Food policy experts Sarah Hackney and Jamie Fanous have advice for those who feel overwhelmed or unsure about how to make a difference. Hackney is the coalition director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) in Washington, D.C., where she works with grassroots organizations to advocate for federal policy reform to advance the sustainability of agriculture, food systems, natural resources and rural communities. Fanous is the policy director at one of these organizations, a California-based nonprofit called Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). Together, Hackney and Fanous offer guidance on simple steps that we can all take to create positive change around us, in ways both big and small.

Join CSA programs and support food cooperatives 

Besides doing the research to elect officials who advocate on behalf of these priorities, the best thing we can do to support farmers year-round is to be just as conscientious about how we vote with our dollars. “Sign up for a CSA, go to the farmers market or co-op, purchase your produce from farmers directly. Go the extra mile to do that,” says Fanous. “If you’re going to a big box store, the produce is probably not from a small-scale farmer or a local farmer, so it’s really not supporting local economies. Joining a CSA program is a great way to build a relationship with your farmer and know where your food is coming from.”

Educate yourself and amplify your actions

For those looking to engage more deeply in food policy advocacy, Hackney and Fanous recommend tuning into social media platforms and newsletters from a mixture of national agricultural organizations, such as NSAC, and local ones, such as CAFF. 

“NSAC is one of the best places to get into the nerdy details of food and agriculture policy,” says Hackney. “We have a very active blog and a weekly e-newsletter where we highlight big food and ag policy news from D.C., along with free analysis you won’t find anywhere else.”

When it comes to understanding issues closer to home, Hackney says, “There are over 150 member organizations within NSAC, most of whom are state or regionally focused, and all of whom work in relationship with farmers and eaters in their communities. Almost all of them have active websites and social media accounts and some specifically have farmer- and consumer-led volunteer teams that help review and develop policy ideas both at the local and national level.” She recommends checking out the membership lists of a coalition such as NSAC or one of its peers, such as the HEAL Food Alliance, to see if there’s an active member organization in your state or region. 

Call Congress

Once you start following political and agricultural news, you may come across the occasional public request for citizens like yourself to contact local representatives in Congress to advocate for or against certain bills. 

“We share calls to action at key junctures in the policy process when there are opportunities for folks to make their voices heard directly with lawmakers,” says Hackney. “It’s absolutely possible for individual calls, emails and messages to make a difference: Lawmakers track and monitor who’s reaching out to them on issues that matter locally. When it comes to shifting food and farm policy toward more sustainable, equitable outcomes in our communities, we need those voices. We’re up against entrenched, well-resourced corporate interests and lobbying firms, and one of our best tools to push back is our willingness to speak up as voters, eaters and community leaders.”

“If organizations like CAFF or others ask—make the phone call. It makes a big difference,” says Fanous. “We very rarely ask people to make calls to their members, but when we do, it’s serious and we need that support. If you can’t make the call, repost the request on social media to give it more life.” 

Vote every chance you get

Besides the four-year presidential election cycle, there are congressional elections every two years, as well as annual state and local elections. Register with Vote.org to receive notifications about upcoming elections so that you never miss a chance to vote. 

“The coming 2024 election cycle may shape the fate and contents of the still-to-be-reauthorized farm bill,” says Hackney. The so-called “farm bill” should be passed by Congress every five years and pertains to much more than just farming. This package of legislation defines our food system, determining what we eat by how we use land, water and other natural resources. 

“Congress didn’t reauthorize the 2018 Farm Bill on time last year, instead opting to extend the old bill,” explains Hackney. “If Congress doesn’t complete the reauthorization process on the bill before the fall, that could shift farm bill passage timing into 2025, which means potentially new and different lawmakers sitting on the committees that draft the bill and new lawmakers in leadership positions to drive the process. While the farm bill is intended to represent the needs and issues of farmers and communities and families nationwide, the representatives and senators who sit on the House and Senate agriculture committees, who themselves only represent a slice of the country’s landscape and electorate, get to do the lion’s share of shaping that bill.”

If you’re not sure whether to vote yes or no for a particular bill, Hackney has advice: “If there’s a bill that focuses on an issue you care about, you can look up its authors and cosponsors—these are the lawmakers willing to go on the record with their support for a bill.” Keep an eye out for the names of politicians who are familiar to you and try to determine if their values align with yours, then use their judgment to guide your own. 

