The complex truths behind the ‘simple’ farming life
The farm- to- table movement belies the complexity of agriculture. It is a veil of simplicity pulled over a smart and stable network of fields, oceans, railways, highways, governments and organizations.
It and other movements like it are making the statement that farming has forsaken its fundamentally simple roots in favour of something bureaucratic and needlessly difficult to understand.
Some of these people may even go so far as to channel Marx and say that today’s farming practices have alienated growers from the products they produce.
Agriculture is a worthwhile, rewarding complexity that, globally, represents billions of billions of relationships. Nationally, millions. Provincially, hundreds of thousands. And locally, more than I can name.
To reduce what farmers do on their operations to a small loop involving a couple of restaurants or markets means I wouldn’t have met Dave or Mike or my friends at the Viterra grain elevator near my farm.
These relationships are the foundation of a strong agricultural sector. Not only is farming something we don’t do alone, it’s something we can’t do alone.
“I need to move some product before year end, so if you’re available to truck on a whim, I’ ll let you know as soon I pull the trigger on a contract.” I was rushed. I was on my way to a town about 30 minutes from my farm and the trucker hauling soybeans for me wanted my attention for a second to discuss additional work.
Mike is important to our farm. And he’s only one piece of the puzzle. In order to get my product to market, I’ ll chat with Lyle, Allison, Mario, Brian and many others, all of whom represent good relationships, but also various points in a line system that ensures what I grow in southern Manitoba reaches the person who bought it.
Other industries push products to market and trust the systems allowing that to happen will continue to work. Every industry has its complexities, granted. But few require participants to be as knowledgeable of the systems operating in consort behind the scenes as agriculture.
This morning the Viterra grain elevator closest to my farm wasn’t accepting soybeans. If they were, the price would have been $ 10.35 per bushel. Delmar Commodities was accepting soybeans today, but their price was lower at $10.23 per bushel and would cost about $ 7 per metric ton to haul. Cargill in Morris was also accepting and came in a little higher, but hauling there would be more expensive.
The grain elevator in St. Agathe, Man., set high soybean targets the other day in order to fill a train. Dave told me this. Dave, the gentlemen at Viterra, who, though we’re not geographically close, knew my father and shared a chuckle with me over the small size of this world.
Farmers, in general, know when there are trains that need filling. They know there’s competition between elevators. And they are likely connected to people/ business that will share that information.
The history of the global grain trade is fascinating and rich and old. The agricultural networks that exist today — the ones that began to form hundreds of years ago and the ones critical to feeding a hungry and growing world — were built on strong, good relationships.
My farm is no different. When it’s - 40 C with wind chill, snowing, windy, and my tractor with the snowblower attached won’t start, I look to my neighbours, even though they may be miles away.
If you’d visit my farm in July, when everything is green and lush, you’d sit on my deck or in my gazebo and make a comment about how simple and solitary this all is.
In reality, it’s neither.