I grew up on a small Alberta farm
Now there are few like that around
Most land now owned by corporations or Hutterites
And they don’t care about trees or animal rights
And the oil companies destroy their share
With pump-jacks and pipelines everywhere
I go back to the rolling land, once beautiful
With grassy hills, poplar, fir and birch wood
And find it has been scraped flat and bare
Population a fraction of what once was there
And dying towns along the highways to more
Form a drug pusher’s easy corridor
My family’s land is a
last reserve
For trees, bees, butterflies, and birds
Which have suffered death or long-term harm
From the mono-culture, pesticide-laden farms
Monster machines destroy the life in the soil
Unchecked winds blow away the future and topsoil
The stores import our foods from Mexico
Or overseas… how it’s grown--we don’t know
I grieve for all that has been lost
Despair that so many don’t even know the cost
And those that understand don’t care
To improve food and environmental welfare
It will take a younger generation
Concerned with the health of the nation
Who understand nature’s complex biosystems
To change current practises with wisdom
And turn the travesty of the modern farm
To producing food without doing harm
