Note from the Founder: Blessed Rains
As we greet September with a holiday weekend, we also welcome with open arms the wonderful rain that blessed our fields this weekend. At times the forecast looked so severe, with up to 8 inches of rain predicted as Hurricane Isaac passed through, that we decided to cancel our participation in Saturday’s Ferguson Farmers Market, a choice we don’t take lightly! Thankfully though, the rain came lightly enough and in waves that allowed it to soak in, rather than flood. We recorded just over 2 inches of rainfall at the farm. We hope to continue to receive rainfall throughout the fall, to replenish not only our fields, but also the water table. One of the few upsides I can see to this drought is that it must be bringing greater awareness of the very real impact that climage change is making in our daily lives, causing us to re-think our status quo. Maybe folks will finally see that spending 7 billion gallons PER DAY of perfectly drinkable water to irrigate our residential landscape is a less than ideal way to use one of our most precious resources. And while residential water use is a big deal, agriculture plays an even bigger role in the way water is used in this country. Did you know that beef from factory farms (how most of the meat we consume in the U.S. is raised) is one of the most water-intensive foods, taking 1200 gallons to produce one 8 oz. serving of steak?!
Facts like this are what gave me personally the motivation to explore how what we eat affects the environment, and vice versa, at a young age. And this ultimately led me on a path to sustainable agriculture – not only protecting a farm that has long stood as a model of this, but also encouraging others to grow food in a way that conserves our land and water resources, and builds climate resilience and biodiversity. The EPA provides a good list of the many ways in which farmers are stewards of land and water: “Farmers have the unique opportunity to help mitigate climate change and water shortages in a number of ways: improving water use efficiency, enhancing on-farm water retention, reducing on-farm water demand, restoring habitat, protecting open space, increasing soil organic matter and soil moisture, sequestering carbon, and generating on-farm renewable energy.”
As friend and sustainable food advocate and author Anna Lappé (who will be gracing us with her presence at this year’s Farmers Formal!) writes, “Global warming is happening to us, right here, right now, in very real ways every day. And we, in turn, can be a part of transforming the climate-change story from one of hopelessness to one of renewal, regeneration, and resilience. There are powerful ways to be part of this historic shift: among them, aligning ourselves with a sane food system in our own communities.”
As always, we are grateful for your involvement and support to make this shift possible.
For local FARMS,
Molly Rockamann
Founding Director