A Farmer’s

Dream

Lying on his back he hears the insects buzzing

pricking his ears at the louder hum of a

bumblebee He feels ants scuttling over his

skin He resists the urge to brush them off A

skylark high above him is singing its song and

he squints his eyes to try to spot it He suddenly

feels a profound connection with the ground

beneath him and all that lives in on and above

it He is the f ifth generation to farm this land

and the emotional rush of that connection

with the land is swiftly followed by the familiar

feeling of anxiety as reality f loods back in The

last few years as the weather has become

more extreme and market forces have brought

his farm to its knees he has gotten used to this

gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach What

future do his children have on this farm where

they have grown up digging for worms hiding

in the long grass and sneaking wildf lower

bouquets into their bedroom when he wasnt

looking Will his childrens children stand in

the eerie light of the moon and feel the swoosh

of an owl returning to roost in the barn as he

did Will they know the cacophony of the dawn

chorus just as the sun rises Or the sight of

the slick black head of a seal emerging from

the waves What future do those generations

have on this rapidly heating planet

Brushing the dust off his overalls and pushing

the knot of anxiety back down again he returns

to the task at hand checking the rows of

recently sown carrots for signs of germination

As his grandmother loved to point out farmers

are intimately connected to natural systems

A fact he wishes the agricultural industry paid

more attention to rather than trying to squeeze

as much production out of land as possible

His father was encouraged to fall in line with

the modern way of farming eff iciency over

diversity But the only way he knows to deal

with both his nagging anxiety and his falling

yields is to invite a greater variety of species

back to the land he farms Starting on this

tiny chunk of earth he has direct inf luence

over he hopes that by inviting others to share

his profound connection to the ground to all

that lives in on and above it they will join

him in a quest to restore the richness of our

ecosystems

He sees the future in his minds eye children

zigzagging between a line of trees separating

the f ields picking up windfalls to turn into

apple juice his neighbors loading crates of

pumpkins into the trailer to be taken to the

cold storage back in the barn others digging

potatoes out of the dark rich soil the thought

of a winters supply of deep fried chips keeping

them going Building a farm of nature and

for nature of the community and for the

community that is what helps push down

the doubts and worries for the future Maybe

one day the knot will unwind and natures

soothingsound feeling and sights will heal us

all

Jessica Hill

Jessica Hill is

assistant professor

of criminology at VU

Amsterdam She is a

green criminologist

studying crimes against

the environment

by individuals

organisations and

states

wwwlinkedincomin

jessicahilla891131b