STORY - "Priestley Manna"
By Trish Bogan

John Priestley is a long-time citrus orchardist from the Paterson area. But it is his farming methods, combined with a unique spiritual connection, that make John a rarity in today’s agricultural world. John believes there is a link between what he does with his life, land
and crops and his relationship with God.

John says, “In creation, everything was made properly, and the earth’s surface continued to become richer, until we interfered with it. As a Christian, I feel a basic responsibility, even a privilege, to be able to care for God’s creation.”

John likens his work to that of the early Christian monks who tended the land and helped others to understand and manage their land. “It seems to me that we have lost sight of stewardship of the ecology which has been totally overlooked and replaced with economic rationale." John feels that our modern agriculture has nothing to do with caring for the land, but everything to do with providing monetary gains. He worries for future generations who don’t come into the equation at all.

In his efforts to carry out God’s work, John has adopted ‘slow’ farming for his many hundreds of organically grown orange and mandarin trees. One of the main principles behind ‘slow’ farming is a return to smaller family-diverse units, who take greater care of
the land. John’s aim is to see the ‘slow’ growing of food become more popular; “I hope to re-establish a relationship between small producers and consumers, to see them supplying their products directly to the consumer. This has been wiped out in my lifetime on the land.”

The name ‘slow’ food evolved as the exact opposite to fast food, where we are being fed something that has no regard for health values, is cheap and has a very narrow range. With increased customers at fast food outlets, John also feels we have lost the ability to prepare food, and that very few of our dietary needs are being served. ‘Slow’ food, from which good health evolves, has diversity and variety and the plants are nutritionally supplied in the way that they are designed to be.

Late last year, John was invited to speak at a worldwide meeting of food communities in Turin, Italy. It was a remarkable experience for John, who attended to give one presentation but gave five instead! The conference, Terra Madre, which loosely means Mother Earth, brought together family producers who truly care for their land, and have done so for many generations. They are mindful of
the future of farming and are concerned about being gainfully employed.

The main focus throughout the conference was about freedom for the small family units to be able to exist, not to be pushed out by overproduction, which leads to low prices. John would like to see the small-scale specialty producer of top quality products supplying
directly to the consumer again, keeping quality, flavour and nutrition in the foods, which does not occur in industrialised agriculture.

At Turin, he learnt of a remarkable fact: latest figures show there is a two-fifths surplus in world food production. “The reason there are
hungry people has nothing to do with availability of food, but everything to do with availability of money. Food is actually wasted while people remain hungry.” He would like to overcome the many problems that industrialised agriculture has created, the degradation it has caused worldwide, the displacement of families and people from the land.

Being a farmer creates greater connection to God. “It is a privilege being in the wide open spaces and being able to hone our observational skills to see the wonders of God’s creation.” One of John’s favourite adages is, “If we care for our ecology, our economy
will look after itself.”

John continues to travel Australia and the world in an endeavour to meet other likeminded producers and spread his philosophy on returning to the past to save the future of global agriculture.

Wouldn’t the world have far happier and healthier environment if we could follow John’s dual examples; love of God and of our land?

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