Growing Grass

I was once told by an environmental engineer that farmers know very little when it comes to the environment unlike himself, who had spent more than six years in university studying and many more taking samples and writing reports so he could understand the complex relationships that exist within and between water, air and soil. I asked him what made his short study more valuable than the fifty years my parents spent on the land learning how to keep the grass growing so it could feed the livestock and in turn support their family and still sustain future generations. As huge tracts of land throughout the world disappear into deserts that environmental scientists struggle to reclaim, knowing how to keep the grass growing is powerful alchemy.

I stood in northern Alberta and watched the sky turn red at sunset after Mount Saint Helen’s erupted in Washington State. What more do I need to know about the air but that I share it with the entire planet? I owe it to every other creature to keep it safe to breathe. I have felt the melt of the shrinking Athabasca Glacier dribble into my hand before cutting a ribbon through the prairies, finding a way into my home. What more do I need to know about the water but that we cannot survive without it? As climate changes and glaciers shrink we need to treasure every drop. I grew strong and healthy on food grown on my family’s farm, the northern Alberta landscape providing enough to feed a large family through the winter. What more do I need to know about the soil but that it feeds me? My health is dependent on the nutrients that are present in soil that grows the food that nourishes my body.

I have also observed how corporations, banks, and insurance companies throughout North America have betrayed the trust of investors and taxpayers. What more do I need to know about large companies but that their interests do not serve me? When a company claims that its energy is clean because it does not emit CO2 but neglects to mention that the radioactive waste is toxic and will not dissipate for millions of years, how can I trust their integrity? I have observed cancer and autoimmune disorders become epidemic in a time when toxic substances ranging from chemical fertilizers, to household cleaners to beauty products have been sold to a trusting public only later to be found dangerous? What more do I need to know than it is my job to protect my family? When a company wishes to bring their untested technology to my backdoor, to my home instead of their own, what are their actions telling me about their product? I have seen how hundreds of ducks died the cruelest death when someone near Ft. McMurray forgot to make sure the cannons that were to frighten them away were firing. I know of the meltdown at Chernoble, the invasion of Iraq. What more do I need to know than to err is to be human? No nuclear power plant is fail safe, why risk it when there is no need?

Who will speak for the land if not the ones who live on it and have fed their families and neighbors through good and bad times with the careful stewardship of soil and water? Who deserves a strong voice in deciding what is best for the community if not the ones who have watched and often trusted tides of experts who came and went, each with a new theory, a better product and many unfulfilled promises? It’s a foolish person who would choose toxic waste for quick money over the alchemy of growing grass.