Will’s World: Mildly grumpy farmer humbled by Ukraine spirit
© Maxym Marusenko/Alamy Stock Photo I’d had one of those weeks and was feeling grumpy and sorry for myself.
The starter motor went on our car, the boiler was playing up in the house, meaning no heating or hot water during the coldest spell of the year, there were what felt like thousands of emails waiting for me to reply to, my phone was ringing constantly, my back was aching, and I was coughing like a calf with pneumonia.
What’s it going to be next, I miserably asked. Then I got a reminder that all of that was nothing.
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About the author
For my many sins I’m one of the directors of the Oxford Farming Conference, and I love every second of my involvement.
It’s a great feeling to be part of an organisation that at its very core brings people together to try to find positive solutions to the problems we all face, and I believe that it’s a genuine force for good in the industry.
I like to think that we help a lot of people through what we do, and I’m quite proud of that.
Ukraine voices
A few weeks back we held our free online fringe event, and opened with a session from Ukraine, with three different speakers including their deputy minister for agrarian policy and food, Markian Dmytrasevych.
What incredibly powerful and moving presentations they all gave on the current situation in their country.
For those of us who aren’t directly involved and are busy getting on with our lives and dealing with our own everyday problems, it’s easy to put what’s happening there out of our minds.
Perhaps inevitably, the novelty wears off and stories that had dominated the headlines are relegated to the inside pages and the back end of news bulletins, if they’re there at all.
There’s also the fact that the news tends to be so hideously awful these days, that sometimes it’s simpler not to look and listen, and that’s understandable in some ways, not least for mental health reasons.
Yet to do so seems a dreadful betrayal of a population showing such courage in the face of unimaginable aggression and horror.
The speakers talked of the Russians carrying out worse acts of violence than the Nazis during the Second World War. Think about that for a minute, and how that’s possible in 2022.
They talked of supply chain chaos, and how the regular and sustained power outages were causing huge problems with food supplies, and especially with frozen items in supermarkets and stores.
They talked of people not being able to get cash out of banks to buy the supplies they need, as the ATMs had no power during the blackouts.
They talked of plummeting winter temperatures and their desperate need for more diesel generators.
They talked of hospitals, schools, houses, bridges, roads, and power networks all being systematically destroyed.
They talked of tens of thousands of human casualties, including many children.
Fighting talk
Despite all that, they displayed a relentless determination and optimism. They talked of farmers volunteering to fight in the army, making military products and supplies, and taking in refugees from occupied territories.
They described an entire industry battling to harvest crops and get the next ones in the ground in unimaginably difficult circumstances, often while facing very real and immediate danger.
They repeatedly talked of their belief that they will not only endure, but that they will win.
If the abiding images of this year have been Ukrainian tractors towing away Russian tanks, then I fervently hope that next year’s are ones of peace and normality returning to this remarkably brave and resilient country.
Slava Ukraine!