By SARA HOTTMAN

H&N Staff Reporter

October 26, 2010

 

    I was in middle and high school during the devastating water shut-off in 2001. I went to Henley, so I sat in class with kids whose parents were most affected by it. I ate lunch with them, played sports with them, went to Friday night football games with them.

 

   But in my teenage oblivion, the situation didn’t register. Now I can’t even remember if my friends and classmates acknowledged it; certainly it was never a topic of conversation.

 

   Only now, nearly a decade later, do I see how shameful that was.

 

   Now I’m learning about the Bucket Brigade, about how the farmers rallied together, about how they scraped by that growing season and chose to face the same risks the next. Now I understand why they were fueled by anger, and why those feelings surface every time they talk about their current water situation.

 

   My newfound enlightenment, however, has made me realize that most people are as oblivious to farmers’ struggles as I was.  

 

   Several sources have told me that 2 percent of the population — America’s farmers — feed the other 98 percent, and the 98 percent won’t pay attention to the plight of the other 2 percent until they get hungry.

 

   Impact on everyone

 

   In the Water Chronicles series, Herald and News reporters have sought to inform city   and suburban readers of their neighbors’ fight to maintain their industry. We’ve tried to show how the losses in agriculture impact everybody in this small community — restaurants, retail, entertainment.

 

   Who knows whether we’ve accomplished that, but if anything, local growers have acquired cheerleaders.

 

   Rooting for the farmers

 

   I find myself rooting for the farmers — the epitome of underdogs, but the kind that doggedly continue on, fighting against weather that’s too wet or too dry, soil that’s too rocky or too sandy, policy that puts their wants third, at best.

 

   Their tenacity is admirable, but I’ve found their sincerity most striking.

 

   When my sources talk about their crops or livestock or why they deserve water, they speak with a passion unblemished by power or greed that taints most corporate drives at success. They don’t want to get rich quick or monopolize their industry, they just want to keep farming their land and raising their livestock.

 

   Their success is a grocery store fully stocked with a wide variety of affordable food for the other 98 percent of the population.

 

   Now that I realize the battles farmers fight for such little reward, I’m ashamed I didn’t pay attention sooner. I can only hope that reporters’ Water Chronicles stories have lifted the veil of oblivion, and instilled in city and suburban readers a sense of sympathy and admiration for the other 2 percent.