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It is my belief that a healthy community is one that meets the basic needs of all residents.  It ensures quality and substainability of the environment, provides adequate levels of economic and social development while assuring social relationships that are respected and supported.

Over the past two years we have witnessed the rise in community empowerment through Urban Agriculture as we see well over twenty-seven cities around the country implementing Urban Ag Ordinances that include zoning codes that will establish a new food economy for local growers.  Some even include TIZ tax incentive zones.  This is for the purpose of allowing landowners to receive tax credits from the city that will incentivize both landowner and urban farmer.

I am proud to be a board member of the Louisiana Association of Cooperatives under the direction of Mr. Harvey Reed, who is our furious leader in this food revolution.  We produce the only newsletter in America that is distributed through the USDA.  LAC is the leading advocate for all farmers in the nation, we focus on urban agripreneurs and veterans.

Presently, 80% of all suitable land for growing crops the traditional way is already in use or taken out of production due to drought in California and other states.  We live in an era of transformation which has enabled conscious people to grow nutritious food for themselves and their families.  This food may also be sold for profit.

There are many communities across the nation that are grappling with food security and access, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, at a time when these same communities are struggling with obesity and diabetes and other diet related illnesses. Over the past twoyears, I have personally visited 26 urban farms from Hawaii to the civil rights trail in Montgomery, Alabama. Some use traditional methods of growing organic food on rooftops backyards, parking lots, hoop houses, greenhouses, vacant lots in cities and shipping containers, while others use no soil.  One of my favorite destinations and most interesting urban farms was in Houston, Texas, the Last Organic Outpost, with veteran Joe Icet. This farm is located in the heart of the 5th ward and processes well over 20 tons of organic waste weekly. An aquaponics DWC system is also on display along with vermaculture, the farm is heavily connected to the city and local land grant university. This community has been transformed into a virtual showcase of what is possible in food deserts when urban ag is developed and supported by the community as a whole.

EcoBro also visited Olomana Gardens located on the North Coast of Hawaii with Glenn and Liz Martinez, who own over 17 acres  in the rain forest.  Glenn is one of the nations leading experts in aquaculture.  You will see and touch nature at its best while listening to Glenn’s passion for growing fish and plants in this majestic garden.

Con10u2farm was awarded a contract to design and build Adaptive Growing Modules for nine schools with the Sacramento County Health Department.  Our objective is to train the next generation of veggielanties how to grow specialty crops, how to measure PH in the water, EC, plant tissue, renewable energy and worm farming for profit.  Early results have been very positive from all locations and the students have successfully harvested their first crops.

Seniors are the most ardent GROWERS in America, regardless of age or language spoken, tomatoes and squash bring them together.  It is becoming one of the best ways to create and build community farms for all, while keeping our senior population active and consuming nutritious foods.  Growing speciality crops is a healthy choice that addresses health and wellness and strikes the heart of the pandemic sweeping our nation.

According to Darryl Cotton, President of Inda-Gro in San Diego, urban farming is critical to any city’s future.  As a nation but to a greater degree, in our inner cities, part of our health related issues can be directly attributed to quality of the food we eat.  If all the food we have access to is packaged and processed, the incidence of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and many other terminal illnesses, will continue to climb.  Without access to healthy locally grown vegetables, our children’s cognitive learning sills will suffer and grades will continue to drop.  151 farming techniques is a concept and practice born out by the increasing acceptance of medical cannabis within our communities.  As such, 151 Farmers commit to urban farming, at a minimum, one pound of cannabis for five pounds of food for the community.

Part of your next meal should come from, no less than ten feet from the kitchen table!

The future of urban ag in the would will depend on internet enabled applications to ignite the food revolution. Food production can be retooled to accommodate high-density urban living while maintaining food security. Like many 21st centruy farmers we see a networked agricultural system that looks to the open-sourced software movement for inspiration. Personal food computers is an idea to standardize agricultural technology platforms for personal, small scale and large scale use. What’s more, growing conditions suitable to a particular crop that are developed inside tabletop sized food computers can then be scaled up to the shipping container size food servers, or even food data centers, which may occupy part of the warehouse, factor or other larger facilities.

