THE Law Of Agriculture
ADAM BIRK
CAPE GIRARDEAU, MISSOURI
The United States Constitution contains 7 Articles and 27 Amendments. From this, the judiciary has interpreted and defined every word; applying the principles contained within to nearly every circumstance imaginable. Thus the judiciary, with it’s 234 years of rulings and the principle of “stare decisis” (courts must follow precedent) has created much of the law we have today. Of course there is also the legislature who has enacted north of 30,000 statutes since it’s creation in 1789. So far we have only discussed the Federal government. There are an additional 50 constitutions, 50 state versions of a Supreme Court, and 50 legislatures. The number of laws within our great nation is essentially enumerable.
This column is intended to cover agriculture from the perspective of an attorney, a businessman, and a farmer. This is my perspective. Although the title of Esquire, Counselor, Attorney, and Lying Greedy SOB (according to some) are very new titles to me, the title of farmer is the one I’ve held the longest and taken the greatest pride in. Within this column, I intend to discuss the many laws concerning agriculture. That said, with so many man-made laws I thought it best to first ask the question, “What is THE Law of Agriculture?” Much like Newton’s laws of physics, is there a rule by which all agricultural practices obey? Is there a general rule of thumb we can apply in every farming circumstance?
A few options came to mind: “Put the business first,” “Soil first,” “Do it your way,” “Do it like dad did,” “Conservation,” and some may even suggest “Choose any other career.” In asking this question I sought the best farmer advisor I know, my grandpa. His guiding principle, which I believe applies to all of agriculture, has been “Aggressive Patience.” Despite having successful years, success in agriculture has never been achieved in a year. Patience must be had to persevere through the bad times, but patience is just as important in the good times. Patience is required to conserve this land we have been blessed to have dominion over and the opportunity to care for rather than raping the land for all she has and leaving nothing but rocks for the next generation. Without patience during the good times, we find ourselves in a nice pickup but completely over-leveraged and struggling to stay afloat a few short years later. Without patience, tractors get stuck in a field which needed 1 more day to dry out, resulting in 27 extra man hours unnecessarily used getting the tractor unstuck and fixing the resulting damage to the land.
Yet patience should never be an excuse for inaction. Aggressive patience is that of always being ready, maintaining and repairing the equipment well ahead of its expected use. Aggressive patience is storing extra funds for a rainy day account or to be ever ready for the neighboring land that may unexpectedly come available. Aggressive patience is putting in the extra hours of studying on how to improve your business, your soil, and your farming practices when no one else even recognizes there is a problem. Rather than prying open a window and struggling to crawl through just because you saw a crack of light and got excited; aggressive patience is paying attention, being proactive, and waiting calmly for God to open the right doors for you to walk through, upright and confident.
Just as there are several Newton’s laws of physics, there may be more than one Law of Agriculture. This is just one take from an old farmer, explained by a younger one. If you would like to share other answers to this question, feel free to email me. ∆
ADAM BIRK: Birk Law Firm, LC