Field of dreams
What are the risks and rewards for people who choose a life on the farm? Young Voices spoke with three young Canadian Mennonites who work in agriculture to find out. Jedidiah Morton, 23 Didsbury, Alta. Jedidiah Morton isn’t the first person in his family to work in the dairy industry. His great-grandfather, Abram Lowen, settled…
The lucky struggle
Fortune and misfortune can look the same in a world of incomprehensible inequality. Each year, many thousands of Jamaicans apply for coveted temporary jobs on Canadian farms. The lucky applicants will work mostly on fruit farms and greenhouse operations under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). They can stay for up to eight months, but…
One camera, five continents, seven farming communities
A filmmaker is teaming up with a historian to document how Mennonite farmers relate to the land in seven different communities around the globe. “When you get down to grassroots, people bring their faith to bear on their relationship to the land in very different ways,” says Mennonite historian Royden Loewen. “If you go to…
Who feeds the world?
Without conventional agriculture more people would starve. That is the link commonly drawn between global hunger and the dominant form of North American farming, which depends heavily on fertilizer, fuel, pesticide and genetic inputs. This link is captured in the axiom that says farmers “feed the world.” The implication of this phrase is often two-fold:…
A Tale of Two Farms
We were on the island! The train had risen about the surface of the water out of the underwater tunnel that had taken us a half hour to traverse. We looked at the rural villages, the mountains, the fields. This was Hokkaido. On our trip to this northern island of Japan, we enjoyed the food,…
