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August 2007
Tread Lightly
Dear Friends,A few years back I had the honor of interviewing long-time organic farmer and agricultural innovator, Tom Larson of St. Edward. Tom has been an advocate of sustainable agriculture for many years. He and his wife were even featured in a display of prairie states farmers at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
During our conversation, Tom said something that has really stuck with me. "I would like to farm in such a way that 100 years from now, no one will ever know that I farmed this land," Larson told me. He is not talking about sustainable agriculture, but more likely, farming practices that enhance the soil and land.
In our disposable, throw away society, that concept is probably the kind of thing we should be shooting for. It is quite difficult to imagine that we can attain that kind of no-impact practices in our modern agricultural world, but it is an intriguing idea.
However, many practices that are becoming quite common in our region are certainly heading in that direction. I’m not just talking about no-till farming, but also a genuine renewal in the planting of diverse cereal crops for grain, grazing, haying and cover.
The innovative grass-based movement is gaining steam rapidly, with grass-based dairies and beef finishing becoming more commonplace. The importance of native grass prairie, CRP, riparian buffers, sylvan-culture and water quality improvement practices are widely accepted.
All of these things help us tread lightly on the earth we inhabit. Three years ago, I was involved in a pilot project aimed at sequestering carbon in the soil, with several other farmers in the region.
Through the coursework and farm visits of this program, we all learned tips and practices that build up the soil and soil life. We started to look at the soil first, before looking at crops. livestock and land utilization.
Now this program has expanded to several other natural resource districts across the state with similar results. Farmers are enjoying the opportunities within the program to network with other farmers who have the same challenges and goals for their land. The project provides tools and ideas about how to apply simple conservation and soil building principles to modern farming operations, and how to do all of this profitably.
One of the farmers who was also enrolled in this project told me once that you can’t bend Mother Nature to your will. The results are much better to work with nature and to come up with practices that compliment what nature is already doing.
Whether we like it or not, we farmers are at the mercy of Mother Nature. Although genetics can fix a lot of our problems in crops, I haven’t seen a hail-resistant variety yet. There are certain calamities that we can’t do anything about. So I like the advice of Tom Larson and some of the carbon farmers who were in the sequestration project. Tread lightly on this good earth. We are only here for a little while. Our children and their children will have to live here too.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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