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Story · 2010 · Emre Bilen

A Generation Searching for What Was Lost

Written in Turkish in 2010 and awarded second place in the essay competition of the “Acting Organic By Thinking Organic” (Organik Düşün Organik Yaşa) project organised by the Association of Ecological Agriculture Organization (ETO). This English version is a translation made with artificial intelligence; the original is in Turkish. Read the Turkish original →

Beep beep beep…

Seven o’clock... I have to get up and go to school. Normally it takes me at least ten minutes to get out of bed, but today is different, because there are no classes today: we are going to visit my grandfather’s farm. I get ready quickly, eat a fast breakfast and leave the house with my mom. After a ten-minute ride we arrive at Yeni İzmir Primary School. By the time we get there, most of class 6-B is already on the bus, waiting for it to leave. I kiss my mom and say goodbye, then run toward the bus. Seda has saved me a seat next to her, and of course it’s the window seat again! I honestly can’t understand why she doesn’t want the window seat, but I don’t really mind, it suits me fine.

It will take us about 45 minutes to reach my grandfather’s farm. I normally love sleeping on the bus, but my friends don’t look like they will allow it today. Everyone is full of energy, nobody has any intention of sleeping, and the bus is a mess of shouting and noise. Oh well, it has been a while since I last visited the farm, so it will be nice to look out of the window, unless Seda’s account of her weekend takes less than 45 minutes, of course. It wouldn’t be a problem if she let me look outside while I listen to her, but if I don’t look at her face she will have plenty to say about it. Where does she find so much to talk about? Sometimes it amazes me.

We pass the hill that overlooks old İzmir. There is a very light mist in the air, so the colors look softer and more harmonious. The view of old İzmir in the morning sun is beautiful and melancholy: the dark colors of old, abandoned buildings entwined with the blue waters of the bay, and, competing with them for beauty, the blue of the sky and mischievous white clouds drifting about...

Whenever I see old İzmir, I think of photographs from the old days and of what our teacher told us in the environment and climate class. How did she put it? I think it began like this:

“Because of the harm we carelessly did to nature, the world’s climate began to change. At the beginning of the 21st century people began to increase their research on this subject and deepen their knowledge, but knowledge alone was not enough to make people take a positive step. At first nobody paid attention to the pieces breaking off the Antarctic glaciers; it was expected to happen anyway. Then the seas began to rise. “What difference could a centimeter or two make?” But the waters kept rising. Like many other coastal cities, İzmir first lost its seafront neighborhoods to the water. When the water covered the area around the clock tower in Konak Square, people at first even liked the sight. Judging by the photographs taken in the evening sun, it was truly impressive. But then, because of the rising waters, hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes and move to higher ground. Our family was one of the lucky ones who could do this. Some of those who could not settle on higher ground in old İzmir moved in with relatives in the interior. Others had to live in tents for a long time. That was the easy part. The real difficulty had only just begun:

“Thirst, hunger, epidemics…”

I suppose this subject doesn’t interest my classmates as much as it interests me. None of them is busy watching old İzmir; they have started to have fun on the bus with the music playing on the radio, and they seem to want me to join them. I, on the other hand, keep watching the sunken city with enchanted eyes. Thousands of people used to live here. There were houses, workplaces, schools... Now they are nothing but memories left in photographs, forgotten and gone...

I’d better get up and play a little too. To be honest, I think I’m the best dancer in the class. But let’s give credit where it’s due: Seda dances well too.

Heeey! We have already reached the farm... We have been on our feet for a while; Metin is the only one still sitting on the bus. Even our teacher, Ms. Ayla, joined us in dancing for a bit. He is a slightly strange kid, this Metin, but he is a good one.

At the entrance of the farm we pass through a wooded area of towering trees, then reach the production fields and my grandfather’s house. Passing through this forest I always feel as if I am going through a secret door, as if I am leaving all the evil outside and entering another world... This feeling probably comes from the ancient trees and from the words my grandfather uses when he talks about his farm: “Heaven and earth are together here, far from the world of insensitive people.” He was quoting a poem, but what was that poem, anyway? Never mind, he will probably say it today, and then I’ll ask.

Here we are at my grandfather’s house. The place he lives in is very plain and small. I used to wonder why someone with such a huge piece of land built such a simple house. One day I asked him. He said, “I don’t need a bigger house, so why should I build one? To build a bigger house you need more iron, more timber and more cement.”

“The world can still provide enough resources for all of us, but if some people use more than they need, there is less left for the others, or maybe none at all. So never take more than you need, and think of other people too,” my grandfather had said.

At that moment I hadn’t understood what he meant, but a few days later, when I was late for lunch at school, his words came back to me. That day they were serving green beans, and although I love that dish, I couldn’t eat any. The friends who came before me had piled too many beans on their plates and finished the whole pot. Worse, some friends found their portions too big, couldn’t finish their green beans, and threw them away.

