A Farmer’s Labor of Love

Sweaty, dirty, hot and tired. Those are the words that describe how I feel on a typical July day when I'm thinning seemingly endless Asian pears in my orchard. Oh, and then there are gnats and biting flies from time to time, so add "buggy" to that list of not-so-comfortable adjectives. It's times like these that I've wondered, Why on earth am I doing this?

For many farmers like me, the question runs through our minds several times a year. Sometimes it pops up because of a particularly dreadful or daunting task, like the weeding that seems to never end. Other times, however, the question comes up because of things that are just not in the farmer's control—like the weather. There's not much I can do to stave off killing frosts, hail, drought, hurricanes, fires, tornadoes or floods.

Vagaries of the marketplace can wreck havoc on our minds as well. Low wholesale prices at the auction or in the grocery store can make a crop worth next to, or even less than, nothing. There are also the pressures of development, the out-of-control costs of land and the increasing use of eminent domain, which takes farmers' land out from under them.

Additionally, farmers are not always looked upon very highly. In some circles, announcing that your husband—or, worse yet, you—are a farmer is often met with looks of incredulousness. I've had a number of people ask why I choose to farm rather than do something more lucrative and be able to have a few vacations a year.

Last winter at a farmers-market meeting, I was asked this question by one of the market's board members (who happens to be a banker). He had been astounded to hear about farming's hardships year after year, both at the meetings and when he shopped at the farmers market. He emphatically threw down his pen and notes and said, "I just can't take it anymore! Why, for gosh sakes, do you folks keep doing this?"

We all looked at each other, and one by one the various farmers in the room spoke up. Without fail, every one of us stated some version of this: "We love growing food for people."