Dust in the Wind

I don't know how many of you will recognize this song by Kansas, but it has been stuck in my head for the past week. The scary thing is that the more I think about the song the more emblematic it becomes of my stay in Iowa. Feel free to look up the music video on YouTube, but I provide the lyrics below:

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone

All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity

Dust in the wind

All they are is dust in the wind

Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea

All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind 

Oh, ho, ho

Now, don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky

It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind 

All we are is dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

Dust in the wind

Everything is dust in the wind

Everything is dust in the wind

The wind

Besides the blistering winds in Iowa, this song reminds me a great deal of the farmers and corporations that I mentioned in a previous post. The farmers that we have met have a dream--be it small or grand, but they have a dream nonetheless. Many just dream of being able to sustain their family; others wish to affect society by “feeding the world.”  Many of the farmers though are so obsessed with getting the biggest yields and getting bigger, better, faster that they refuse to see how it is affecting the soil. The soil is a living thing, and their soil is dead from all the tilling, pesticides, and insecticides. All the soil is just dust in the wind, blowing away due to its lack of moisture and body.

I feel like a lot of the farmers forget their soil has become dust for a reason, because of the way they are treating it. They just put fertilizer on it hoping that a small band aid will fix the problem. Again, “ all we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see."  Another main problem with this is that the farmers are not thinking long term. I believe most aren’t thinking of how their soil will be 10, 20, 50 years from now when they are dead and gone. The fertilizer is just a temporary fix.  To have sustainable soil you have to nurture it and keep it alive. Fifty years from now when we are just dust in the wind, the earth will still be here and will be in whatever condition it was before they put fertilizer on the dust. Their livelihood will be blown away. It’s a rather dismal prospect, but it can be changed.

I don’t mean to be harping on farmers, but we have to remember that when we are all dead and gone, the earth will still be here and our children or relatives will have to deal with the consequences.