Here’s the thing: I knew I wanted this column to be about learning, but after sitting here staring for far too long at the screen, blank except for that title and my name — pausing only to fall down a search rabbit hole about the origin of the word “poseur” — I figured I’d better scrap the introduction and get to the point.
Odd as it may seem for a farm journal whose tagline for years was “Written by farmers, for farmers,” I’m not a farmer. I came to Winnipeg with a few years’ writing experience and my own understanding of the life and the language, from growing up on my parents’ farm up around Pathlow in northeastern Saskatchewan, but nevertheless it seemed… a little strange when I first started writing for Grainews back in the mid-1990s, first as a freelancer and then as Andy Sirski’s editorial assistant.
But I was fortunate to be surrounded by people who understood how much I didn’t know about farming, agrifood and agribusiness and took the time and effort to teach me what I needed to know before I could start asking the sorts of questions I was going to need to ask. To those people who are still with us and/or still in this business, if you’re reading this, you have my thanks. And if you’re not reading this, you blew right past this point to finish reading the front-page article and that’s fine by me.
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Anyway: I learned. I learned I still had a lot to learn, and sometimes I’d learn those things in a less than graceful manner rather than from books or a classroom setting.
Just like when as a preschool kid, I learned how easily a cow will startle if someone approaches it from a bad angle, whether on foot or on a tricycle.
Then I learned to level up from tricycle to bicycle and now seriously wonder why more children don’t learn to do the same when there are all these convenient snowdrifts everywhere.
Later I learned it’s a bad idea to adjust the height and angle of a loader bucket while on the road in high gear.
As a driver I learned several inches of loose gravel on a grid road can be as hazardous as ice and should really be approached much more slowly. (A lot of people don’t get to walk away from that sort of learning experience and I’m always grateful that I did.)
Only in radio news did I learn that if pronounced correctly, the word “Calgary” has just two syllables.
And only in farm writing did I have to learn that the terms seeding and planting are not interchangeable.
Just in the past couple of weeks alone I’ve learned Kari Belanger is one of the most organized people I’ve ever met in this business and even if all I do is keep using the templates she’s set up to keep everyone on track, I’ll be better organized than I’ve ever been.
So, no, still not a farmer. But I write about farming for a living, I’ve been doing so for 30 years now, with the good fortune to work with the best people in farm writing, and even now, while staring middle age in the face, I’m more aware than ever that there’s still — and will always be — quite a lot to learn.
And if I can be said to have any agenda for Grainews, it’s that you, the fearless and esteemed reader, learn something new about farming here on the Prairies with every issue. And if you don’t, I rather hope you reach out (best option is by email to [email protected]) and let me know.
Because it’s the only way I’ll learn.
Cheers and thanks,
Dave Bedard
