How is climate change impacting Lancaster’s farmers? Hear from John Shenk, owner of Shenk’s Berry Farm, who has been farming for 50 years.
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In 2021, John delivered an inspiring speech at PennEnvironment’s citizen climate lobby day. Here is an excerpt from it:
“Our primary crop is strawberries. I started to grow them over 40 years ago. Since that time, the harvest in our area begins on average a week earlier. In some parts of the country, the longer growing season can be a positive outcome. But, the most notable changes are what I understand and experience as the fact that weather events are larger, longer, or more acute, which is making things very challenging.
Life is changing but will go on. In spite of a changing climate, dandelions will keep figuring out how to grow up through a crack in the sidewalk. Tragically, it will again be those who already live on the margins, and already live in troubled spaces on the earth who will suffer the most. The migrations of people to more livable areas will no doubt bring more trauma to those already suffering.
The long lesson of being a farmer is the inescapable recognition that the yield of our labor is much greater than our own inputs. Sun and rain, the amazing communities of life already at work in the good soil of the sacred earth, augment our efforts. In taking time to think, to meditate on these things, it becomes very apparent that we have been entrusted with the gift of being co-laborers, or collaborators – in these life-giving processes.”
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