How do our farmers help make us more climate-resilient?
As part of our Climate Farmer Stories project, Vital Communities asked local artists to make portraits of farmers who are using climate-friendly agricultural techniques. Click the “Learn More” buttons to learn about each farm’s practices.
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Katie Runde is at katierunde.com
Why they farm this way: “At Silloway Maple, we use regenerative “a husband to the woods” management, solar power, reverse osmosis, and traditional wood fire to evaporate the sap. The sugarwoods is thinned and managed to provide firewood, the reverse osmosis is simply the pumping of the raw sap through semi-permeable membranes to remove part of the water, as the concentrated sugar and minerals are sent to the evaporator. Solar panels provide the energy for the reverse osmosis process. In our size maple operation, without the r.o., it would take approximately 1,000 cords of firewood to produce 12,000 gallons of maple syrup. With it, it only takes about 50 cords. “Only” said to show you the comparison – 50 cords is still a lot to cut, split, bundle, move again, and throw, piece by piece, into the arch at sugaring time!
“It’s satisfying to allow the landscape to remain in its natural state while producing a natural, local food.”
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Misoo Bang is at misoo.org.
Why they farm this way: “We use holistic management practices with our animals in order to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration. The water retention of our soil has improved remarkably since we began holistically grazing in 2006. Proper water retention is due to the amazing root structure of the grasses which helps our farm to avoid flooding events, keeping the soil in place for generations to come and keeps water locked into the ground where it should be. Drought and flood protection. Erosion protection.
“Since we began grazing multiple species through the pastures here at Walpole Valley Farms, we’ve seen an explosion in biodiversity and water retention in our pastures and woodlands. It’s amazing how quickly positive change can be seen with relatively simple practices and minimal machinery. We believe that through holistic farming techniques that used to be commonplace for our ancestors and the indigenous people of this area, we can heal the soil while also raising nutrient-dense meats and vegetables for the community.”
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Katie Runde is at katierunde.com.
Why they farm this way: “At Luna Bleu, we have always tried to view the farm as an ecosystem full of cycles, webs of relationship and energy flows. As farmers, our role is to nurture this ecosystem and build biodiversity. But the fact is, we are still functioning as farmers in an extractive capitalist economic system that has no root in ecosystem health.
“When we depend on our farm income to pay the mortgage, utilities, insurance, medical bills, etc., it slows the work we need to do to heal and reintegrate a farm into the restorative wisdom of natural cycles and relationships. We have been doing this farming thing for over 30 years and too many of those early years were about economic survival and stable land access. What really kept us going, especially in those lean years, was our relationships with other farmers, community, and all the individuals, organizations, and businesses—building cycles of mutual aid and learning, webs of relationships and networks, and the flow of energy and support and a diversity of ideas, experiences, and talents.”
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Misoo Bang is at misoo.org.
Why they farm this way: “What if we could grow an heirloom corn, produce a traditional arepa and help regenerate ecology and community?
“I believe that we can grow organic, heirloom corn, provide a high-quality nutritional arepa, cultivate community and demonstrate a new way forward connecting regenerative farming practices and cultural traditions.
“Connecting communities through traditional foods, music, education, and cultural celebrations, we aim to build a regenerative community that supports a local economy. By partnering with like-minded small farms and markets to source ethically grown produce to create our recipes, we are contributing to the resiliency of community, decreasing our dependency on industrial agriculture and thereby reducing our carbon footprints while co-creating a thriving, multicultural, and just local food system.”
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Cecily Anderson is at AnagramDesignStudio.com.
Why they farm this way: “We are dedicated to agricultural scientific research in the public interest, and to providing agricultural education and training. Over the 20 years of our existence, the Farm’s practices have evolved to incorporate regenerative organic farming, which works to restore soil health, and in turn, the health of plants, people, and the planet.
“An entire ecosystem of microorganisms and fungi exists below our feet! Thriving soil life draws carbon out of the atmosphere and fixes it into the soil, thereby restoring a natural carbon sink. Carbon sinks are good! They benefit soil health and plant growth while lowering greenhouse gas emissions in the process.
“To support healthy, resilient soil, we are transitioning to no-till farming. This goes hand in hand with our use of cover crops, which are planted in between main cash crop cycles. The seed mixture is specifically chosen to fix nutrients into the soil that the past cash crop has used or that the next crop will need. Cover crops also create a blanket of plant matter that protects soil and inhibits weed growth. Common cover crops at Cedar Circle Farm are winter rye and hairy vetch, oats, and peas, or yellow clover.
“We regularly test our soils for organic matter (think carbon!) and nutrients, and fine-tune our crop management.”
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LMNOPI is at lmnopi.com
Why they farm this way: “Many who raised livestock on pasture call themselves grass farmers, and we hold that as a proud label for our work. But our more primary identity is as ‘relationship farmers,’ keenly attending to interrelationships and thinking in terms of systems. For example, we nurture connections between invisible fungal structures in our soil and root systems to grow food that is both more nutrient dense and less labor intensive than conventional organic agriculture.”
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Cecily Anderson is at AnagramDesignStudio.com.
Why they farm this way: “We have always been conscious of raising our crops as sustainably as possible. For us, this has meant cover-cropping our fields to build organic matter, sourcing our supplies as locally as possible to reduce trucking, and making decisions about our growing practices based on their lifecycle carbon footprint.
