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City Living, Rural Life

© Don De Beyer

I have written on a wide variety of topics during my time at Suite101. Throughout that period I have also regularly read newspaper articles and viewed TV spots on "country living". One of the views that I have always felt disappointed with is the person who wants to live in the country, with all the good things that goes with city life.

Where I live in Abbotsford, BC we have a very large and important agricultural community. A yearly agricultural trade show and fair all help to reinforce to the non-farmer that agribusiness is important. Yet, there are a lot of people out there who have little use for farming or farms. They find them smelly, noisy and dirty.

Having grown up on a farm, I have always held a different view. I have lived for some years in the "city" but always with a strong connection to agriculture. To me, the city is the smelly, noisy and dirty place. Not to mention the crime rate seems to be also much higher in the city.

Many cities have separated themselves so much from the country that they no longer appreciate the importance of farming. I have met people who if asked where milk comes from reply "the grocery store". City folk are so used to the modern conveniences they cannot fathom that somewhere, somebody had to raise a cow, milk her and then ship away that milk for further processing. We have sanitized and pasteurized and processed our food into what urbanites want at the detriment of our farmers.

A farmer usually earns pennies compared to what the final product costs in the grocery store. We complain about high food prices, but would never consider milking a cow by hand or worse yet cleaning out their stalls. I doubt many people today could tell the difference between corn, wheat, barley or oats if they saw the kernels. Yet they can find the corn chips, wheat bread or rolled oats on the supermarket shelf with ease.

Yes, farming is smelly, but then again so are we at times. Farming is dirty at times, but you know many city folk garden or landscape. So to me if that dirt is ok, then a field full of it should also be. The equipment and sometimes the animals create noise that can be annoying. But there are more cars on the freeways into most cities than there are farms in Canada. So what is the thinking there?