Tonight I went to a Baxter Black show with Shaelie, it was SO much fun, we laughed so hard! For those of you who dont know, Baxter Black is a cowboy poet/comedian who is rather well known in the agricultural world, and he is hilarious. Seriously, my face hurts from laughing right now and I have a roaring headache that comes from gasping for breath between fits of giggling. My favorite poem of the night though was this one called "Of the Land" that I want to share here.
Of the Land
by Baxter Black
We are of the land. The land that everybody's tryin' to save.
We are of the Earth. Of the Earth from the glimmer to the grave.
We're the plankton in the ocean, we're the grass upon the plain,
We're the lichen on the tundra, we're the clevis in the chain.
You will find us on the outskirts coaxing bounty from the ground
With our watchful eyes cast skyward, well beyond the lights of town.
Dust to dust we are committed to the earth in which we stand,
We are farmers by our birthright, We're the stewards of the land.
There are those who sit in towers who pretend to know whats best.
They pontificate and dabble. They bray loudly. They protest
That a peasant can't be trusted with the land to which he's bred
and they rail with the courage of a person who's well-fed.
We have labored through the ages for those power hungry kings.
We have fueled the wars of nations with their arrows and their slings,
We have fed the teeming masses with our fish and loaves of bread,
So the poor would sit and listen to the words the prophet said.
Mother Earth can be forgiving when, in ignorance, we err.
But she can die of good intentions. She needs someone who will care.
Not with platitudes of poets touting blood and sweat and toil,
But the daily care of someone with his hand upon the soil.
Thought the bullets become ballots and the rulers change their names,
They will still march on their bellies, so our job remains the same.
For the bureaucrats and battleships, the Einsteins and the choirs
Would spend their lives behind the plow, if no one fed their fires.
I love this poem, this captures EXACTLY how I feel about agriculture and what I do. I am part of an elite and unique team of people around the globe who feed and clothe the world, with nary a thanks. We are constantly being regulated tighter and tighter by city slickers who dont know what they are talking about and politicians with agendas that have nothing to do with the good of the masses and everything to do with the benefit of those with the highest paying campaign. Rural people are consistently made fun of in pop culture (the Beverly Hillbillies anyone?!) and even in real life (for the last time, of COURSE I have electricity! Im from Wyoming, not the moon!) People seem to think that agriculture is SO easy, until you talk about things like soil pH, prolapse heifers and proper moisture content in crops. Now this topic gets me really fired up, so I promise not to go off on a long-winded tangent, but I will say this: The average agriculturalist is a full time mechanic who is adept in chemistry, botany and horticulture, proficient in animal training, basic care and animal paramedicine and fluent in enough legal practices to make your eyes swim. They are no bumbling idiot. (ok...MOST arent!) I feel that my fellow agriculturalists around the world deserve more credit for the things we do...after all...we feed the world...and if that isnt enough...with the exception to all synthetic fibers, we clothe the world as well....come to think of it, there are very few industries that arent dependent upon agriculture...a little appreciation would be nice. And to all my fellow producers out there, take the words of Baxter Black to heart: "We are farmers by our birthright, We're the stewards of the land."
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