Deacon Dan Hann is a farmer who has served in ministry at London St. Patrick Church since his ordination in 1997 and as chaplain at the London Correctional Institution since 2018. He also is a diocesan divine worship consultant, a procurator/advocate for the diocesan marriage tribunal and was chaplain at the Madison Correctional Institution from 1991 to 2006. Following are his thoughts on faith and farming:
My brothers, son and I farm about 1,400 acres in southern Madison County. Ours is primarily a grain (corn and soybeans) farm with a small farrowing-to-finish hog operation (raising pigs from birth to market), and we participate in the local farmers’ market on Saturday mornings.
The 2022 crop year has had its ups and downs, and harvest isn’t complete. Spring planting was a challenge; on several days, wet field conditions kept us from planting. The summer started out wet but then turned very dry in August and September when grain is filling out. That is a stage when soil moisture is very important. However, the dry, sunny days of the harvest season have been great, and yields are quite good. The grain market is strong. We are grateful.
Farmers (even the crusty ones) have a sense of their dependency on God. There’s the faith that the seed they plant will sprout, grow and yield grain. There’s the hope that it will yield a hundredfold. There’s the charity that, in the face of storms, fire, sickness or death, neighbors will come together and complete the planting, the harvesting or tend the livestock.
As a homilist in a rural parish, I can count on my people to understand many references that Jesus used. He told parables filled with references to farming – grain fields, planting, harvesting, vineyards, weather and livestock. Rural parishioners can readily identify with these images, whereas urban parishioners might have heard that sheep aren’t the smartest animals on earth, but they really don’t know the truth of that.
Farmers (American farmers in particular) have the capacity to provide food, fiber and so on that is almost limitless. For example, when I was a kid, we thought 50 bushels of corn per acre was good, but now many farmers take 200 bushels of corn per acre for granted. Superior genetics, improving fertilization and tillage practices have proved the doomsayers wrong – we can feed and clothe a growing population. Unequal distribution, with many political underpinnings, is the real cause of hunger.
A problem that needs to be addressed is the preservation of farmland – one of our world’s most valuable resources. Urban expansion frequently takes prime farmland for development, and that land can never be returned to agricultural use.
Urban expansion also means that folks desiring the rural lifestyle will purchase acres in the country and build a home. What they might not foresee is that they are moving into a situation where normal agricultural practices create noise, dust, odors, etc., and that creates tensions between neighbors.