finding a better way. I was renewed with hope. It was like this good news has been held from us or even censored. I wanted to learn why.?

Now it has been nearly 20 years of professionally and personally cleaving myself to the topics infiltrating and inspiring all things around agriculture. The topics that have literally defined every aspect of my life. My choice. Maybe my destiny. Maybe my curse. For whatever reason, there’s no looking back.?

Now I am absolutely confident of this: the nation and world can heal if one farm and ranch at a time makes some changes that better their own lives and the lives of others. Making these changes will also afford more people opportunities to be fruitful from the land. Right now, we’re looking to others (the government, grandparents, businesses and institutions) to do this for us. However, I am calling out to people everywhere passionate about the future of our sustenance, and screaming this from the rooftops:?we’re going to have to cooperate and do this ourselves.?

At one ignorant point during my “blinders completely on” early journalism, public relations, and farm advocacy career, I wrote glowing stories about an agriculture that had actually run amok in many areas.?

I wanted to believe in the glossy propaganda promising to “feed the world.”?

I wanted to believe ag corporations and land grant universities were all pristine in their pursuit to do what’s best for the ol’ people down on the farm.?

As farm families worked hard to find a firm footing on shaky ground across the nation, some of the rural children growing up when I did in the late 1970s, 80s and 90s, sought affirmation and attention from some of the most wretched, depraved scenarios that my soul is not yet prepared to share.

If you know what I mean, you also know how desperate we were to find “family,” reinforcement, and meaning, away from the farm.?

The depth of the tentacles that delight in our collective rural delusion and the neglect that is real in rural America are deep. We have work to do. I have work to do. The state of “rural” is the underlying state of the nation and world. I would argue that everything with any value in life is dependent upon agriculture’s health and revitalization or slow, painful death.?

I now have a crystal, clear perception of both radical edges of the ag spectrum and somewhere in the vast middle are many right answers.?

I will begin with what I started learning more than a decade ago:?we are sucking the resources that will save us dry … human, plant, animal, water, soil, and air.?

Of course, my few decades of awareness is minuscule compared to others with eyes wide open who have been focused on conservation for generations. Here I am now though compelled deeply every day that I have to do something.?Yet, it so often feels daunting and like I am writing from the depth of a deaf wilderness.?

What I absolutely know is the deprivation of our natural resources is, and has, been hands-down happening.?

The soil is depleted nearly everywhere. Yet, there are also new practices to restore the soil and natural resources being implemented from sea to shining sea and across the world. However, we have acres upon acres to go.?

My ink has run dry many times over writing about change that has been met with jeering, belligerence, hate, turned backs, and also (thank God) with gratitude, light bulb moments, and even a few miracles that I will firmly and forever believe in.?

More truth … some aquifers are not facing dire lowering levels of water; however, they are facing serious water quality issues.?

In many other areas across this very state, as well as the nation and world, wells have indeed run dry. I have leaned my hand on the skeletal remains of these pivots. I have watched the dust blow all around them.?I have watched farmers fall to their knees desperately looking for a seed to sprout. It doesn’t matter in those areas if winds blow those pivots over. They cannot use them … ever, again.?

Some egos are too conditioned from having the privilege of water their entire lives, to see the blatant fact that while their aquifers may replenish right now, the world will be vying and is vying for their water. The mandates and laws will come. There are plans being made. I have heard those plans spoken about. The wars will come too if we don’t wise up.?

Let’s talk about municipal water issues and nitrate levels so high schoolchildren are prohibited from drinking it.?

And, do we think the war going on in schools has anything to do with our collective sucking dry of our natural?resources? Has the gradual and strategic elimination of human beings from the agrarian landscape into struggling small towns, packed cities, reservations, juvenile detention centers, and prisons led to societal health?

You bet there is a correlation between violence, our medical crisis, and the loss of the agrarian foundation from our national ethos.?

So, I have to admit, I am afraid. I absolutely am. I have had to choke down my fears with every single step I have made, every job change, and every word I write about the agriculture I still so deeply love.?

But, it’s an agriculture that has lost its most important resource … The CULTURE portion of the word. However, my fears have leveled out now and been replaced with the utmost confidence in what we can actually do for ourselves. If we indeed use our choices we still have, now. If we don’t, shame on us. If we don’t, I shudder to think what life will be like for our descendants.?

