LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

By Liza Gabriel

 

The other morning, I walked into the pasture and a lamb, just hours old, was nursing on his mom. I sat next to them a while, eventually holding him and rubbing his mom’s snout gently, telling her, “Nice job, mama.” There’s very little more joyful than holding baby animals.  

 

A few minutes later, moving the flock to their next paddock, the sheep took off outside of the fence opening I had made for them. Moments later, I found myself screaming and swearing loudly, apparently hot with anger that needed to find its way out.  

 

How did I move from joy to anger in an instant? I wondered what sorrow, frustration, or other exhaustion I had bottled up from that morning (or the last four+ decades)? Juxtaposition is a real bitch.

 

Government censorship and religious-based hate crimes are real. People are suffering in the world and our communities. 

 

So, I’ve recently tried to commit to joy. The poet Ross Gay says that “joy is precisely what we need in times like this.” He describes joy as being the possibility of connection and tenderness. “We’re connected by the fact that we’re all in the process of dying,” he says, and the more we realize we’re alike, the more we cultivate our sense of belonging.

 

As people, we have the power to make somebody’s day with a smile or a kind gesture. As farmers, we have the honor to create the conditions for other beings to have an exquisite existence, from microbes in the soil, to seeds we cultivate to unfurl into their truest selves, to cattle living as they should in flourishing fields. There is magic in this work because there is connection.  

 

What does this have to do with this TNF issue on grasslands and organic pasture, you might be wondering?  

 

As I compile articles, I read about approaches to managing pasture and look at picture after picture of animals surrounded by lush grasses. Our choices as farmers have an impact. It seems obvious, but I think we tend to forget. Animals can only live their best animal lives because of the farmers caring for them, making management choices that directly impact the amount of joy they experience. It would be easier (in the short term) to put these animals in a barn, but animals don’t thrive in barns. Neither do people.

 

We know farming is not all magic. It’s also incredibly hard and heartbreaking. And yet, we show up day after day because we are connected and thus accountable. What a gift to be responsible for the lives of others. If we farm because we care for the earth - the soil, the plants, the animals, the sun - they care for us, too. It’s a reciprocity, built on gratitude, care, and generosity. 

 

“There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns,” Octavia Butler.

 

To grow healthy pastures, we must be in right relationship with the grass and the animals. The authors in this issue speak of their need to be patient, to observe, to recognize abundance, and to cultivate a connection to the soil, the grasses, and the animals. As you read, I hope you reflect on the relationship with your farm. What did you find joyful today? What do you feel connected to? What can you give in return? 

​

###