This is what sustainable agriculture looks like

By Greenandblue
Source: dailykos.com

There are alternatives. We can feed people in harmony with nature. We don’t have to exploit and mine soil as if it is a limited, fixed resource. Our farms are part of living communities that cycle water, carbon, nutrients and living organisms. We can integrate into those cycles and develop nourishing systems that build soil, absorb carbon, promote biological diversity and are resilient to drought, pest and disease pressures. Otherwise, our food will continue to cost climate change, poisoned water, degraded ecosystems, and the well being of many species, ourselves included.

Most farming today is conducted as if humans and our favorite foods are separate from nature. It’s us vs them. Who do we have to kill to keep our guys alive? Monoculture seems to be a simple system to manage with low labor costs. Yet, soil is exposed and degraded through tilling, while pests and diseases feast on buffets of their favorite foods. Fertilizers are applied to maximize yield, but these applications also stimulate fast growing weeds and their cohorts. In these systems, herbicides and pesticide applications are a given for most.

Organic agriculture steps away from the chemical applications, but it is not enough. Weeds are seen as enemies, so soil is still degraded through tilling, or miles of plastic covers soil to prevent weed growth at the expense of soil aeration and uniform water infiltration.

The picture at the top of this diary lists concepts of sustainable approaches. We still have a lot to learn and progress is incremental, as the plastic and bare soil demonstrate. Still, we are learning, and we know that better ways are possible. Ironically, the way forward is through diverse small farms that, on the surface, look like those of our grandparents, which many picture in their minds when family farms are mentioned. To make the picture more accurate, add on management practices that we’ve developed over the last century to help us value diversity, build soil and maintain healthy ecosystems.

Regenerative agriculture aims to implement this knowledge in modern, sustainable farms. Harvested crops are grown along with cover crops or living mulches to reduce bare soil and convert more sunlight to carbon for building soil. Animals are incorporated for weed management, plant nutrition, and production of meat and honey.

On Saturday, August 11th, Blue Dasher Farm in South Dakota hosted an event to demonstrate principles of regenerative farming. Here is a quick summary in pictures.

Air blown over bare soil demonstrates the effect of tilling on wind erosion. Small particles, which hold much of the mineral nutrients required by plants start to blow away in light breezes of 10 mph or less. Discoloration on the white sheet appeared well before reaching wind speeds producing visible movement of soil. If you put your hand in front of the white sheet, you could feel the soil though you couldn’t seen anything. Soil needs to be protected by plants to keep it on the farm.

Tilling kills soil-dwelling organisms, destroys soil structure, and produces layers of hard crusty soil, as seen on the bottom left. Untilled soil on the right shows roots growing through well aerated soil with many sizes of aggregates. Immersion in jars of water shows that untilled soil retains it’s structure much better than tilled soil, which breaks apart and is lost to erosion in the field.

At Blue Dasher Farm, soil is not exposed, eroded or degraded. This picture shows rye to be harvested growing in the background with volunteer native prairie flowers. Sheep are clearing fields one section at a time. In between, a drain is allowed to flow naturally for water management and ecosystem diversity, which may provide resiliency against disease and pest stresses. On the right, prairie grasses and other plants feed pollinators, including honey bees.

To save soil in practice, farms need to be considered as integrated ecosystems. Diverse plant communities need to be allowed to thrive. The farmer manipulates these communities by planting crops to harvest along with selected cover crops that build soil without overgrowing the desired crop. Animals graze to clear fields and return nutrients as manure. Pollinators thrive with plant diversity and abundance.

It’s not just goats, at Blue Dasher Farm, they also have pigs and chickens. Cows might have a place at other farms. The point is that sustainable farms will integrate crops with animals for managing weeds and bugs, clearing fields, providing manure, as well as, another source of income. The meat might be better too.

Along with soil, the base of the Blue Dasher regenerative farming model is pollinators. For income, this means honey bees. They can grow crops and raise chicken, pigs and goats, but the soil and bees are the foundation of their enterprise. The soil feeds the plants, which feed the bees, chickens, pigs and goats. As long as the bees make honey, they have a base income to work with. Unfortunately, they too suffer from colony collapse. Their small farm does what it can in isolation, but they are still affected by pressures being felt regionally and nationwide.

 

We know a lot, but there is much more still to learn. To develop truly sustainable regenerative agriculture will require a lot of research. Blue Dasher Farm is partnering with a sister organization, the Ecdysis Foundation, to conduct some of this research. As part of the field day, Ecdysis scientists described their work. Here, Mike describes his research in the effects of farming practices on soil and plant invertebrates, while his colleague Ryan stands by to tell us about his work with cattle and mob grazing.

In short, we know a lot about how to make agriculture sustainable, but still more needs to be learned. In this diary, we highlighted a field day at Blue Dasher Farm. They, along with other isolated farms are doing their best to transition to better practices.

Farmers trying to change agriculture paradigms face many challenges. They must fund themselves while traditional monoculture farms are increasingly backed by big corporate money. Private and government funded research is heavily weighted toward monoculuture and commodity markets. Crop growers associations lobby and fund for their individual crops. Chemical companies market their products, and growers are pressured to realize the quick returns of chemical application over long term ecosystem servicing. Financing can be tied to specific cropping systems. And, education and advice given in schools and by governments or grower associations is typically geared toward traditional, monoculture systems.

In the face of these challenges, a growing number of farmers are turning to more holistic, ecosystem based approaches to producing our food. They need all of the help that they can get. Support them at your local markets. Look for them in coops and community supported agriculture buying clubs.

To learn more about the operation described in this diary, visit the Blue Dasher Farmand Ecdysis websites. Use the contacts in those pages to learn more about their work, find out where to buy their products, or to send them a donation.

FYI, I am unaffiliated with Blue Dasher Farm. I am a long time agriculture researcher who attended their event and is interested in sustainable agriculture.