Kids on Farms

Since the wind was deflated from my sails last week upon reading that I was not chosen for the Kellogg Food & Society Fellows program, I thought I would focus on some positive aspect of my life right now, and something I believe very deeply in.  You see, now that I am less than gainfully employed (by my own choosing), I have more time to hang out with my little monkey child.  A couple months back we invited one of her good buddies to come horse around the farm while his Nana took amazing photographs (including this one above).  

My daughter has spent most of her short life living on the land where her daddy raises animals.  Like the majority of California farmers, we have no land tenure (meaning we don't own the land nor do we have a long-term lease), but we were fortunate to rent a house within the same ranch where our leased land sits.  Our daughter's buddy, Logan, doesn't live on a farm, but he does live in the most "farm-like" suburban home I have ever seen.  Surrounded by vegetable gardens, a pond, grassland, and open space, his little urban oasis is a jewel in an otherwise urbanized landscape.  

Logan also has the pleasure of having a very outgoing, affectionate Nana who has befriended nearly every farmer in the watershed, and who totes him along due to necessity and the fine 'educatin' that happens on farms.  For example, this lovely day above Logan learned about  being careful around electric fences, approaching and befriending livestock guard dogs, how hay-baling equipment makes a fine jungle gym, how a sea of hungry laying hens can start to feel like swimming with piranhas, and how being quiet and slow will allow you to approach a gang of dozing piggies (the quiet and slow part didn't exactly sink in for these pre-schoolers).
This is our same little girl getting some Daddy daycare time a couple years back. (Notice the cut on her forehead?  Good thing I was at work and could not see how this happened.)  For many young farmkids, daycare consists of choretime, sitting on Mommy or Daddy's back for awhile, hanging out in the front seat of the truck, getting up at 4am to ride with the parents to a faraway market or to trailer animals to the slaughterhouse.  

There are still many in this country who think that farms are too dangerous for kids or maybe that kids pose a 'food safety' risk.  I think it is dangerous for kids to live in sterilized worlds thinking that food comes from Safeway.  I say, let kids ride pigs, let them jump up and down on hay trailers, let them gingerly collect warm eggs right out from under the hen's rump, let them know how our food is produced and where it comes from.  Let them know the people who produce the food, let them understand the cycles of life from birth to death of plants and animals.  Let them swell with self-confidence as they explain to their friends how to gently collect eggs, how to plant seeds, or why compost simply happens.

Comments

[TheCottonWife]

Yes, exactly...EXACTLY! It IS dangerous for kids to grow up in a sanitized world. Someone asked me about peanut allergies the other day and honest-to-goodness I don't know ONE person with a peanut allergy.

I have a daycare and you know who gets sick? The kids with the parents who use anti-bacterial EVERYTHING and take 3-4 showers a day and who never let him play outside or get dirty.

Amen, sister!

[Greg Turner]

Hear, hear! Growing up I spent many summers on my grandparents' farm in Kansas. I'm just realizing now, more than two decades later, how valuable those experiences were.

[Sara DowntoEarth]

I left the corporate world to ranch. I grew up working with my family and wanted my kids to do the same. I also got tired of not seeing them except when we were all too tired to make much "family life".

I also agree strongly that the sterile world of suburbia is a far greater safety threat to our kids (and our food supply) than the farm. As far as food safety goes, Food grows in dirt, good dirt contains poo, poo contains germs. It's life. You can't sterilize nature.

[GaryM]

Great article. I was fortunate to grown up when my grandfather owned a working cattle ranch outside Fallon, NV. I, too learned daily chores like gathering eggs and feeding the chickens. As I got older, I'd stay up all night with Grand Dad as he controlled gates which irrigated his fields. The first vehicle I ever drove was his tractor, and I learned the proper way to rake the cut alfalfa into a proper row for the bailer to pick up. I have a lot of fond memories, but the most important lesson I learned is that it takes a lot of hard work by dedicated people to produce the food we eat.

[mare]

I totally agree with you. All my life i have wanted to live on a farm, and since that didn't happen i have done my best to stay connected to land and animals one way or another. I used to teach in a local day care center and was always amazed when the kids didn't know that eggs came from chickens and that beef was a cow, and pork was a pig at one time...

[Natalie]

Yes. Yes. Yes.