Farm as Sanctuary

The other day I was on the Facebook looking at one of the dairy farmers posts I follow and they were talking about farm sanctuaries – which are purported to be the equalivent to animal rescues and human sanctuaries. Apparently, if a food animal is somehow abused or perceived to be abused then it deserves to live it’s life out on a zoo. It’s the personification of livestock, as if animals had feelings beyond biological instincts. Not that there is much truth to that.

But on the other hand, farms are often sanctuaries. You can’t disconnect the raising of crops and animals from the natural environment that exists, and certainly not the laws and processes that rule nature. They are a place that is inheritantly non-urban, taking up vast expanses of land, converting natural resources into food and fiber. Yet in most cases, they are sustainable and go on from generation to generation, soaking up natural resources, and following natural processes. In that sense they are very much sanctuaries.