When I began to learn there were people changing their farming practices because they were also afraid and ready to be on freedom’s plan, I enthusiastically joined this disjointed effort with its fair share of problems and divisions too. But, despite their imperfections, these farming and ranching neighbors are vastly different. They are actually doing something about the serious issues facing agriculture and I continue to be inspired. The difference between these ag groups and others are their sense of purpose and self awareness. They look beyond their self interests to the betterment of the greater community while others are protectionists for their interests alone.?

I began to travel and see the changes firsthand. I began to write about them. I was afforded chances I do not take for granted and I wanted to share the experiences with others at home just trying to keep farms and ranches going.?

While doing so, I disenfranchised myself from some people in my little portion of the world. It’s a small area here in irrigated corn country compared to the vastness of the earth and universe. But, I assure you, people worldwide are watching the careful or wasteful utilization of every inch of soil and drop of water we use. They are scratching their heads. Sometimes they are shocked by our wastefulness. Sometimes it brings them to tears. I have seen these tears. I have seen their disdain for the farmers and their families that I love. But I understand why now.?

A friend from Africa asked me, “Have any of the farmers in your area carried their water for miles to irrigate crops and to literally survive? It appears not.”

My writing began creating a cavernous abyss between myself and some members of my own family even. I mean, I was writing about my love for agriculture, but I was also writing about people doing something different. I learned I was a threat to all they had known and all they had been told. I was threatening their way of farming and way of life.?

I discovered there are those secure in a system that rewards their way of life and others are literally fighting the same system to save their lives.?These scenarios literally live next door to one another. Those scenarios were explicitly designed to separate us.?

I had no idea the offense people would take to saying “no” to so many synthetic inputs (a long list that has now been proven to cause cancer and many other health issues). Why is saying yes to practices such as mob grazing cattle, growing cover crops, diversifying crops and livestock, planting more trees and perennials, protecting pollinators, and preserving water and soil resources so offensive to some? Can “progressive farming” evolve from pouring the coals to everything and pushing our natural resources to the limits, to instead a vision?for agriculture where true stewardship in word and deed is most admired?

I also had no idea when advocating for the family farm I would be competing with the powerful propaganda of high-dollar advertising and marketing firms who are paid to promote the “corporation” is now the true champion of the “family farm.”

I had no idea how divisive it would get. I do now.?

Cooperation. Dedication. Hard work. Care. Concern. Community. Love. Life. Liberty. I still believe in these things. But some of the archaic ways we pursue trying to achieve those ideals are not leading to the outcomes we expected.?

We are sucking precious resources dry. So many moms are tired. So many dads are worn out. Grandparents, wanting to help and make up for the time they lost with their own kids, are raising grandchildren. Many banks are stagnant and lack creativity in what they loan money for and what they don’t because they have lost touch for a host of reasons. The government is clearly losing it, blinded by greed, imbalance, and inequality embedded in the foundation from the very start. Decisions are not being made. The blame game reigns supreme and “status quo” has no status anymore.?

And here we all are standing in the status that is real life.?

There is hope neighbors.?I absolutely know because I have seen the light from the gutter and I am walking a bit broken, but far more self-assured with an actual backbone, to the healing haven of the garden we can all share.?

I have seen the light ???

I have seen the lightbulb when a farmer, under the harsh thumb or even fist of dad or grandpa,?radiantly goes on inside their minds and they decide for themselves and families what they are going to do.?

So, maybe it’s as simple as having faith and believing in ourselves and believing in the best in each other.?

I know I believe …?

I believe in the precious resource that is you, the U.S. and world’s farmer and rancher.?

I believe in the precious resource that is you the mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, aunt, uncle, son, daughter, neighbor, and friend.?

I believe in the precious resource that is you, young professional, who is capable of taking the issue of our time head on with fortitude and grace and make something of it.?

I believe in the precious resource that is you, city cousin we so desperately need insight and ideas from.?

I believe in the precious resources that are still out here on farms and ranches making it, hanging on, thriving, and some literally dying just trying to hold on.?

I believe in the family farms that have the most precious resources still growing up on them … our children, with dreams and new ideas of their own.?

What is the meaning of life? The next generation all around gives life meaning. I believe in them. I believe in something better. I believe we can do something about it before it’s too late.?

So, my very able neighbors here and worldwide, what are we going to make better today? Because, we can or we won’t. It’s up to us.?

Need some help? We all do. Come and join us. Let’s do this.??Visit www.grazemastergroup.com Give me a call or text too: 402-363-8963.?

Thank you. ??