Opinion: The quiet people
As another harvest season in Orkney comes around with all of the difficulties that the change in our climate has wrought, I am reminded of how the problems we face are so repetitive. Of course we have solved some, but the one that we can never solve is the short-lived nature of man.
In some ways this is a good thing as the young bring energy, innovation and vitality to an industry and it is essential in farming because of the physical and seasonality of the industry. Not many people my age can cope with long physical days with little sleep and big adrenalin rushes, so we need them for that alone if not for the other benefits they bring.
Now you will be expecting me to bemoan the loss of the old and so I will not disappoint. Over the last five decades or so we have lost our sense of valuing the old. I remember Ken who worked for us at Loch Duart, sadly now passed on to better things, who worked with us long into his seventies and resisted every suggestion that he should retire. He was not the world’s fastest worker at that age but he was extremely conscientious and his knowledge of the waters of the area was based on many years’ experience. I remember a discussion about one of our sites and whether the swell was biggest through the west or east entrances. Someone suggested asking Ken and of course he knew well what we did not.
In my early days at Wester Ross, I worked with Murdo who was an ex-whaler, full of stories about the whaling ships. I am sure that there will be an intake of breath and people imagining a man with horns and a tail but he was a perfectly nice, funny West Coaster with a wicked sense of humour. He refused to teach me how to mend nets (though I already had a smattering of knowledge) as he said I would take his job. After a while he softened his stance when he saw how badly I did it, and it is entirely down to him that I learned most of my rope skills.
He was a very rough sort of man in some ways and spoke his mind, which often got him into trouble. Many of the university-educated people found him obnoxious but they spoke a language he didn’t understand, and didn’t want to.
No theory can hold a candle to practice
This is so true of many aspects of farming now. The people who have worked on farms since they were children do not receive the same respect as those who have been to university. Theory has its value, but no theory can carry a candle to practice, grounded over many years. I am not trying to suggest that older people are always right, but voices need to be heard and listened to. It is totally true that the old do not like change and are less likely to support the eradication of the practices they knew. However it is also true that the young often like change because it is an act of rebellion against what they see as the status quo.
I suppose that part of what irks me about valuing theory, not practice, is that this ignores all that we are taught by those who do not get the accolade of a degree yet carry the bulk of the burden. The other part is that learning through practice involves learning by making mistakes, and acknowledging them. This necessary accountability is the best teacher of all. Too often I meet people in aquaculture who have never made a mistake – or so they would have it. My view is simple: if you haven’t made a mistake, then you haven’t done anything.
One or two people will think that this piece is about me and that I feel that I am not being listened to enough. Please let me disabuse you of that. I have far too loud a voice both in writing and reality and I can hardly say that I have been ignored in any way.
This piece is about all of those people for whom I have the greatest respect, who taught me so much and made my younger life interesting and so much more productive. Just occasionally, it is nice to write about those who helped me, who made this industry and whose work will never be rewarded with a gong or certificate. This is for the people who have grown old in an industry, giving the best years of their lives, and who are then discarded and forgotten.
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