“For example, at NSAC, we’ve been organizing for several years around the Agriculture Resilience Act. It’s a bill that would address climate change by reshaping much of the US Department of Agriculture’s programming toward climate change action,” says Hackney. “It would increase resources and support for practices on farms that build diversity of crops and livestock, integrate perennial crops, keep the soil covered and integrate livestock into the landscape—all highly effective climate and agriculture solutions that can reduce emissions and build resiliency. Lawmakers who’ve endorsed this bill are essentially telling us: I support tackling the climate crisis by finding solutions through sustainable agriculture and food systems. You can find a bill’s cosponsors by using free, publicly available websites like congress.gov or govtrack.us.”

Diversify your approach 

“If we could fix our food and farm system by simply voting with our forks or making one quick call to Congress or growing our own food, we’d be there already,” says Hackney. “The truth is it takes action on multiple fronts—especially if we want to get to the root causes of the problems in our food and farm system. That means both doing what we can with our individual food choices—within our means and our communities—to support food and farm businesses operating on values of sustainability and equity and choosing to engage politically to improve food and farm policy.”

The post How to Be a Food Policy Advocate in Your Community  appeared first on Modern Farmer.

We also asked readers what questions they had for agroforesty experts. Here’s what you wanted to know, with answers provided by Savanna Institute executive director Keefe Keeley:

Q: How can I incorporate agroforestry practices into my small home garden?

A: Agroforestry practices help us think about how woody, perennial shrub plants can be incorporated into farming systems, as well as how food production can be achieved in forested environments. This can help you with your gardening as well. If your yard or garden is heavily shaded, you may be able to grow plants or mushrooms used in forest farming, which takes place under a closed canopy. If you are limited by space, you could consider growing perennial woody shrubs such as elderberries or black currants, which can begin producing berries in 2-3 years. Agroforestry invites us to think about how systems connect. Your plants could help provide a windbreak or visual barrier, habitat for wildlife and pollinators and food for your table all at the same time.

Q: If you want to plant an orchard with a guild but are limited on resources, which plants should be prioritized?

A: While plant selection will vary based on your specific location and goals, some agroforestry species have notable intercropping potential. Black currants and pawpaws are two examples of shade-tolerant species that can grow well with other types of trees. You can see examples of groupings used by other farms on our website and YouTube channel.

Q: How do you keep deer from eating the trees and shrubs (aside from building a giant cage fence around each one)? We would like to reforest a section of our property, but can’t imagine caging that many trees.

A: We are experimenting with a few different deer-deterrent strategies at our demonstration farms. We have had success with using five-foot high tree tubes for each tree (which offers other benefits as well) and with 3D deer fence: two separate electrified fences set three to four feet apart. This creates “depth” and makes it difficult for the deer to jump over them.

Elderberries are a hardy perennial crop that has been harvested by humans for centuries. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Q: What equipment do you use to dig holes to plant trees? A spade and rocky ground is hard-going.

A: We use a variety of equipment for planting woody shrubs. Depending on what is being planted and the soil quality, this could include a trencher and tree planter pulled behind a tractor, a PTO-driven post hole digger or some of the modified precision ag equipment we are experimenting with on our demonstration farms. You can learn more and see examples on our YouTube channel.

Q: Any sources for chestnuts? Seems that most nurseries in Canada are always sold out.

A: One of the biggest challenges to expanding agroforestry is the shortage of plant material currently available for purchase and planting. That’s why we launched a nursery with our partners Canopy Farm Management, which offers tree planting and plant material in the region. As members of the Agroforestry Coalition, we also work with others across the country to improve nursery stock availability and production.

Q: I know chestnuts prefer well-drained soils. How can those of us on more poorly drained soil grow the highest-value tree crop? Is there any research about using swales or planting in fields with drainage tiles?

A: “We are working with Canopy Farm Management to develop a series of mapping tools to help people identify areas of their land that would be most suitable—or unsuitable—for different agroforestry crops. These will be available later this year. Drainage tiles (which are common in Midwest farm fields) are a concern for many growers. We do not have much research or experience growing chestnuts with drainage tiles, but we’re working to learn more.”