The bus driver is honking the horn. A few minutes later my grandfather comes out of the house with quick steps... Although he is in his seventies, you could never tell from his appearance. He greets us with a smile. He has his plan ready; or rather, he is going to give the tour he gives everyone who comes to the farm for the first time, but so as not to spoil the fun I don’t tell my friends anything about what we will be doing. Our teacher, Ms. Ayla, says that we can use the bus if the places we are going to are far away. My grandfather, of course, says as always that “walking would be much better.” He comes over to me and asks, “How’s it going, my boy? Ready for a new tour?” I enjoy every visit here, and today especially, since we came here instead of having class, what more could one ask for, I think to myself, but I just say “I’m ready, Grandpa” and start walking after him. The first stop on our tour is the solar panels and the wind turbine that supply the farm’s energy.

The turbine and solar panels on my grandfather’s farm are among the most advanced models. Besides meeting all of the farm’s energy needs, they also meet the needs of the nearby village. According to my grandfather, if people at the beginning of the 21st century had stopped meeting their energy needs from fossil fuels and turned to environmentally friendly, renewable sources such as sun and wind, global warming would most likely not have reached this level, cities and villages would not have had to be evacuated because of the rising waters, and, of course, millions of lives would not have been ruined! My grandfather says people chose fossil fuels simply because they were cheaper. Yet even with the technology of that time, it would have been possible to build wind turbines and solar panels... So the evacuation of hundreds of cities and villages, people dying of epidemics, the extinction of birds, reptiles, mammals, plants and insects: all of it happened to us because of people chasing petty calculations. Sometimes I wish we had invented the time machine, or at least that we could send an e-mail to the past. If the people of that time could see the present state of the world, perhaps they would make better decisions. And then I would also have the chance to see an elephant and touch it.

Leaving the solar panels and the wind turbine behind, we head for the production fields. On the way, my grandfather begins passing on to my classmates the little tips he often reminds us of.

Since it is spring, the production fields are bursting with life... In the calm of the light and dark greens of the plants blending into the blue of the sky; flowers in red, orange and yellow; and on top of that add the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects... Here you have the exuberance and chaos of spring! You feel like running, hopping, singing at the top of your voice, rolling on the grass; and at the same time like lazing about in the shade of a gently swaying tree, watching the sky, the leaves swaying in the wind, and the birds that have surrendered themselves to the arms of the wind. The worst part is that you want to do all of these at once.

My grandfather begins giving information about production. He practices organic farming, a production method whose foundations were laid in the 1930s. Its development was considerably accelerated thanks to the regulations and laws prepared in the 1990s. According to what I found on the internet, at the beginning of the 21st century certified organic agriculture accounted for more than 1% of total agricultural land and 1–2% of food sales. Compared with today’s production and sales figures this is not very high, but it is certain that, given the conditions of those years, a steady increase was achieved in a short time...

My grandfather says that the four basic principles of this production method are a philosophy that can be applied to life in general, not just an approach to agriculture, and he lists the principles as follows:

Principle of Health: The health of individuals and communities cannot be separated from the health of ecosystems. Healthy soils, water, air and animals create the conditions that support human health and yield products. This does not mean merely being free of disease; it means protecting physical, mental, social and ecological well-being.

Principle of Ecology: Ecological agriculture aims to ensure that living things live and develop in harmony with ecological systems (soil, water, air and the other living things in the environment). Production is expected to be based on ecological processes and recycling.

Principle of Fairness: Fairness is achieved through equality, respect and the just stewardship of the world we share, both among people and in their relations with other living beings.

Principle of Care: Ecological agriculture is a living, dynamic system that responds to internal and external demands and conditions. Efficiency and productivity can be increased in ecological agriculture, but health and well-being must not be put at risk in doing so. Therefore new technologies must be examined very carefully, and existing methods reviewed, before they are used.

My grandfather then starts giving more detailed information about production. In his production fields, trees, vegetables and even farm animals are raised in the same areas. For instance, it is not at all surprising to see vegetables under fruit trees. In these parcels, vegetables, plants used as green manure and forage crops for grazing animals are sown at certain intervals. Farm animals are released into the parcels with pasture areas, where they feed and drop their manure. This manure then becomes food for the trees and the plants that follow. In this way the trees provide a sheltered, shaded home for the animals; less labor is needed to feed the animals; and there is no trouble of cleaning up their manure. At certain intervals, plants known as green manure are also sown in the area, and these plants are mixed directly into the soil. In this way the soil becomes rich in nutrients. Thanks to this rotation system the soil is healthier and more fertile, and the labor spent on many agricultural practices such as fertilizing is also reduced.

