When writers are discussing a book they have written they are usually asked what it is “about”.
Sometimes, the answer is perfectly obvious: the title of a book by a famous gardener “My 50 Favourite Roses” makes clear that included there will be fifty roses, an explanation of the author’s opinion, or reason for choosing them, and almost certainly an image of each.
Well and good. Perfect Christmas gift for a rose fanatic.
What, then, would a possible reader make of BCG’s recent publication: Birchip Cropping Group the First Thirty Years?
You wouldn’t have to be Einstein to accurately predict the contents. As a local, you may even hiding a yawn—expect a chronology of the most important events in the progress of the group from 1992 to 2022; you possibly may feel a little jaded with a roll call of the old familiar faces: chairpersons, managers, CEOs, field staff, mouldy old agricultural scientists with letters after their names, not to mention politicians without.
You would also certainly expect reflection on past seasons, memories of events and seminars, and a nod to inventions and ‘startling’ agricultural innovations.
And you would be right. The book is divided into two parts: the first, BCG: Thirty years on: a chronology and the second, Strange and Unusual: innovations and initiatives. There are lots of photos, many of people you know looking somewhat younger, lots of field days and expos, climate and weather events, visits from Prime Ministers, State Premiers, and an array of agricultural and rural affairs minsters.
Serious agricultural concerns such as climate change, GMOs, the use of herbicides and fungicides, and various and at times devastating plagues are addressed in detail.
You may not predict the number of awards won by BCG leaders and staff: sixteen and presumably still counting.
The book certainly covers those things that you expected and possibly more. Well enough.
But what is BCG The First Thirty Years really “about”?
The subtitle – Choice not chance determines destiny – might alert potential readers to the possibility that the book is not simply a recounting, as might the words on the back cover: A tribute to thirty years of the Birchip Cropping Group: its achievements, perseverance, productivity and humanity.
Being determined not to submit to that which might seem to be inevitable is encapsulated in the words of the subtitle. Faced with a dearth of agricultural support services, a group of farmers’ insistence on helping themselves lay at the base of the creation of BCG.
Its subsequent roller-coaster ride to its current position as one of the most prominent farmer-led groups in the world is an object lesson for any group of people who know themselves to be denied what others take for granted. Nothing is gained by standing still.
And what of the words on the back?
Achievement, perseverance, productivity and humanity. Those words were carefully chosen by Anne McClelland as she came to the end of the research and writing period, not so long before publication.
Achievement, measurable in many ways, seemed obvious.
Also perseverance. There was no doubt of that second quality, especially during the nightmare years of the Millennial Drought. Perversely, these difficult times were those in which BCG took its longest steps, venturing beyond the predictable. The practical difficulties associated with trying to grow a crop, to make a living, keep the family going, were not the only things addressed.
Farming families’ emotional and inner lives were taken into account. They weren’t told just to grin and bear it, or to keep their chins up or even get a grip of themselves. BCG events became more than meetings of farmers talking about farming: they were social gatherings which provided support and solace. Critical Breaking Point? was a direct, practical attempt to discover how people felt, how they were coping, the ways in which they were dealing with financial and emotional pressure. Their humanity was recognised and celebrated.
As the bad years kept coming, BCG grew, helping farmers to become ever more in control of their own destinies and more productive.
A measure of and contributor to productivity for any self-help group in today’s world is its preparedness to adopt and adapt the technology at hand. BCG certainly was and is an exemplar of this.
In the introduction, the author suggests, “The book… [in including very early images as well as recent, state-of-the art ones] can be perceived as a kind of metaphor for the degree to which communications and farming techniques have developed. From black-and-white to colour, from fuzzy-edged to super clear, these images tell their own and the Birchip Cropping Group’s history in pictorial form.” As technology transformed itself over those thirty years, BCG was transformed with it.
A further quality which could have been chosen in the attempt to summarise BCG’s achievements is its determination not to take ‘no’ for an answer nor to be daunted by any sense of inferiority. No-one was too grand or important to approach, cajole and even challenge.
Though BCG commissioned the book, reading it makes clear that the group’s achievements rested not in the work and dedication of members and staff alone; that, without the unstinting enthusiasm and cooperation of local organisations and individuals, the whole thing would have foundered. Catering, hosting, attending: the Birchip community was there when it was needed.
All of these constitute what BCG The First Thirty Years is “about”.
The book is about how any group of people, with shared aims, can set about achieving them. It is about refusing to be intimidated, being innovative and self-motivating, about inspiring others. It is about confronting difficulties and misfortune and making the best of what’s available.
Perhaps, overall, it’s about tough, resilient, self-sufficient local communities that refuse to lie down.
My 50 Favourite Roses might be a more popular Christmas present, but for some, Birchip Cropping Group, the First Thirty Years might be even more worth reading.
Read Celebrating 30 years of BCG
