Had a chat with a farmer at the diner yesterday that shook me up

I was grabbing breakfast yesterday and this older farmer sat next to me. He said he's been watching his soil turn to dust over the last 5 years because of hotter summers and weird rain patterns. He told me his corn yield dropped 30% this year alone, and he's thinking about selling the land. It hit different because he wasn't being dramatic, just stating facts like it's normal now. I've been reading climate reports but hearing it from someone's actual life made me rethink how urgent this really is. Anyone else had a casual talk that made climate change feel way more real?

2 comments

2 Comments

ross.angela1mo ago

Asked him what happens if he sells? Because the thing is, whoever buys that land is just going to face the same problem in a few years, maybe worse. I wonder if he's got any kids who might take over, or if he's just watching a lifetime of work slip away with nobody to pass it to. The quiet way he laid it out makes me think he's already gone through the anger and the bargaining stage and just ended up at a sad kind of acceptance. What did you say back to him when he finished talking?

robin_foster11mo ago

Oh man, I totally disagree with that take. Selling might actually be the smartest move he could make right now. If the land is already struggling and he's got no one to hand it off to, why keep bleeding money and time into something that's just gonna get worse? The next buyer might have fresh ideas or bigger pockets to deal with whatever the issue is, or they might not care about farming it at all and just sit on it as an investment. It's not like he's giving up, it's more like he's being realistic about when to cut his losses instead of drowning in sunk cost fallacy. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is walk away clean.