“I’m one of those guys that said, ‘Piss on this, I’m not farming’,” John Varty recalls with a smile.
Instead, he earned his PhD and became a history professor. His career path marked a definite split from tradition, as for the preceding six generations his family enjoyed a proud farming heritage in Hastings County.
But it was his decision last summer to abandon his Hamilton apartment and position at McMaster University that really ostracized the 41-year-old from his family.
“My mom is mad at me,” Varty said with a laugh on June 15 in downtown Drayton aboard the mobile farmhouse he is pulling across Canada behind a Massey Ferguson 1660 compact tractor.
His goal is to film a documentary that highlights how food is produced as well as the difficulties faced by farmers.
“I wanted it to be less academic and have real meaning to the people I deal with,” Varty said of interviewing farmers aboard his temporary travelling home.
The drastic decision to leave his job – he also taught at McGill University and south of the border at Yale University – was prompted by two major incidents in his life: turning 40 and also a serious bout with blood clots in his lungs that doctors still can’t fully explain.
“I wanted to do something with more meaning,” Varty said, noting he can always return to being a university professor.
He decided to film a farming documentary, but having no experience in the field, he also knew marketing the project would be vital. One night, out of the blue, he came up with the idea of driving a tractor across Canada to interview farmers.
On July 1, 2011 he launched his fact-finding trek at a tractor dealership in Charlottetown, PEI. The dealership provided the tractor and Massey Ferguson, along with Home Hardware and Kal Tire, is sponsoring the journey.
“What Dr. Varty is undertaking is truly a unique project in every sense of the word,” Rajesh Joshi, director of marketing at Massey Ferguson, said in a press release.
“It’s not every day you hear about an individual who wants to hit the road to connect with farmers to better understand who they are, what they do and how they work.”
To date, with the help of fiance and project partner Molly Daley, Varty has talked to hundreds of farmers and amassed over 140 hours of film footage – most of which he found surprising.
“I expected a lot of crusty old farmers,” Varty said. “But I have been blown away … the response has been phenomenal. Guys are saying, ‘Anything that gets done is helpful’.”
Varty’s trek was put on hold last November after reaching Sault Ste. Marie, and re-launched again on June 14 in St. George, with “stop number one” in Mapleton Township last weekend. His visit to Mapleton, which boasts 52,000 hectares of farmland, was prompted by University of Guelph student Melisa Luymes, who is working on her masters degree in rural sociology.
“I rely on people like Melisa to get me to places,” Varty said. “Local people open local doors.”
Luymes, whose family has a farming history of its own, including almost 40 years as part of the Mapleton agricultural community, said her thesis work is very close to what Varty is trying to accomplish, so it made perfect sense for the two to meet – with the added bonus of bringing Varty’s tour to rural Wellington County.
Wim Denhartog, who’s farm is just outside Arthur, was one of the local farmers interviewed by Varty.
Denhartog told the Advertiser he hopes Varty’s work will help highlight agricultural issues that are often “ignored” by city dwellers and provincial and federal politicians. “I wish him well and I hope the message gets through and he accomplished what he wants to,” said Denhartog, the president of the Wellington chapter of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario.
He added he admires Varty’s dedication to the project, which amounts to giving up two years of his life for the cause.
“You have to follow your passion,” Denhartog said. “Quite often we work but we don’t follow our passions.”
Issues and problems relayed to Varty by farmers from across the country include property values, land use regulations, the dissolution of the wheat board, foreign investment in agricultural lands, improper use of prime farmland, land severances and even matters as specific as wind farms and the proposed mega quarry in Melancthon.
Varty said the aging demographic of farmers is symptomatic of the above problems and not something about which he is overly concerned.
Yet he is dedicated to helping to improve the “urban versus rural interface.” He noted people living in urban areas often bemoan farmers for what they see as complaining, and they often point out farmers drive $100,000 tractors or other expensive machinery.
But, Varty said, those individuals fail to realize farmers can take on millions of dollars in debt to operate in an industry rife with difficulties not found in other professions, including something as simple as unfavourable weather. And 65% of Canadian farms earn $150,000 or less annually in gate receipts, Varty added.
“I want some measurable degree of awareness in urban areas of those rural issues,” he said, adding that’s where his cross country tractor tour comes into play.
“I do have a foot in both worlds … I speak both languages,” Varty said, alluding to both his agricultural and academic backgrounds.
He noted only 2% of Canadians base their votes at election time on agricultural issues – and that’s something that needs to change, considering every person in the nation relies on farm products daily.
Part of the education process could start early on in schools and include an agricultural unit in social studies classes, Varty said.
Items like his documentary could also help educate people, he added. Varty hopes to sell the piece to a network like the CBC either as a two hour documentary or as a series with three 60-minute parts.
“I think there’s an appetite for it,” he said.
Varty explained it will take him about three weeks to travel through Ontario before heading west, with the eventual goal of arriving in Victoria, British Columbia by the end of the summer and editing the documentary in the fall.
He said travelling in the tractor and tight farmhouse trailer is very uncomfortable – not to mention the drain on his bank account, as 85% of the funds for his project comes from his own pocket.
His trek his gaining notoriety, but he admits there have been points he was close to quitting.
“But my grandfather would have considered this luxury,” Varty said pointing out the air conditioned tractor and travelling across the country to promote a cause close to his heart.
“I just want to talk to a lot of people. I enjoy it,” he said.
He noted some people have laughed at his idea, while others have called him crazy, but most farmers understand what he’s trying to accomplish.
“This is genuine. It’s not a game and it’s not a joke,” he said. “I care about farming … it’s my family.”
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