Faith at the barnyard: the role of stewardship on the farm

Stewardship on the farm

In this blog, I explore — drawing on my doctoral research into Faith at the barnyard within the PThU research project Soil — how Christian farmers use the concept of stewardship. Here I focus in particular on the theme of “care for the soil.” This care is one of the ways in which farmers give meaning to stewardship. My reflections are based on interviews with Christian farmers about the role of faith in their lives and work. For privacy reasons, the names of farmers in this blog are pseudonyms (though known to the editor).

Most farmers use stewardship to describe their relationship with the land. But stewardship does not play a meaningful role for all Christian farmers. One of them considers stewardship unbiblical, because the word itself does not appear in the Bible. He also feels the concept has lost meaning, since it can be used in so many different ways and does not necessarily reflect farming within God-given boundaries. At the same time, farmers do identify recurring values in how they interpret stewardship: the awareness that the land belongs to God, care for the soil, food production, a sense of responsibility, and an acknowledgement of dependence on God.

Care

Nearly all the farmers spoke about caring for the soil and for the animals. This care becomes visible in practices such as manuring the land and planting cover crops. “If the soil life is thriving, then high production will be the reward of that soil life,” says Polderoverpeinzer. This shows that care is also directed toward production.

Farmers, however, have differing ideas of what such care entails. For Wouter, it includes using pesticides to control, for example, dock plants that negatively affect grass production. Piet, on the other hand, sees pesticides differently: “That’s also an insight you eventually gain about dung beetles, worms, and other insects: they don’t like chemicals. They have no place on my land if I use modern methods. Once you realize that, you connect care for creation with your farm.”

Yet for Piet this also brings tension: between the financial viability of his farm and his care ideals. He feeds nutrient rich feed to his cows to ensure they produce enough milk. Without sufficient milk, financial consequences follow. While Piet would like to reach 100% grass-fed, he believes the cows’ health is better served with some nutrient rich feed. He regrets not being able to fully close the nutrient cycle on his farm. This illustrates the tension between ideals and everyday reality.

Fellow creatures

Faith on the farmyard also shows in the way farmers talk about animals and plants. Several mention interdependence. Jaap gives a striking example: he explains how alder leaves absorb selenium from the soil, which can then nourish cows with selenium deficiency: “We’re working with agroforestry… The alder grows very well on peat soil — it’s really a peat-soil tree. And many cows on peat soil have selenium deficiency. Well, it turns out that alder leaves are full of selenium. Those are the kinds of things that make you say: look how beautifully God has made this!”

Piet calls other living beings fellow creatures and describes their mutual relationships: “If you look at how creation is put together, really — if you want to breathe life into the ground, literally, then you need large herbivores: cows or sheep, but also deer, reindeer, bison, you name it. What those animals carry in their rumen is very similar to what’s in the soil. Where fresh manure falls, you feed the soil life, you stimulate it. Slurry does not do this, because all the microorganisms are dead by then. But rough manure does.”

Reciprocity

Stewardship often emphasizes the farmer as actor. Yet many farmers believe in reciprocal care when they speak about soil. They refer to the idea that if the farmer cares for the land, the land in turn cares for the farmer. Cornelis explains: “You can’t just ‘take’ from the land. That’s exploitation. You have to take good care of your land.” For Cornelis, this means manuring the land properly. But his care also serves another “party”: he wants to pass on fertile land to the next generation, which requires good stewardship today.

For whom do you care?

Stewardship is good care, and good care requires choices. That may sound obvious, but when a farmer cares for one species, it can negatively affect another. On Jaap’s farm, for example, trees provide shade for cows in the pastures. But those same trees can endanger meadow birds: if too close to nesting areas, they give predators easy access to eggs and chicks. Care therefore always involves weighing up who or what is given priority. A farmer who wants to be a steward cannot do right by everything and everyone. Their choices reveal their view of the created order.

Tensions

The decisions farmers make show that faith inspires agricultural practice, but also creates tensions. Henk, for example, views care as an essential aspect of stewardship. He uses solid manure and sows herb-rich grassland, believing it benefits cows and biodiversity. For him, land is a gift from God: “Yes, we are stewards. You’re allowed to care for the land during your lifetime — because you’ve received it from God. It’s not about thinking, ‘Look what I’ve achieved by myself,’ but about being conscious that God has entrusted it to you for a time, to manage well.”

Henk prefers grass-fed beef and is critical of feeding maize. Yet he does feed maize to his cows because he lacks sufficient land for 100% grass-fed, and because maize helps speed up the fattening process for better marbling in the meat. His story shows how what farmers wish to do — inspired, among other things, by faith — is not always possible due to practical constraints, such as the size of their farm. 

Stewardship

For many farmers with a Christian background, stewardship clearly plays a role and is visible in their lives and work. Yet its meaning varies greatly. Farmers hold different ideas about what it means to care for the land. This shows the importance of clarifying what we mean when we talk about stewardship. It also calls for a critical approach: stewardship can be linked to practices that harm the soil, and it does not play a role for every farmer. Ideas about stewardship are not isolated; they are shaped within the agricultural context of the Netherlands.

Some farmers speak of interdependence with other creatures, others emphasize the economic side of care. Their reflections on for whom they care reveal their vision of the created order.