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NTOTP brings ag activism forward
By Larry Dreiling Twenty years ago, about 350 producers gathered in a meeting room at the Salina Bicentennial Center, Salina, Kan., to hear speakers discuss the concept of crop residue management.
Just recently, more than 1,100 producers filled a portion of the center's arena, while another portion housed a large trade show and all the center's meeting rooms were in use for the winter conference of the group now known as No-Till On The Plains. While the conference is still considered one of the largest and most forward-thinking on the topic of conservation agriculture, NTOTP directors have decided that for many producers who use this gathering as their sole outlet of live information and fellowship, it would be wise to include at least some time on the topic of agricultural advocacy to the conference agenda. Bruce Vincent is a Montana logger who has become an activist for his industry, which has been decimated by what he calls "a collision of visions with the rest of our country"--that is, the vision of those who make their living from the land and those city dwellers who have been "living on 50 years of Bambi." The logger told the producers his version of where rural America is, where it is going, what must be done to turn its fortunes around, and that young people ought to have hope for the future if rural residents work together now. Vincent, whose family has been in the logging business near the Canadian border town of Libby, Mont., since 1904, said he thought his operation had been practicing good stewardship of the land. "Instead, I went to college in Portland, Ore., and it didn't take very long to find out the kids I was going to school with thought I was an axe-murdering Neanderthal," Vincent said. "According to them, I was killing the Cathedral Forest." This clash, Vincent said, is over not only the natural environment, but also the cultural environment of rural places. "I moved back to Montana after college for the same reasons you live where you live," Vincent said. "I love the place I live. I love the clean air, the abundant wildlife, and the vista out my window. We have a deep sense of place. You can probably smell your dirt or your forage. You know the smell of your rotting feed, like I know the smell of my trees. "I believe the last vestige of what built our nation is in our rural communities. Hard-working, hard-playing, community-oriented, family-oriented, church-oriented, school-oriented people still live in Libby, Mont." Beyond those two environments, Vincent said, there is a third environment that is going to determine the future health of rural America. "It's the one we're having the wreck in," Vincent said. "That's the political environment. It's not hard to get our arms around it, but it's hard to explain. That thing is love." Last, best people City dwellers, Vincent said, have been exploding out of cities for two-week vacations to commune with rural and natural places ever since the advent of the interstate highway. "What do you know? They've fallen in love," Vincent said. "They've fallen in love with our part of the country for the same reason we love it. They leave with a desire to protect. They want to save the last, best parts of our nation. "They fight to protect their version of protection on top of us through legislation, regulatory reform, judicial activism and imprinting their vision on top of us, and sadly it has one fatal flaw: There's no provision in the last, best places for the last, best people. They will pay a price for this." That fight led to loggers themselves developing best management practices for logging. It is a system Vincent sees as a parallel to no-till. Still, organizations like The Wilderness Society, Vincent said, jumped at the opportunity to find ways to shut down logging in Montana. Referring to a speech delivered to the loggers by Michael Scott, a nationally known eco-activist, who at the time led the society, Vincent said Scott told the loggers that even though they were responsible for only six-tenths of one percent of Montana's water problems, they were targets for regulation because: "You are visible and you are easy." Vincent told the no-tillers how his family and other families in the area had to fight the introduction of grizzly bears into their area by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Could you imagine the public outcry if they tried this introduction of a predator species in an urban area? Imagine the outcry," Vincent said. "They were going to steamroll our area because it was politically easy to do so. I've learned that to those people we in rural America are disposable." Rural America is just the opposite, he said, not with 300 million voracious consumers demanding the food, fiber and timber rural Americans produce. "If they wish to continue the standard of living they hold dear while protecting the environment, it would be ill-advised to deal out the people who have been providing them and protecting their environment for 300 stinking years," Vincent said. Environmental lawyers and activists, Vincent said, have used lawsuits to drive logging, mining and agricultural interests as "bludgeoning devices" to move these interests to foreign countries, injuring the security of the country by raising the nation's dependence on foreign sources for these materials. Take action It takes activism equal to that of the other side to make things work. He told of how residents finally got together with USFWS to develop a community involvement plan to monitor the bear population. "It meets on the first Friday of every other month in the basement of the Venture Motor Inn in Libby. Habitat managers, wildlife managers and just plain folks sit around the table and talk about raising grizzly bears and raising kids. "I've been on that team for 21 years, and I've learned a lot about grizzly bears and