In the film, Juanita and Darrel have strong ties to their families of
origin.
 What is Juanita's relationship with her family?
What is Darrel's relationship with his in-laws? Juanita's relationship to her
in-laws? How does this relationship affect Darrel and Juanita's marriage?
How does Darrel's working without pay for his mother and father affect the
marriage relationship?
What are the positive and negative aspects of the family relationships?
Juanita and Darrel struggle in their marriage just as they struggle with
their farming operation.
What was their relationship like when they first married? What were Darrel's
expectations of Juanita when they married? Juanita's expectations of Darrel?
How did their relationship change? How did their respective roles in the
relationship change? How did their roles change in terms of parenting the
girls?
What, if any, could be the long-term effects on children when living with
this kind of stress?
How does exhaustion affect the way we respond to family members?
Self-doubt has become pervasive with Darrel and Juanita. How is this
manifested in their decision-making and their relationships?
Several times during the film, Juanita and Darrel refer to their lives on
the farm as a "vocation."
What does this mean? How does your "work" differ if you see it as a
vocation?
From what you know about them from the film, in what ways do they contribute
to their community? If you see your work as a vocation, in what ways would you
contribute to your community?
Does your church or denomination lift up the vocation of farming? If so, in
what ways? Does farming carry with it responsibilities that are different from
other vocations?
Faith and religion play an important role in the lives of Darrel and
Juanita.
How is this shown in the series: in what cinematic ways is faith
portrayed?
How is faith discussed by the couple?
When was the first time that Darrel and Juanita prayed together? Why?
Where is God in the lives of the Buschkoetters, the community, family
farming, and society?
How would financial and marital troubles be handled in a family whose faith
was not a large part of their lives?
Throughout the film, Juanita and Darrel share their faith with their three
daughters.
How does the family pray together?
What do the girls pray about?
What types of prayers are used?
The parish priest responded to Juanita's request with the offer of free
marriage counseling.
In what other ways could the church respond to family farming operations that
are in financial difficulty?
How did the community respond to Juanita and Darrel? What could the community
do for family farming operations that are in trouble?
What denominational resources exist that could help family farmers, whether
they are in trouble or not?
Does your church offer prayers for farmers that are in financial trouble? For
farmers that are forced from farming? Does your church help those forced from
farming grieve their loss?
Does your church have discretionary funds that could help with medical bills?
If not, would this be something that your church, congregation, or denomination
would be able to provide?
Others in your parish have experienced loss. How did you as an individual
respond? How did the church respond?
In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus is answering the Pharisees and addressing the role
of husbands and wives to their families.
Does Jesus' admonition that a husband and wife leave their mother and father
and be joined with each other still have relevance in today's complex
society?
How do we balance the Scriptural charge to husbands and wives to be joined
with the fourth commandment to "honor your father and mother that your days may
be long upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you"?
What does it mean to "leave mother and father" when land or a family business
is involved? How does this change family dynamics?
In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, St. Paul addresses what love is. Love is what held
and motivated Darrel and Juanita and what bound them in their marriage
covenant.
What actions of the Buschkoetters were motivated by love?
Do they live their faith as a result of their marital love?
In what ways do they show their Christian love as well as their parental love
for their daughters?
In Genesis 1:28, God told Adam and Eve to "have dominion over the earth."
This has profound applications to family farming and the environment.
What does having dominion mean? Is the environment God's gift to us? If so,
how is this shown in the film?
A landmark study of two towns in California by Walter Goldschmidt found that
the community based upon a family farming economy had more educational
services, community services, churches and other amenities like parks and
recreation opportunities than did the town based on corporate- type
agriculture.
How does your church support family farming? How does your community support
family farming? In what other ways could it be supported?
What would your town, community or county look like if it did not have family
farmers?
Are sons and daughters treated equally in taking over the farming operation
or a small family business?
What kinds of stress do others experience in dealing with the Buschkoetters'
efforts to save their farm? (e.g., bankers, small business owners, grocers,
childcare operators, etc.)
Did Darrel and Juanita have choices in terms of their farming operation? Were
choices made for them by government agencies and financiers?
Were the Buschkoetters sustainable farmers concerned about stewardship of the
land? What responsibilities do land owners have to the land or their
tenants?
Juanita quit her job at the nursing home because she found that childcare
was taking a substantial part of her paycheck.
What is the childcare situation like in your community?
Rural communities often have low-paying jobs. What effect does that have on
childcare responsibilities and opportunities?
What role does your church play in supporting parents or working mothers?
What role could churches play in supporting parents or working mothers?
Each of us has a responsibility to our God and to our neighbor to live in a
certain way.
Where we buy food and how we buy food can be a political act. Where does your
food come from? Do you support local businesses, markets or farmers?
In what ways do we defile God's creation? Is the responsibility "out there,"
or what can each person do to respect God's creation?
What could an individual or a community do to help farmers that are
struggling to stay on the land? What first steps could be taken? What political
advocacy could be done?
Do you try to purchase food locally? If not where do you purchase food and
who benefits as the result of where you purchase food?
Do you know how workers in the food system are treated, what kind of pay and
benefits they receive? For instance, migrant workers often work in low-paying
seasonal jobs without benefits and basic amenities like toilet facilities.
Packing plant workers have high worker compensation claims due to the risk of
working in a packing plant.
What is your "stake" in the food system? What is your responsibility in the
food system?
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