Ron Kelly of Kelly Farm was awarded the Tom Haller award this past spring by the California Small Farmers Conference.  Ron has been a leader in urban ag for many years.  In 2015 he was appointed by President Obama to serve as chair of the California State FSA committee. Ron states, “perhaps the greatest movement in my lifetime is growing food in small spaces for the purpose of feeding and emerging exploding population.” The more that urban agriculture is seen in positive terms by local government officials, lending agencies, and the general public, the greater likelihood of more urban farms.

According to Paula Daniel’s report, ‘know your fish farm’, we need to develop a strong local fish policy.  The United States is the third largest consumer of seafood products (behind China and Japan) yet we import products.  The second largest trade deficit is seafood products, second only to petroleum.  “We are ‘fish dependent’ in the way we are petroleum dependent.”.  We can develop policies to encourage urban agriculture by modifying zoning and streamline processes to permit aquaponics farming in cities.

Lastly. we need to develop a national program that encourages our Veterans to becoming farmers after returning home from the war. It is imperative that the newly appointed Veteran Farm Czar elevate sections of the new farm bill so to enhance opportunities and participation for a sustainable farming career.

Grow for What you Know!

EcoBro

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Randy Miller farms about 1,000 acres of corn, soybeans and hay in Iowa’s corn belt, where this time of year shoulder-high plants stretch for hundreds of miles.

Here, and for a huge swath of the Midwest from Nebraska to Ohio, generation after generation of farmers have provided the row crops that are staples of the American diet.

And yet a quiet revolution is happening here, despite that history. It’s manifest in the reduced fertilizer use and better yields from taller, fuller plants on Miller’s farm: Sustainable farming has taken root among farmers of roughly half of the U.S. row-crop acreage.

“We cut our nitrogen amounts by 25 percent give or take this year,” Miller said, after describing his use of so-called split application of nutrients and planting cover crops of rye and oats on his fields in the off season to replenish nutrients naturally and improve the soil’s water retention.

SUSTAIN
Farmers being trained on the EDF/United Suppliers’ SUSTAIN practices.
These practices also mean money savings for the farmer and less nitrogen pollution in groundwater.

Miller is one of hundreds or potentially thousands of farmers taking up sustainable farming practices urged by a growing number of food companies and agriculture retailer cooperatives that make up the farming economy.

A major cooperative of ag retailers in the Midwest, United Suppliers, whose members supply and advise farmers who collectively grow crops on about 45 million acres, developed a program called SUSTAIN with the help of the Environmental Defense Fund. SUSTAIN is a toolbox of proven technologies and practices, data and advisory information on sustainable field nutrient management and efficiency, water management and soil health.

Farmers who provide crops to suppliers of General Mills, Unilever, Campbell Soup, Smithfield Foods, and Kellogg use the SUSTAIN program.

Starting Aug. 1, SUSTAIN will be joined with the sustainability program of Land O’ Lakes, itself a cooperative of farms and agriculture companies, to influence an even larger swath of the Midwest farm economy.

“We touch about 50 percent of the acreage of row crops — corn, soybeans, wheat, rice — in the United States,” said Matt Carstens, vice president of United Suppliers who will head up the combined SUSTAIN program under Land O’ Lakes beginning in August. At that point, the potential reach of the SUSTAIN and related sustainability programs through the network of ag retailers who advise and supply farmers will jump.

The adoption of SUSTAIN has been so swift — by both farmers and big food companies — that it is quickly becoming mainstream farming. According to EDF, 15 food companies representing about 30 percent of the U.S. food and beverage market are committed to the program, particularly on efficient fertilizer use. And that was before the merger with Land O’ Lakes.

We touch about 50 percent of the acreage of row crops — corn, soybeans, wheat, rice — in the United States.
According to Carstens, SUSTAIN practices include everything from tissue sampling, or lab testing one leaf of a plant to determine exactly what that plant needs, to split application of nutrients for more precise delivery, to planting of cover crops to retain moisture and soil health in between planting seasons, to planting grass buffers on irrigation water ways to capture sediment and nitrogen before it gets to streams.

It also includes advice and instruction on reduced tillage to prevent the soil from losing the natural microbial growth and nutrients that spring from the biological breakdown of the previous season’s crop residue. It trains farmers in plowing with blades that create rows amid plant residue on the soil without clearing it. And it includes the use of big data, or using the readings of all sorts of data about a field from soil components to moisture levels to weather forecasts and indicators in algorithms to help farmers decide when to plant, when to harvest, when and where to irrigate and what nutrients to add on which rows.