our ecosystem. I've found we can coexist quite nicely if we were left alone since grizzly bears don't eat trees. They eat things that are left behind after the trees are harvested." Vincent told the group that logging was first to be attacked by urban culture, agriculture is next, and those in the room need to take a lead in outliving agriculture's history, legacy, and even its stereotypes. Leading, he said, will regain ground lost in these cultural fights. "People today get their important information from such noted experts as 'Dr.' Meryl Streep (actress), who pretends for a living," Vincent said. "She's in Congress testifying on agricultural issues. What the heck is she doing there?" Vincent also noted activists such as "Dr." Woody Harrelson. "He's a pot-smoking loon being interviewed on redwood forestry. How about 'Dr.' Ted Turner? Just because he once owned a satellite, it doesn't mean he's an expert on what bounces off of it." When these so-called experts, Vincent said, spew their misinformation, disinformation, pseudoscience and half-truths at an unknowing public that believes it, the nation bases public policy on it. "Sadly, public policy in this country has nothing to do with reality," Vincent said. Instead it has to do with the public perception of that reality, and that is where producers--like loggers--need to fight this lack of knowledge with education. "There is a time to fight, but we should pick our battles carefully and have a strategy that does not participate in the conflict industry strategy," Vincent said. He told the no-tillers that there are three truths in this fight: --Democracy works, but it is not a spectator sport; --When people lead, leaders follow; and --The world is run by people who show up. That means producers need to consider running for public office and support producers who do so. "At the very least, make sure you, your family, and friends are registered to vote," Vincent said. "Take time to call them on Election Day to remind them, give them a ride if need be." Show up It means that leaders at all levels need to hear from producers. "That includes zoning boards, county commissions, park boards, water districts--all the way to your state and federal legislators," Vincent said. "Understand and articulate what you want as well as you understand, and articulate what you don't want. "Envision your area in 100 years. Get together with your neighbors to develop a vision document. Articulate how to have your industry and a clean and healthy environment in the place you call home. Illuminate the false choices the other side puts out, and when appropriate, thank those leaders for a job well done." It also means that producers need to take time from their busy lives to show up at planning board meetings and legislative hearings, to write opinions during comment periods on important issues, to join with allies in writing letters to the editor, getting the local Chamber of Commerce involved and showing up at industry gatherings. It can also mean use of old media like television and new media like social networks and blogs. "Finally, it means showing up in the classrooms of your local schools to talk to the kids who are two or three generations away from the farm," Vincent said. To that end, Vincent and others developed Provider Pals, a program designed to build cultural understanding between urban students and the cultures of rural resource providers. The anchor of the program is providerpals.com, a website designed to build bridges between rural and urban youths and natural resource providers. The primary online tool on the site consists of a "city center" linking the worlds of logging, mining, farming, fishing and ranching. It consists of games designed to challenge students to learn more about the jobs and products produced in each "world." Beyond the website, Provider Pals uses program areas where school classrooms adopt a provider, communicating with each other, at first through letters, and finally the providers meet the students. "The providers go to the school by which they are adopted at the end of the school year for a final question and answer session," Vincent said. "They share experience and experiences. They share each other's cultural activities through a 'show-and-tell' and even through a 'share a day' in each other's shoes. Finally, they get their picture taken together; we give them certificates of achievement and are proclaimed a 'Producer Pal.'" Another part of the program is where rural students go to the inner city and vice versa, learning from each other and sharing cultural experiences. "We have a program where inner-city kids come to a natural resources learning center in northwestern Montana," Vincent said. "These are middle-school kids and their adult chaperones, and they get an outdoor experience, many of them for the first time. "They learn they have so much in common. Kids look at the same movies and TV, listen to the same music, and play the same sports. We need to turn this thing of arguing into talking to people if we want to save rural America." The program, funded primarily by a Ford Foundation grant, serves 325 classrooms and 8,000 students nationwide, Vincent said. The website now has 2 million members. For adults, Vincent urges they spend one hour a week on activism. "Make it a part of your business plan to spend that hour a week on improving our relations with urban people. We have got to meet our urban counterparts on a bridge," Vincent said. "We can't use science to argue pseudoscience. We have to use people. We won't be their only source of information, but we will be one of their best sources. "Above all, we need champions for rural America. The best champion is you." To learn more, visit www.providerpals.com. Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117, or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com.
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