A Nice Place to Live

Despite my very best efforts to get out of it, last week I found myself talking to a large group of third graders about “Sustainable Farming.”  I was pleasantly surprised by how well it went, but then again, my expectations had been rock bottom.

When I asked the kids what sustainable meant to them, one boy said, “It’s having a nice place to live.” I agreed and said “Yes, in a way it is. I think that planet Earth is a very nice place to live. In fact, I feel lucky to live on such a nice planet and I’d like to take good care of it so when it’s my time to pass it on to you, it’s just as nice as when I found it - if not better. And I hope that when it’s your time to be in charge of this planet, that you take good care of it too.”

I told them that my definition of “sustainable” is the ability to keep doing something. I explained “After I get a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast, I’m full of energy and can work really hard and get a lot of stuff done. But by noon I start to slow down and if I don’t get lunch, I stop being able to work very well. I just get more and more tired until I completely run out of energy. What I’m doing is not sustainable and that’s how I think the planet is feeling right now. It’s getting very worn down and adults need to start taking better care of it. Someday it will be your job, so I am glad you are learning about it now because when you are older, you’ll have lots of choices to make, everyday kinds of choices.”

I said “My friend Timothy cares so much about planet Earth and about you kids, that he sold his car and now he either rides his bike or walks wherever he wants to go.  He knows that driving a car creates a lot of pollution, so he stopped driving.  Can you imagine how much energy he saves and how much pollution he isn’t making? I think he’s amazing - but I can’t do that, I have too many places to go and I’m always in a hurry. I think that it’s a wonderful choice for him, though, and I’m very proud that he is my friend.”

I asked the kids what town they were from.

They said “Vernon”.

 I asked “Did you all ride your bikes here?”

“No” they said.

Did you walk? I asked.

“No” they said.

I asked, “How long do you think it would take to walk here from Vernon?”

“11 years” one girl said definitively.

 I allowed as how I didn’t think it would take that long, but it would definitely take a long time, so riding the school bus was probably a really good choice.

I said I try to farm in such a way that I create as little pollution as possible. That’s why I have grass fed sheep – all they ever eat is grass. I have to take very good care of the fencing, and pastures to keep them safe and to make sure there is always enough grass for them to eat. It would be a lot easier if I just kept them in a barn and bought food for them from somewhere else, but it would have to be brought to the farm in a big truck – and that causes pollution.

I said “my friend Carol has sheep and doesn’t have enough grass, so she feeds them grain that’s grown in Iowa. It takes a lot of driving to get that grain to her – and all that driving causes pollution. My friend Timothy would probably ride his bike to Iowa to pick up the grain if he had sheep - but I think I found an even better solution. I found a home for my sheep at Hill-Stead, where there is a lot of grass. They have so much grass in fact, that if my sheep don’t eat it, someone has to mow it! So, I think I made a very good choice, and Hill-Stead is very happy.”

I said as adults we all get to make choices about the way we live, and farm and my hope is that when they are adults and in charge of making the decisions – that they think about what they are doing and make the best choices they can.

I have no idea what the kids took away from my talk - if anything at all. They were unusually quiet, which I took to mean they were either thinking about what I said or plotting something nefarious. Either way I left feeling proud of the way Anne and I farm, and the choices that we’ve made. Somehow, by taking the time to explain myself in overly simplistic terms to a group of children, it became that much clearer to me as well. Indeed, it really is about having a nice place for everyone to live and about leaving it better than we found it for the next generation.