Environmentally, many of these tools reduce soil erosion and runoff and thus nitrogen contamination of groundwater. They also reduce the need for so much fertilizer in our food, conserve water and cut the carbon emissions from a farm by keeping the carbon in the ground.

Environmental benefits
Suzy Friedman, senior director of agricultural sustainability at the Environmental Defense Fund, has been working with farmer groups, ag retailers, food companies and United Suppliers on the SUSTAIN program.

“Our goal is really to help foster an agricultural system that is both highly productive and more sustainable particularly in water and climate resilience,” Friedman said in an interview. “We saw an opportunity to have a major driver of that be demand from the food sector.”

EDF first started working on fertilizer efficiency with Walmart when the giant retailer decided that wanted to reduce the environmental footprint of the commodities used in its products. Because Walmart is so huge, its actions affected the market.

Food retailers Unilever, Campbell Soup, General Mills and Smithfield Farmers joined in the sustainability sourcing of farm products bandwagon, encouraging suppliers to use SUSTAIN and other programs to strengthen their individual efforts toward sustainability.

And Kellogg this summer joined in a big way, after having worked individually with suppliers and farmer groups to spread a farm-to-table sustainability philosophy.

Diane Holdorf, Kellogg’s sustainability chief, said, “People increasingly really care about where their food comes from, how it is grown and how it is made. We can’t do this really important work to protect the land without collaboration” with farmers and ag retailers and others in the agricultural economy, she said.

In bringing SUSTAIN to its wheat suppliers in Nebraska, Kellogg expects it could influence farming of roughly 750 farmers working about 1 million acres.

They would be in addition to farmers of 2 million or so acres already using pieces of the SUSTAIN program.

EDF’s Friedman said a sort of tipping point has been reached where these practices are being adopted at scale. Before, each food company was trying to work individually with suppliers. “We saw a lot of pilots for a long time,” she said.

But as collaboration and something designed for farmer that saves them money, SUSTAIN program seems to have hit a breakthrough point.

“We believe that if we can get at least 45 million acres of corn in the sustainable program, if we can reach that goal by 2020 we think that can be a real tipping point, so that (sustainability) could be the norm by 2025,” she said about corn, of which roughly 90 million acres are in production in the U.S., according to the Department of Agriculture

“Similarly with wheat and soybeans,” she added.

About 85 million acres of US farmland are used to grow soybeans, according to the USDA, and 56 million to grow wheat. Getting farmers of at least half those acres to take up sustainable practices would add another 70 million acres into sustainable cultivation.

Carstens doesn’t think these goals are far-fetched: “Farmers don’t want to lose any of their product, either, so anything they can do to feed their plants and feed more of the world, they want that.”

Farmers typically lose 40 percent of their fertilizer nutrient additives to run off when rain or unreceptive soils, he said, so anything to prevent runoff saves them money.

On the farm
Back in Iowa, Miller likes what he sees. Since he began using split application of nutrients, or fertilizing his fields in smaller precise amounts two or three times a year instead of one big application, and planting cover crops in between growing season, he has saved money and is on a path to improve yields. “This year the crops are a lot better than usual,” he said. A lot of variables go into crop health including weather, but he believes improvements to the soil’s health from cover crops might be part of it. “And I’m saving money.”

By planting rye, oats, radishes and turnips for the winter season, he is watching the soil of his fields get spongier, hold water better and replenish without much fertilizer by using the nutrients from these off-season crops.

Brent Hall, the ag retailer that Miller relies on, said that his farmers had such good results in the first year of the SUSTAIN program that he went from three farmers to 28 farmers now using the program’s tools and practices. Together they farm 11,200 acres.

split application, we were losing 40 or 50 percent of the nitrogen to rain fall.
“Before split application, we were losing 40 or 50 percent of the nitrogen to rainfall,” Hall said of the four dozen farms he oversees as the ag retailer and adviser in the Lacona, Iowa, region.

Now they are seeing a boost in yields.

“We went with split application and my farmers saw an average 30 bushel increase,” in corn production last year, from 160 to 190 bushels for the average farm in his area, Hall said.

That’s what farmers want because that is what improved productivity looks like.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016 – 2:18am

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