It is nearly noon and we are all getting hungry. My grandfather seems to realize this and heads toward the buildings used as a guesthouse or hotel. In one of these buildings, various products grown in the garden are sold; another building serves as a dining hall and a place to spend time together. The other buildings are simply bedrooms with their own bathrooms and toilets. We pass through the farm’s “perennial gardens” (permaculture), but my grandfather doesn’t mention them at all. He can’t have forgotten. It has never happened that my grandfather forgot something about his garden. He probably chooses to stay silent so as not to confuse my friends, on their first visit, with another system that resembles organic farming.

“Perennial gardens” are basically similar to organic farming, but in them the production areas are arranged permanently, taking ecological relationships into account, and after that the area is not interfered with, apart from very small changes and repairs. Unlike organic farming, many more plant and animal species live together in perennial gardens. While my grandfather raises two or three different plants and animals together in the parcels where he produces organically, in the perennial gardens this number rises to seven or eight: tall trees, dwarf trees, shrubs (blackberry), vegetables, root crops (carrot), creeping plants (strawberry), climbing plants (grape) and various animals such as chickens. But it is quite hard to draw a clear line between these two production systems.

So, is it because this system, which reduces costs with proper planning, does not give sufficient yield that people don’t prefer it? According to my grandfather, production systems like organic farming, although they sometimes give relatively lower yields depending on conditions, are generally economically profitable. I suppose people keep using conventional production methods because researching and learning new things feels hard to them.

At last we reach the dining hall. Even before we enter, we can smell delicious aromas. The food is wonderful, as always. It seems to me that the food I eat on my grandfather’s farm somehow tastes better, more delicious. This comes from everything being fresh and of high quality, and I suppose partly from my grandfather making us tired so that we get hungry. He is a clever man, my grandfather.

The woman who prepares the meals comes to our table and asks whether we liked what we ate. We all say in one voice that we loved it. As the conversation goes on, we learn that she is from the village near the farm. When my grandfather needs labor he usually calls people from the nearby village; this is a good job opportunity for the villagers and an easily accessible option for my grandfather. When she learns that I am his grandchild, she starts talking about my grandfather. She says what a good person he is and that he supports some of the village students so that they can study. She says my grandfather organizes trainings on farming and various subjects at the farm at certain intervals. One thing she said pleased me a lot: my grandfather calls villagers who are not well off even in periods when no work is needed, and in return for their work in the field they can get the provisions they need from my grandfather’s farm... After chatting with her a little longer, she goes back to the kitchen. We leave the dining hall too.

And now comes the most enjoyable part! We can go swimming at last... When my friends see the pool they hesitate at first, because it looks more like a lake than a pool. Someone can’t help asking, “Is this place healthy?” My grandfather answers:

— It is much healthier and cleaner than the pools you know!

It is a pool designed with an approach called “biotope.” It actually imitates the ecological relationships in a lake... It contains fish, plants and all the other creatures that could live in a lake. In this way the lake cleans itself, without the need for chemicals or human interventions such as water circulation.

My friends hesitate a little at first, but after a while, here we all are in the pool. Once you get used to it, it really looks beautiful; all around there are plants in different shades of green, with flowers in all kinds of colors. Here one truly feels like part of nature. By the way, where is Seda? Last time we went to the pool together she pushed my head under the water and I almost drowned. But now it’s time for revenge!

Hmm, her back is turned to me and she is talking to someone.

Hey-hey! Splaaash!

It’s almost time to leave. We are quite tired but we had a lot of fun. All of us, reluctantly, get out of the pool and go to change.

As I walk toward the bus with my grandfather, I think about how smart he is. All the systems used on the farm are designed in such a way that very few resources need to be brought in from outside. Moreover, thanks to the system on the farm, people live in a healthy environment with very little human intervention, and much less energy is used compared with other agricultural systems.

After putting us all on the bus, my grandfather gives a short farewell speech:

— Environmental problems are multifaceted; therefore the solutions we produce must be multifaceted too. But a solution that does not rest on love and respect for nature is valid only for a while. If the environment is to be saved, it will be saved through the efforts of ecologists, farmers, chemists, lawyers and philosophers, together with the efforts of poets, painters and composers who instill the love of nature in hearts.

My grandfather knows that we don’t understand what he says, but he goes on:

— Our generation is a generation that has lost many things because of mistakes made. We need to act and take the right steps before we lose more. To do that, we need to fully understand that finding solutions to the problems is the duty of all of us.

After saying this, with a huge smile on his face, he comes over to me. “Goodbye, my boy. Take good care of your mom and dad, and next time you come, bring them with you,” he says. As my grandfather gets off the bus and waves at us, our bus is busy maneuvering...

We leave the farm through the towering trees, and here we are again, in my grandfather’s words, in the world of insensitive people. On the way back to the city there is a different scene on the bus. Everyone is quiet. Part of the quiet comes from tiredness, and part from the prospect of returning to the city’s concrete buildings, its noise and its stifling air. Perhaps there is also the weight of what we learned today. My grandfather’s last words ring in my ears:

THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS IS THE DUTY OF ALL OF US!

02.07.2010
Emre Bilen