My family’s farm began in 1880s with a sod house and an intrepid couple—the Banmans—willing to brave the unforgiving Canadian prairies ….
[T]hat same farm …. has grown from roughly 160 acres to nearly 1,200. This farm grows more crops than it did 120 years ago, producing edible beans, canola, soybeans, sunflowers, oats, and more. Electricity is now taken for granted …. Our tractors steer themselves …. “Survival” is more a romantic notion or a good hashtag than it is a state of being around here.…
At some point in human history, civilization became proudly more sophisticated than merely laboring for sustenance …. farmers are now able to do everything with increasing precision. It sometimes involves genetic modification, chemicals, and technology—poisonous words, for some, but science, to others …. Progress is a controversial word, but I’m tempted to use it.
Related on the SLP
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Misunderstandings [around GMOs and pesticides] have left farmers scrambling to educate people on what it means to grow food …. But we want you to trust us. After all, decisions on any farm—including mine—are made by people: fallible, imperfect people doing their best with the information available. I want to run a farm that is sustainable, welcoming and profitable. And I want to run a farm that takes the concerns of the open-minded consumer seriously.
Read full, original article: What Canadians don’t understand about farming—and what they need to
