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The Garden Plot for December 28, 2007
3:55 PM - 4:00 PM
[Program Website]
Today's Highlight: "Agriculture & Energy Policy 2"
Last week we talked about combining agriculture and energy policy into an integrated whole, based on ecological natural resource use. What would an ecological agriculture look like? The goal of agroecology is to design cropping systems that more closely mimic natural systems. These systems strive to reduce tillage, increase species and genetic diversity, close nutrient cycles, and create more complex habitat. When we disturb natural ecosystems to produce crops, complex habitats are simplified, species diversity is decreased, natural nitrogen and carbon cycles are disturbed, soil organic matter levels and microbial populations decrease. Once soils have been brought into cultivation, exposed bare soil between crop plants and between cropping seasons (such as winter fallow), creates nutrient leaks, or leaching of mobile nutrients (like nitrogen) that had formerly been recycled by permanent vegetative cover before cultivation. This nitrogen can end up in surface waters and riparian areas. Addition of organic residues helps overcome some of the negative effects of tillage on soil health. However, in a California organic farming study, cultivation and crop removal significantly reduced soil organic matter levels when compared to an unfarmed grassland, even with high added inputs of organic matter from cover crops and composts. Progressive organic farmers and researchers are studying ways of reducing tillage to improve soil health, microbial diversity, and habitat for beneficial insects. Tillage diminishes the habitat of many organisms beneficial to soil and crop health, including earthworms, spiders, insects, and soil microorganisms. Permanent soil cover and reduced tillage have been associated with increased predator and parasite insects and disease suppression in many agricultural systems.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if farmers and ranchers were paid to enhance the ecological function of their land, while rotating food and energy crops in a way that allowed some of both to be produced regularly in a particular region? Agricultural payments based on performance standards which include ecological function could be a nice tie-in with energy policy. For example, payments might be high for long crop rotations that include both food and energy crops. Crop rotations are an important way to prevent insect, disease, and weed build up and thus avoid pesticide use. Good rotations can also mimic natural system nutrient and carbon cycles, which can decrease the use of synthetic fertilizer. Synthetic fertilizer production depends to a great extent on oil for its manufacture. This is another reason to integrate agriculture and energy policy.
Farm payments based on a “one-farm-fits-all” approach do not effectively utilize the concept of ecological function and encourage sustainable use of regional natural resources. Sustainable agriculture and energy development in Kentucky will look very different than in Montana. For example, in eastern Montana an integration of energy and agriculture policy might encourage regional cooperative planning of a crop rotation that includes food crops such as wheat and lentils and energy crops such as camelina and native grasses. This rotation would get good marks for ecological function, because wheat, lentils, and camelina all belong to different plant families and use water and soil resources differently. Lentils are a nitrogen-fixing legume and, hence, we may figure out how to add less nitrogen fertilizer by utilizing them in a rotation. A perennial native grass component to the rotation would help reduce tillage and thus diminish soil erosion, enhance the soil microorganisms essential to natural nutrient cycles and plant health, and rebuild soil quality.
Thinking about energy and agriculture together might be a way to better include more of the interest groups vying for a piece of the farm bill pie. Farm payments based on performance standards, such as soil health parameters, might help us encourage ecological agriculture practices to grow food and energy crops, without depleting natural resources.
Helen Atthowe's new short program of gardening tips
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