We like to draw straight lines. It’s nothing to apologize about. We all like to look around us at how things stand, then we latch onto what we see as the big trend lines and draw them out into the future, thinking that’s how to predict the world of 2030 or even 2050.
It’s nothing new. I’m sure we’ve been doing it for centuries although you would think we would know by now that it doesn’t work.
The future is unpredictable. Or, let’s say it more accurately, the future is unpredictably predictable, which is an idea you and I could spend a pleasant long evening discussing.
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Except, there has been work to do on my end. Or, more fairly, there has been work to do for associate editor April Stewart, who led the project to report on the nature of change in today’s agriculture.
April wouldn’t be satisfied with generalities. Instead, she wanted to go to what used to get called the coal face. She wanted us to talk to the experts and advisors, and most of all she wanted to get our team onto farms that excel at change.
I hovered not far away, trying to look otherwise preoccupied but not fooling anyone because I was so anxious to start reading.
I wanted to know, what does it take to be great at change? Does it take the highest IQ? The biggest bankroll? The most liberated imagination?
I hope you’ll keep such questions in mind as you read through April’s issue. But here is what I’m tempted to think.
Yes, intellect, imagination and financial freedom are all essential.
But I also want to think back once again to what I consider one of the most impactful interviews we’ve published in all my years here.
Writer Anne Lazurko talked to Henry Mintzberg way back in 2012 at a time when the McGill prof was arguably Canada’s top business thinker.
“The fact is, we’re living in a time when it seems nothing but business matters,” Mintzberg said. “Art, health care, everything is made into a business. I think that’s a mistake.
“Seeing farming as only a business is probably a mistake too,” he said. “People keep saying it’s a business, but it’s a calling.”
Every time I think of it, I say, “Bull’s-eye!” And see if you don’t say it too after reading the March issue of Country Guide. There are stories here of an extraordinary array of farmers, but when you look at what they say about change, you could put their words in each others’ mouths.
That isn’t because what they say is simplistic. It’s because they speak from a shared sense of mission. Being a farmer isn’t their job, it’s what they are.
I had been going to fill this column with quotes from these farmers, but I’ll leave the joy of discovering them to you. You can see who said “Successful people go all in to make it work,” and who said “you have to put yourself out there… don’t be afraid.” And I’ll leave it to you to see why those learnings were so powerful to these farmers.
Are we — and they — getting it right? I’d love to know, and so would April. Reach me at
[email protected].
