I love this part. While this might be one of the first columns you read this month, it is the last one that I write. I get to reflect on all the stories in the issue and pull a thread to tie them together. 

But, I also dread this part. We are just about at the finish line for another deadline week and I’m about to head into several hours of doing the layout before a final proofread by the North Huron Publishing team. It has been a long week editing and writing, all while I also took a trip to Ottawa to finish up a project on methane reductions from liquid manure storages. I care about the project a lot so I’ve been putting a significant amount of my time into it.

 

As the snow disappears, it is easier to imagine us back in the fields spreading manure and planting in a few weeks. Sugar bushes are flowing, and syrup producers are doing their best. It is a just the beginning of a stressful season.

“Stress happens when something you care about is at stake,” writes Kelly McGonigal, in the Upside of Stress. The on-demand presentation about stress by Carrie Pollard from this year’s Grey-Bruce Farmers Week is written up on page 32. 

Our bodies are built to deal with high stress situations and to recover from them, says Carrie. But we need to be careful how we think and take care of our bodies. 

“It's not a sign to run away - it's a sign to step forward,” McGonigal writes, and she says it is better in the long run to do work in our lives that is meaningful and important, even if it causes stress. 

I bet Nick Szabo gets stressed. Check him out on page 19. A local-born farmer that is now persevering against a lot of naysayers and doing the impossible. He is using his savvy for liquid manure application to take excess plants and sludge from Florida lakes. Water quality is at stake, and he cares about that.

There’s a story about Bob Rowe on page 34, making Freedom Syrup to honour soldiers who put their lives on the line for what is at stake. Talk about stress!

And these days we’re all a bit stressed, wondering what is going to happen with trade to the U.S. and trying to find Canadian brands to support during this boycott. Our economy is at stake, and we all care about that.

For this month’s issue, we are walking back another 10 years, to the April 2005, starting on page 23. I was so excited to find the One Voice March of March 2, 2005 was the highlight of the magazine. I remember the day well (at least I think I do), living in Toronto and attending York University. I had stayed up all night, stressed, and finished writing a major essay. Then I hopped on the subway to Queen’s Park and emerged into a sea of tractors, farmers and yellow and black signs: Buy Canadian, no more imports, Average farm income below poverty line, Corn prices: 1979—$3.09 a bushel. 2005—$2.62 a bushel. It was a crowd of 8,000 stressed-out farmers, with their businesses at stake. 

It is important to stand up for what matters. Years later, I would get the honour of working with Gordon Hill, one of Ontario’s most loved farm organizers, to help him write up his memoirs: Knocking on Doors.  I was delighted to get to reconnect with the Hills for this story. Gord often spoke about going fishing and spending time at the river. He knew that to keep doing the stressful work of fighting for farmers at Queen’s Park during the week, he needed to consciously schedule time to recover.

Farmers (and all of us who work in agriculture) are doing important work in rural Ontario, and it is stressful by its very nature. All the more reason to take good care of ourselves this spring!  ◊