From The Fields: Gratitude in a World of Volatility

By Amy Austin

I recently read The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, it takes place in the 1930s focusing on life in the Great Plains. The story follows a farm family from Texas that experienced years of bountiful wheat harvests followed by years of severe drought. Due to the lack of conservation practices and moisture the man-made disaster of The Great Dust Bowl was created. After several years of extreme hardship, the family chose to leave their farm behind and travel to California with very little to their name. Once arrived in the San Joaquin Valley, the family expected the land of milk and honey. That was far from the truth, due to the flood of migrants from the Great Plains – there was no work for these Americans as they were viewed as dirty, untrustworthy and criminal by the locals.

Today, there are many uncertainties in the world and in agriculture. This book was a reminder to me that there has always been obstacles that must be overcome no matter where one lives. Generations later, the worries of the farmers we work with aren’t that much different than they were then. Things like funding for government programs, interest rates, looming droughts, immigration, tariffs, providing for their families have always been on farmers’ minds.

I found gratitude in this book. As agriculture lenders, many of the farmers we work with look to us as a resource to be able to answer what will happen to the tariffs and all other issues in the news. Although we are still experiencing the same challenges that our ancestors have for decades, agriculture is better prepared for the fight today than ever before. We learned conservation practices to prevent hundreds of thousands of acres from eroding. Biotechnology has advanced so far that even in a drought year, corn yields remain average. Farm management decisions are now made with information from varying tools and resources. Farmers have social networks across the nation and internationally that connect them with others experiencing similar things.

This is a reminder for all of us and our farmers that we work with that there may be volatility and obstacles in the year to come, but there is proof that so much has already been overcome to be where we are today. We have much to be grateful for.

 

Austin is an ag & business relationship manager at Lake Ridge Bank in Evansville.