FARMING CHILDREN

Food Chain Radio Podcast with Michael Olson

With Jessica Ridgeway, Executive Director, Farm Discovery at Live Earth

I had the good fortune to have lived on the grandparents’ Montana farm when very young. I still remember, to this day, driving my first working tractor at the age of six. It wasn’t anything special. Grandfather Karl hoisted me up into the seat, put the tractor in gear, and said, “I’ll meet you at the end of the field.”

Every living thing on the grandparents’ farm had a job to do, and nobody– nor anything– got by without doing the work. It was not a policy laid down by the grandparents, who owned the farm. It was just life. If one did not work, one did not eat. It was true for the people, the animals and the plants in the fields. We all participated in the business of life.

Yesterday I had the privilege of accompanying a couple of Montana boys– Braxton, nine, and Cohan, six–to their first major league baseball game in the big city. Their enthusiasm for the game was infectious, and all who were seated around them in the stadium took joy in their excitement, especially when the six-year-old won the scramble for a foul ball.

As I enjoyed the boy’s enthusiasm, I wondered how that enthusiasm would be met by life in the city. On the farm enthusiasm and love of living were always well nurtured by the business of life. But what in the city can manage and give guidance to the enthusiasm of young boys and girls?

Not finding a ready answer, I ask:

How can we lead children back to the farm?