Host Chris Wolf had the pleasure of chatting with Author Bill Massey about his memories of growing up on the farm and the problems with large scale hog farming.
Author Bill Massey has had a multi-faceted life. He is a farmer, educator, and advocate. Throughout his teaching career, he has been an advocate for survivors of child abuse, and as a farmer, he has been a very outspoken voice against large scale industrial hog farming.
His Book “Of Pork and Potatoes” is his memoir that tells two stories. The first story is about his life growing up in a troubled home on the farm, and eventually becoming a teacher and principal who advocated for victims of child abuse. As Bill says, “my childhood really did form me. I went on to work with disadvantaged children in the teaching profession and found that it was good for me because I not only learned about myself by working with them, but I was able to help them because I was one of them.”
The second story that Bill Massey tells in the book is his fifteen year long struggle with the bureaucracy of Provincial politics and the problems of large scale hog farming. “The system we have is not sustainable. It’s not sustainable financially, it’s not sustainable environmentally, and it is not sustainable ethically,” Bill says.
Throughout the book, Bill Massey tells these two stories at the same time. Bill states, “The two stories really kind of correlate in many ways, and so that’s how I put the book together, telling both stories simultaneously.”
Aside from telling these two great stories, “of Pork and Potatoes” is an excellent memoir that tells of a life growing up on the farm, at a time when the small family farm is sadly becoming less and less a way of life, as large scale industrial farms become the norm for Manitoba farmers.
To find out more about Bill Massey’s Book “Of Pork and Potatoes” click here:
Missed Chris Wolf's conversation with Bill? See the entire conversation here:
Sat, Apr 20, 10:00 AM
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