Sustainable Farms Depend on Soil Health

By JIM VAN DER POL

Here are some particulars in the area of soil health as the concept was developed and adapted to this farm by us, the people who work here. First, and most critical, we developed a market for one of our products; pork. And the first driver of that move to farm marketing was in fact being pushed out of the commodity pork markets, which were at the time paying eight cents a pound for hogs on the hoof, if you could find a buyer. It was abundantly clear that there would be no future in hog production for any but the largest producers. Capitalism was working extraordinarily well in farming in 1998, driving out the small and siphoning all money to the top.

But very soon after our first efforts generated our first sales and then a year later, several stores came with us, the idea formed that we must do this to bring a proper stream of income back to the farm, for the benefit of the farm and its people and its community. And that idea became the driving force in marketing for us. For the land and the people. At first it was not easy. The first 10 years were hectic and difficult. The farm suffered lack of attention. But then, as the marketing became more established, the improved margins began to show in farming operations. We had the space in which to work on the farm business, and the farming culture. We found we could now actually consider a more extensive crop rotation because we had the market for the different crops; as feed for our livestock.

And we started to seed down some of the wettest and most difficult acres for grazing, taking off most of the tractor traffic. It has been now a full two decades since I have seen bare soil when I look out my south and east house windows. It is the same grass I seeded 20 years ago, still there, more healthy and lush and diverse every year, growing and going through its seasons. And so before we knew the changes brought about by that perennial sward in the soil I could feel the changes in me.

We brought cattle on to use the grass, and laying hens on the yard for fly control around the hog feeding hoops and to produce eggs for the use of the farm’s families. Now the hens are also following the cattle in the pastures in the summers, controlling the insects that pester them.

The first change when an acre is seeded down and the principles of planned grazing are applied, is the firmness of the soil. If it is located on a wet area, as our seedings are, then by the second or third year, you realize that you are able to use a vehicle or tractor out there, in the rare event when you need to without getting stuck in the mud. And you can walk out there immediately after a major rain without the soil balling up on your shoes. You realize that you no longer see pooling and ponding after a two or three inch rain, the way you did formerly.

Then you carry a spade out there and notice the complex and thick root systems as deep as you can go with the tool. You begin to realize that a drought in the corn field is not happening in the pasture as soon or as severely. The farm’s soil tests show an increase in soil organic matter, from four percent, up to six or six and a half. And then soil scientists are heard talking publicly about the life in the soil, the relationship of that life to the creation and building of organic matter and that organic matter is as much as 58% carbon in composition. And you realize, along with hundreds or maybe thousands of other farmers — and let’s not forget gardeners — that you, that we, are looking at a new idea, a new solution, made up essentially of common facts we have always had lying around, but are now ready to be seen in a new light.

So what direction the future? For this farm, here in flyover country, so far from any population center, the future appears in two parts. First is marketing. This is because good farming needs to be supported by a decent income for the farming people. We are all in this together, and not just we who identify as farmers. The population must begin to pay a respectable and responsible price for good food.

Secondly, partly because of our location and also because of our preferences, this farm must be based in ruminant production. It is ruminants — cattle and sheep, etc, — that can perform that first conversion of grass and solar energy into foods and feeds, thus facilitating and accelerating the carbon cycle and water and energy cycle so important in a healthy climate. For those closer to where the people are, a similar system can and must be devised centering around food plants. The Twin Cities of Minnesota are fortunate to have many first-rate farmers right in the population. They are the Hmong and require only access to land.

It has always amused me that a large part of the population considers chicken to be a sort of green alternative to beef. Now I know why I chuckle. Chicken as currently produced is anything but green. These hybrid birds, so heavy breasted that many of them cannot walk by the time they reach market weight, spend their lives squatting next to the feeder filled with corn and soy, the overproduction of which is very much the cause of our soil destruction. They never see the sun, nor would they know how to respond if they did. Their low and huge confinement sheds fill the horizon wherever they are raised and the smell fills the air.

Conventional confinement pigs, if they are not quite there yet, are certainly following the chicken in this same miserable direction.

To exhibit a healthy carbon cycle, the soil needs animals. It is not necessary that these be livestock animals, but only that they be there. In a remote area, such as my home, the easiest way to access the markets is by selling milk and meat products. And the by-products of milk manufacturing may serve as feed stocks for pigs and poultry. It is simply good sense to begin to think of farms as complex systems, some of which need to be rediscovered, but some that need yet to be devised. These will be systems that rest on the perennial grass and primarily the animals that can convert that grass plus sunlight to excellent food, while providing by product feeds for other animal species. Grass farms can, and I believe one day will, use pigs and poultry in a kind of middleman role between the grazers and the human population, converting products that we cannot eat, or think we should not have to eat, into excellent nutritious food.

Any alternative agriculture conference, from organic to biodynamic to grazing, will be attended by a good supply of young people just itching to try out their ideas, if only they could find a little land to use. The land is all tied up by conventional agriculture, which is basically a system self destructing with the connivance of government programs — a snake, if you will, devouring itself tail first. It is up to all of us to do what we can to put a stop to this. Our food future is based in biology, not petroleum.

Jim Van Der Pol farms near Kerkhoven, Minn. A collection of his columns, Conversations with the Land, was published by No Bull Press (nobullpressonline.com).

From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2019

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