A Sobering Journey to an Inspiring Conference (The PASA Trip)
The journey to The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s annual conference to me is like a mid-winter elixir for the soul. Last year’s expedition to the Penn Stater included hauling a 300 hundred pound, Dinnie Stone lifting, Nebraskan grass freak with a weak bladder. We traveled from New York snow country to “JoePas” house in the dark so we missed seeing the changing landscape. This year’s daylight voyage down Route 17 past Nichols, NY to Sayre, PA and then down through Troy was an unbelievable snapshot in America’s thirst to harvest yet another finite natural resource.
A different darkness fell on my farmer’s heart as I saw an idled irrigation system on prime farm soils along 17 encompassed by a field of weeds giving way to a behemoth, gray, prison-like distribution center. This scene failed in comparison as my truck meandered through gas drilling country with my back window sticker cheerfully asking, “Have you hugged your farmer today?”
My obvious law abiding nature to do the speed limit and gaze at the landscape seemed to annoy my four, white pick-up suitors with the big angry grill protectors traveling right on my bumper in an attempt to provoke me to pull over. One by one they dropped out turning into the many drill site projects going on until there were none. Strangely, I got enjoyment in tormenting the speed demons.
Two simple things made me wonder. If we are harvesting gas at home and messing with the environment are we displacing foreign fuel? And where is the frack- water going? I asked the Debach Brothers at Leona Meats as I picked up sustenance for the road. They couldn’t tell me, even though they live in the epicenter of gas-well greed. This was troublesome on many levels, especially on the transparency issue.
The scene behind PASA president, Kim Seeley’s barn, was equally horrifying with what looked like a huge launching pad drilling into his water table from a neighbor’s land. How could all this “progress” happen in such a short time, I thought? A picture came over me equating this frenzy for gas to a Trojan Horse filled with drillers destroying the city of Troy, PA.
Happy Valley and its 2000 positive deviant farmer guests never looked so inviting after this stressful trip. I watched with amazement as rooms overflowed to hear talks about pastured poultry, pastured pork, marketing, weedless gardening, raw milk wars, the Chesapeake Bay, parity pricing and building earthships. The diversity of farmers was inspiring as the hall filled to hear our president, executive director and invited speakers stimulating the idea of thinking and not giving up on a sustainable future.
For me, Mr. Seeley’s words and passion were the rock of conscience. He hit me with “A good decision should be based on the results in seven generations” and “The end result should love all the children, yours and mine”. Brian Snyder’s musings were equally gratifying as he measured the bigness and importance of being small and not taking a backseat to those that have denigrated the use of sustainable agriculture and equating it to “40 acres and a mule”. I was proud to hear about optimism and visit with so many farmers excited to experience more than just a movement.
A Friday night snow storm lowered the boom on travelers but couldn’t diminish the passion for local food, friendship and practical information. It was mesmerizing to watch the light poles sway and snow swirl around the vehicles in the parking lot without a sound behind the giant glass of the facility as movies played in the background.
Three distinct documentaries all prefaced a storm brewing on our environment. Garbage Warrior by Michael Reynolds chronicled the struggle to use recycled building materials to create zero carbon footprint living much to the chagrin of legislators, and zoning boards in the USA while being heralded in third world countries for making homes after natural disasters. I caught a show telling the story of Colony Collapse Disorder and how we are poisoning our most trusted agricultural friend, the Honey Bee. The night ended with me partaking in the screening of Yert, an environmental road trip around the 50 states to see the problems and solutions in taking care of our earth. At one point I was moved to tears by a Kentucky man trying to stop a coal company from mountain-top mining and getting shot at for his beliefs. Powerful images to ponder as the storm intensified.
I left the hall Saturday afternoon inspired after hearing Lisa M. Hamilton talk about the integrity and grit of three unconventional farm families rejecting the passive role that modern agriculture has insisted they accept and instead reclaim their place as stewards of the land and leaders within society. The snow seemed to abruptly end about Williamsport as I stopped for a coffee. As I headed up Rt. 14 a dose of reality came into my rear-view mirror.
Trying to escape the ravages of the gas-drilling scene under darkness was on my mind when the frack-water container trailer barreled up on my bumper destined for, no doubt, a site I passed on my way south. The twists and turns of the road with lights shining from behind coupled with watching for deer heightened my senses to the scene of a glowing volcano-like fire in the distance. “What the heck is that?”, I thought. The drill sites were lit up like something out of a Mad Max movie. As I approached Seeley’s Milky Way Farm there it was in all its glory--- A giant plume of gas flaring off its impurities and getting ready to power up the energy grid.
I pulled onto the county road to capture this raging, jet engine on film. It wasn’t 2 minutes when my ole friend the white company pickup pulled behind me to pressure me to move on. Sensing some animosity, I clutched my nearby axe handle equalizer just in case. The ghost flashed his lights and revved the engine as I turned around in a nearby driveway. “This is Penn’s woods not Texas”, I remembered Kim saying. As I left the small town that bears my name, I kept thinking about my grand-kid’s future environment with all this consumptive behavior and once again could not shake this question. Will the end result love all the children, yours and mine?
Published in Lancaster Farming 3/20/2010 & PASA's Passage Newsletter