“But at the end of the 2018 growing season, we decided to formally take our commitment to sustainability to the next level. We made a ’90 in 10 Crazy Carbon Emissions Pledge’ to reduce our farm’s fossil carbon emissions by 90% over the course of 10 years. It’s an ambitious goal, but when we started scratching our heads about what we needed to do to erase fossil carbon from the farm, things actually started to seem pretty doable.”
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Daniella Festa is at Daniellefesta.com.
Why they farm this way: “Farming is, at its core, carbon management. We take sunlight, mix it with carbon (from the air) and water (from the soil), and create food. Might be direct crops like carrots and potatoes, or indirect ones like eggs and lamb, or indirect-indirect ones like honey and venison. Done properly, farming mimics the natural ecosystem and adds carbon to the soil as a result of its activities. Compost, cover crops, rotational grazing, minimal tillage, and thoughtful management of adjacent forests and lands are all tools in the sustainable toolbox.
“In 2020, we decided to up our game by building a carbon management facility on the farm. It has two parts: 30 kW of solar power on the roof, providing enough electricity to power 85% of our farm operations; and six bays of actively managed compost space on a concrete slab under the roof. The compost facility allows us to take food scraps from our community and turn them back into food. Pretty straightforward.”
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Joan Hanley is at Hanleystudio.com.
Why they farm this way: “Off-grid, solar-powered, minimal-tillage, soil-based, gravity-fed, micro-irrigation, on-farm composting, cover cropping, season extension… it all happens here. But none of these efforts matter without a farm business that is community-based.
“Connecting with the community through a commitment to local markets and a stake in the local economy has shifted climate conversations from a politicized national level to a meaningful community level. When a neighbor’s well-being is affected by unprecedented drought or overwhelming rain, activism around systemic change becomes less radical and more urgent.
“Open Woods is a certified organic vegetable farm on the side of the hill in the middle of a forest. I grow a huge amount of food on half an acre of land and sell almost exclusively to the Mascoma Valley region of New Hampshire. My priority is community-centered farming: direct sales, mutual aid shares, food scrap collection, honest conversation, and sharing joy in beautiful food.”
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LMNOPI is at lmnopi.com.
Why they farm this way: “We are dedicated to growingpractices that use a holistic approach to soil fertility and plant health. We build our soil through crop rotation, cover cropping, and minimal tillage.”
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Cecily Anderson is at AnagramDesignStudio.com.
Why they farm this way: “We want to feed our community responsibly. Kiss the Cow Farm is 100 percent grass-fed utilizing millions of solar panels to grow the food our cows eat. Grass blades capture the sun’s energy and through photosynthesis move carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil. And carbon stored in soil stays there a long time. Grass also helps control temperature through evaporation.
Managed correctly, cows become an asset to fighting climate change because they improve soil microbial life. Their hooves disturb the ground so moisture and nutrients in their manure can nourish the soil. We rotationally graze our cows, which allows the plants to regrow and establish deeper roots improving soil health while keeping the carbon in the soil.
“Seaweed is another sustainable part of their diet, which studies have found reduces methane production by 80 percent.
“We’re striving to minimize external inputs, harvest the sun’s energy, grow soil fertility, and store carbon. The result? Local food that’s good for you, good for our planet.”
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Janet McKenzie is at janetmckenzie.com.
Why they farm this way: “As farmers who work with draft horses and maintain a dairy cow herd, we are operating on the premise that livestock are the essential component to land restoration and maintenance of a healthy farm system.
“The second major component of building soil on our farm is the use of cover crops. Composted manures from our horses and dairy cows along with cover crops feed the land. We do not use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Cover crop seed is accounted for as a fertilizer expense within the farm budget.
“We grow 26 varieties of vegetables and herbs on 1 acre. Managing the garden primarily for direct-to-the-public sales allows us to plant a wider variety of produce.
“We are introducing trees into our intensive grazing management system. Silvopasture increases herd comfort and grass productivity, sequesters carbon, and promotes biodiversity.
“We are using no-dig methods, which we switched over to in 2020. Our beds are made with the horses, using our composted cow manure. Each path is mulched with local bark and wood chips. We are irrigating our garden from a man-made pond which collects water from the springs on our hillside. The pond is lined with the clay that was already there. No materials were brought in to make the pond.”
Wait, how can cows be good for the climate?
“Industrial livestock management is harmful to human and animal health, and the environment, but it’s not the only option. New forms of grazing management, where animals are on pasture their entire lives, restore fertility to soil.
“Grazing animals in a way that, by mimicking nature, grows soil carbon and improves water retention, improves landscape function. As soil becomes carbon-rich, it captures and holds more rain. This reduces flooding while replenishing dried-up rivers, helping to create a safer and more resilient climate future and even reversing desertification.
“Published, peer-reviewed scientific studies show effective grazing management can capture, or “draw down,” 1 to 3 tons of carbon per acre each year. Properly done, grazing removes more than enough carbon from the air to compensate for an animal’s enteric methane emissions. As well, healthy soil contains methanotroph bacteria that metabolize (consume) methane. Methane from ruminants is only an issue of concern in the context of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), not when livestock are living naturally on pasture, managed in ways that improve soil health and biodiversity.”
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LMNOPI is at lmnopi.com.
Why they farm this way: “Winter Street is a no-till, organic family farm that grows nutrient-dense food for our community. Our goal is to grow all the produce a healthy family could need, making your life easier with daily staples, and hopefully a taste of some veggies you may have never tried.”