Farm Fields

Most people in this country, certainly me, have no experience whatsoever, save as consumers, with farming. So, there are things that are passed to me in one form or another, that go right over my head.

In this case it is about farm fields. Some of us have seen what is called "subsidence" in the longwall mining industry. Essentially, that means that your land caves in. The effects of that can be devastating. Your stream can suddenly be "dewatered." Your farm can suddenly become useless for that purpose.

But, even having seen what can happen, it just did not occur to me that it could actually cause the opposite. If the subsidence were to occur under a farm field, what happens? One of the things that can happen, is that the field, now lower than the surrounding land, will become a catch basin. All of the rain that should be beneficial, now runs from the higher ground down into the lower land and that land now becomes a pond.

If a farmer's livelihood depends upon that land being usable, what is he to do? Certainly, when he purchased the land it was farmable. But, now as a lake, it has become useless to him. He cannot now support himself and his family. Or, supply food to those who depend upon him.

One of the arguments for longwall mining is that it creates jobs. How then would those mining companies explain the destruction of someone else's job? Are mining jobs more important than jobs that grow the food eaten by not just some, but all? And, if those mining interests decide that mining jobs are indeed more important than farm jobs, how are the farmers to be compensated for the loss of their farms? And, not just as cheaply as they can. But, fairly.

The longwall mining industry spends a lot of time whining and complaining about how unfairly they are treated. But, I have yet to hear the first member of that community, or any of it's supporter's, explain how they are more important than farmers. Or, for that matter, the people who are dependent upon what that farmer produces.