But now that we have come to the end of a year that has tested many in the farming sector to the very limit of their capabilities, we can pause for a moment and focus on the ‘why’.
Over the past two years, almost every corner of the country suffered due to drought.
Thousands of farmers had to battle against circumstances that they had almost no control over.
On a weekly basis, and sometimes multiple times a week, farmers had to wake up to the news that another farmer, and another family, had been terrorised by the murderers and thieves preying on vulnerable rural communities.
Farmers have had to endure another year of being called land thieves and worker exploiters by those very political leaders who have brought this country to financial ruin through their own greed and corruption.
And yet, every morning, as the sun rises all over SA, farmers and farmworkers get up, and tractor engines begin roaring to bring in the harvest or plant the seeds for next year’s harvest; cows are brought to the milking parlour; livestock is tended to; and hundreds of thousands of work-hardened hands start picking the fruit and the vegetables that will feed the country.
READ Politics and farming are intertwined
Why then, despite the myriad of challenges that farmers in SA face, do they still have such a great passion for what they do?
Well, it’s simple really, isn’t it?
And it is the same reason why we at Farmer’s Weekly come to work every day.
As Wendell Berry, US poet and farmer, writes:
“Why do farmers farm, given their economic adversities on top of the many frustrations and difficulties normal to farming? And always the answer is: love.
They must do it for love. Farmers farm for the love of farming.
They love to watch and nurture the growth of plants.
They love to live in the presence of animals.
They love to work outdoors.
They love the weather, maybe even when it is making them miserable.
They love to live where they work and to work where they live.
They love the measure of independence that farm life can still provide.”
To all the farmers and farmworkers, we at Farmer’s Weekly thank all of you for another year of support and inspiration.
