Mack Truck

Several years ago, I spent a good number of farm newsletters on climate change, how farming drives much of it, how farming can solve much of it, with an added sprinkle of doom and gloom, which is my way. Hopefulness and hopelessness. They travel together, and only together.

I lay off the subject more often than not, and regard it as a train that is coming at us. I’m still on the track, we’re still on the tracks, because we have collectively decided to stay on the tracks. I don’t talk all that much about it these days, for better or for worse.

This last couple weeks have seen some devastating events. Did climate change cause them or make them worse? It seems for every scientist there is a questionably educated TV pundit to debate them.

One event happened to a local farm, (and probably some others in the area I imagine) in the Northfield area, Sogn Valley Farm. They got hammered with hail the likes of which make me shudder. Did climate change cause that, or make it worse? It puts them on the financial edge for certain, with crops in a state where, if Instagram doesn’t lie, won’t recover.

The other event is the Derecho storms in Iowa. They flattened crops, and partially inverted storage facilities. Momma Nature got in her Mack Truck, and she drove that thing right through corn country. Did climate change make that worse than it would have been?

We dodged the storms here last weekend. It got gusty, and dropped maybe a 1/4 inch of rain.

A mere 10 miles away, they got 4 inches.

I’m left feeling like life will continue, at least for a little while, in the era of climate change. There has never been anything certain. The climate, the weather it produces, has always been a source of joy and then, suddenly, catastrophe. Lives have been turned upside down in a mere instant since cognizant beings started getting all…cognizant. Disaster can come hurtling around a corner and hit us blindsided. That’s life.

But as we go on, I hope that we are prepared for life on steroids. I don’t know what the next step up from a Mack Truck is, but she’ll be driving it.

When I work in the time we are now, with farming, out in the elements and Nature’s mercy, knowing what the science says, and knowing that it’s mere geography that has spared this farm so far, I think to myself often, “This is probably only going to get harder”.

Sogn Valley Farm has a Go Fund Me set up to help them get through the season financially. Here is the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-sogn-valley-farm-recover-from-hail-damage?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

While I’m at it, I’ll add another link to help a young black farmer get started: https://www.gofundme.com/f/blackland2020

There should be more functional programs, mentoring opportunities, and on and on, to support local farms, especially in this time of climate change. But there aren’t. So, if you are inclined; one link to help save a farm, and one link to help start one.