Riding back from Cincinnati Tuesday where we had gone to a funeral, my 81 year old husband began musing about the future of farming and farmers. Maybe a death brings to the forefront thoughts long held but not always voiced. It may also have been the condition of the corn and bean crops; they were parched, yellowing, and surely diminished from these last critical weeks of no rain.
From his own perspective his 45 year old son will continue farming, but his grandson looks to a career in criminal justice. “What then? There are so few in their 20’s who want to farm,” he laments. Not so. I know enough young people who are eager to carry on, men with wives and families who want to till the soil, test their wits and sinew against inconstant nature and markets. Women as well, maybe not quite so young, rather in their late 40’s or early 50’s. Their children are raised and they feel in their bodies still years of vitality; in their hearts they intuit great creative ideas that only the land can bring forth and satisfy.
These young men and middle-aged women are the future of agriculture. The men will not inherit 1000 acres on which they can run big expensive equipment. Rather they can work in partnership with a retiring farmer, buying over the years, land and opportunity. They have in their favor not just the desire to own land and equipment but also garnered wisdom to know diversified farming is more enduring. They grow crops, they graze cattle and sheep; they may have a manageable dairy. They may even begin value-added processing such as on-farm cheese making or growing and grinding small grains, establish a brand for specialized hogs or create ecotourism opportunities.
Farms and farmers will not perish for the land now speaks to men and women as a calling, not as a destiny. Too often these old time farmers felt they had no choice; they lasted nevertheless, even triumphed so that these new agrarians will carry on.

This job of working for IFO has its benefits though not necessarily financial. Rather the many opportunities to meet folk all over Ohio dedicated to better farming practices and environmental behaviors to assure long-lasting production of food and healthy communities presents itself at almost every turn.

For example two weeks ago I was invited by the Heart of Ohio Council to their annual meeting at the newly built Sandusky Environmental and Education Center behind Elgin High School in Marion County. A rustic classroom boarders a pond full of fish. An earthen levy allows one to amble around reclaimed wetlands full of varied plants and wildlife. Scattered along these trails and by the pond are huge stones set in gravel called meditation stations. Yes, an acknowledgment even by government and educational bureaucrats that one does get reinforced from nature, enriched even by just sitting and listening.

Then this last week I attended the Ohio No-Till Council’s event in Hardin Co. IFO member David Brandt is president this year and will be sponsoring the last Farm Tour on August 28 in Fairfield Co. At the host farm of Chris Rodebaugh’s, several tents sat in the middle of a wheat field where the many guests listened to knowledgeable speakers on organic matter in soils and how to keep them there plus the valuable additions of cover crops.

Yesterday I drove to Paulding Co. to Ralph and Brian Schlatter’s farm to hear about the latter’s cheese making and the former’s diversified grass fed animal production. The Schlatters work very hard and their work rewards them in healthy foods for their many customers through the Weston Price Chapters in Toledo and the farm makets in Perrysburg.

Then later that evening I attended a fund raising dinner at the St. Francis Mother House in Tiffin where Sister Rita, an IFO board member and many others, had created an evening of delicious food prepared by chefs from Findley, Fostoria, and Tiffin. One visited each tent where a chef offered his/her specialty and then retired to larger tents in the middle of a grassy spot where chamber music played and the full moon soon appeared and a small breeze kept the summer’s heat at bay. Truly an enchanted night.

Driving through Ohio’s small towns and rural landscapes listening to either my tapes on Greek history or jazz, being carried across fields of corn on both sides of the road into a vast horizon of green, enjoying the farmsteads and all that goes on there are the not-so hidden benefits of serving IFO.