The Future of Farming

This is a watercolor I completed today. I titled it "The Future of Farming" and I'm thinking about doing a series related to this topic.

Last fall, I was invited to visit Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport, Vermont where there are over 2000 head of dairy cows. The other thing this farm produces besides milk is "cow power" for Central Vermont Public Service.

It was a crisp late October fall day when we got the tour around the facility which was anything but your typical "red barn hillside farm" in Vermont. A tractor trailer 'rig' is more likely to be seen here than a simple tractor. The tires are used for silage: a far cry from the silos of my youth. So a pile of tires often appears on the farm landscape these days, waiting to put to good use for tamping down fodder.

I was struck by the young boy, wandering around, looking at pebbles, dwarfed by this vast landscape. The Adirondacks of New York State hung in the distance under steely, cold clouds. Farming has become big business and this farm is doing its best to stay alive under tremendous economic pressure. Thanks to the CVPS Cow Power program, through collecting manure and turning it into electricity to sell back to the power company, five families, all related can make a go of this giant farm.

Small hill farms could hardly be expected to make an investment in the infrastructure it takes to produce bovine powered electricity, but those few who do benefit greatly from the added income. And the customers who buy Cow Power get the good feeling that their renewable energy is coming from a clean source that allows Vermont farms to continue and flourish.

I wonder if harvesting energy is as satisfying to the farms as harvesting food? Our world has become so dependent on energy, we seem to value it above food. To me, this is worth observing. I love juxtaposing the bright intensity of the colors against a reasonably somber story. What is the "future of farming?"