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Table of Contents
Core
Principles
The number one over arching principle to the way we farm is the idea that nature knows what she is doing and we must work WITH nature to be truly regenerative and have a positive impact on the environment.
When we look to nature, plants have no problem growing without any human intervention, and they are some of the most healthy, disease and pest free plants you can find. Why is that?
Well a big reason for that is the biodiversity of a natural ecosystem. Biodiversity simply means that there is a large variety of plant, animal, insect, and micro-organism life. It is the interconnections between these organisms that keep plant problems at bay. There is a predator - prey relationship happening at all levels of the ecosystem keeping organisms in balance. This is the type of ecosystem we want to build on our farm.
Natural
Farming
Natural Farming is a set of practices which embody the principles mentioned above. It was originally developed by Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer who looked to nature for guidance in developing his farming practices. The main concept he came up with is the "do nothing" approach to farming. This can be related to practices such as leaving crop residues in the field to break down over winter.
Korean Natural Farming is a subset of Natural Farming developed by Master Cho, a Korean farmer and teacher. KNF provides methods for creating your own fertilizers and microbial inputs using local, naturally sourced ingredients. This is again based on the principle that nature knows what she is doing. For example lets look at an apple tree. At the end of the season the apples fall on the ground and begin to ferment, this fermented apple material then feeds the soil around the tree with nutrients and micro-organisms, aiding in the next seasons crop. We can take advantage of this principle using Korean Natural Farming. By fermenting tomatoes and feeding them to tomato plants we gain the same benefits as the tree/apple relationship!
The
Soil
Soil is much more than just dirt, it is a complex relationship between soil particles, organic matter, micro-organisms, insects, plants, and even animals. There is much that we still do not understand about how exactly the soil communities function as a whole. Regenerative soil management is all about keeping the soil alive and cycling nutrients. This is achieved through a few main practices- Keeping the soil covered, keeping living roots in the ground, limiting or eliminating tillage, and providing biodiverse micro-organism inputs.
Nutrient
Density
Nutrient density is a term that has been coming to light over the past 10 years and will continue to do so as farming practices become more polarizing (regenerative vs conventional). Nutrient density refers to the concentration of nutrients within a fruit or vegetable. As you can imagine, we want too be eating the most nutrient dense food we can, that means our bodies have to do less work to absorb more nutrients leading to overall health improvement. In the coming years nutrient density will become a common term in society as there are companies currently developing handheld tools that can be used to measure nutrient density of a fruit or veggie just by shining a light on it. If consumers can bring this to a market and get real time information about nutrient density this will change the way people buy food and in turn, the way farmers grow their crops.
You may be wondering- why is organic produce more nutrient dense than chemical grown produce? Well the answer is pretty interesting. When farms use chemical fertilizers they are mainly using nitrogen in the Nitrate form. For a plant to uptake Nitrate into its root system it must be bound to three H2o molecules, as you can imagine this leads to a "watered down" fruit or vegetable (supermarket cucumbers are a good example). When plants uptake nitrogen through relationships with micro-organisms it does not need to be bound to the three H2o molecules leading to a more nutrient dense fruit or vegetable.
Carbon
Sequestration
As you likely already know, atmoshpereic carbon levels are increasing rapidly and is one of the leading causes of global warming. We have the power to fix this! Plants pull carbon from the air via photosynthesis and release the carbon from the roots in the form of root exudates (sugars, amino acids, enzymes, etc). These root exudates feed the soil microbes which in turn feed our plants.
I think the best way to understand how the carbon gets locked in the ecosystem (and out of the atmosphere) is to follow a hypothetical trail of one single carbon atom. After released from the roots the atom is taken in by a bacterium living in the root zone. The bacterium is then consumed by a nematode which is then consumed by an worm. After this a bird eats the worm and that same carbon atom that was pulled from the air is now inside the bird. Let’s say the bird dies, now through decomposition the carbon atom is back into the soil and the process starts again.
The reason why organic systems sequester more carbon is due to the relationship with microbes in the soil. We foster as much diversity in the soil as possible meaning the plants interact more with the microbes through exudates and sequester more carbon in the soil/ecosystem. In non-organic chemical fed systems, the plants do not need to form the same kind of relationships with soil microbes because the are being fed chemicals that are instantly available to the plants limiting the need for microbe interactions and reducing exudates.
Reducing
Waste
Plastic use in farming is a serious concern of mine. If we focus on regenerative farming and ecosystem management but still use a lot of plastic it is like taking two steps forward and one step back. Plastic has become far too common in small scale farming. From plastic ground covers such as landscape fabric to huge plastic sheets used for smothering weeds. Along with the obvious environmental impact of plastic use we also have to think about micro-plastics entering our soil through direct plastic contact with the ground. Some use of plastic is inevitable for things like greenhouses but I feel it is important to always choose a better option if one is available. As an example- rather than using landscape fabric we use a deep compost mulch to smother weeds.
We try our best to keep all our packaging plastic free using either compostable or biodegradable products. Unfortunately this is not always possible but we are working towards 100% plastic free packaging.