Q: What are three of the fastest-growing trees for an emerging Southern California food forest?

A: Since most of our work is focused on the US Midwest, I would refer you to some of our collaborators in the southwest region. This video by the Quivira Coalition featuring Roxanne Swentzell could offer some insights. 

Q: Is there a comparable program [to SI] to help new farmers enter into agroforestry, including forest farming, in [a] mountain area of Maryland?

A: We are partnering on a new Expanding Agroforestry Project with Virginia Tech, which is working in Maryland. You should also check out Appalachian Sustainable Development, which is working to support agroforestry and forest farming in your region.

American chestnut tree flowering in spring. (Photo: Shutterstock)

In addition to reader questions, Keeley offered answers to three of the questions the Savanna Institute hears most frequently:

Q: Where can I find plants?

A: Talking with your local conservation specialists is often the best way to find plant sources that are a good fit for your location. The nation-wide Agroforestry Coalition has identified nursery stock and plant availability as a key bottleneck in expanding agroforestry production, so certain crops and varieties can be hard to find. We work closely with Canopy Farm Management, which offers agroforestry crops suited for the Midwest. For more nurseries in your area, check out the National Nursery and Seed Directory.

Q: Where/how can I sell my products?

A: In any farm enterprise, it’s important to identify market opportunities in advance and design your operation with these in mind. Farms using agroforestry sell products through the market channels all farms use—they just have more trees at work benefiting the crops and livestock on their farms. On some farms, the trees provide the primary crops: fruits, nuts, timber and other tree products. These farms sell their products through U-pick businesses, direct-to-consumer sales and regional wholesale distributors. Many tree crops are best sold as value-added products, which entails additional processing costs but can open up additional marketing opportunities.

Q: How do I find land to do agroforestry?

A: If you are thinking about planting tree crops, you will need long-term access to land to reap the full benefits of your investment. This is a significant obstacle for most beginning agroforestry farmers. Developing a detailed business plan and building relationships in your local community are important steps towards achieving this goal. Our new interactive guide, Designing An Effective Long-Term Agroforestry Lease, helps you work through key considerations for acquiring long-term access to land.

Do you have more questions for the Savanna Institute? Check out its “Ask an Agroforester” page for more frequently asked questions and to submit your own.

The post Your Questions About Agroforestry, Answered appeared first on Modern Farmer.

I raise and sell several hundred vegetable, flower and herb starts every spring, which meant that I was constantly purchasing plastic pots. In my experience, even high-quality plastic pots tended to fall apart after a few years, and I knew many people who simply threw them away after a single season of use. The idea of eliminating this form of waste was appealing to me, as was the additional promise of raising healthier plants in the process.

What is soil blocking?

Soil blocking is the practice of utilizing compacted blocks of soil to germinate and grow out seedlings before transplanting them into the garden. Soil blocks act as both the container and the growing medium, relying on a metal tool called a soil blocker to create the compressed cubes. 

Although the concept of soil blocking has been around for quite some time, its popularity has been steadily gaining traction, touted by many regenerative-minded farmers and adventurous home gardeners as a way to decrease plastic waste and the resulting impacts to the environment. “Soil blocks are the answer for a farm-produced seedling system that costs no more than the soil of which it is composed,” writes Eliot Coleman, a vanguard of the modern soil-blocking movement, in his seminal book, The New Organic Grower. “Blocks free the grower from the mountains of plastic [trash] that have become so ubiquitous of late in horticultural operations.” 

Soil blocking is also gaining in popularity because it promotes a healthier root system by utilizing a process known as “air pruning.” Due to the freestanding nature of each soil block, the plant roots are exposed to oxygen on all sides. The result is that, as the plant roots hit the outside edge of the soil block, they are effectively “burned” off via exposure to air, causing the plant to consistently produce new branching roots and thereby creating an overall healthy root system. 

When it comes time to move seedlings into the garden, soil blocking also allows for a gentler method of planting, thereby reducing transplant shock. Even plants that normally don’t like having their roots disturbed, such as cabbage, can be grown and transplanted successfully using soil blocks. 

Left: A young soil blocked collard seedling in the Blue Ridge Farm greenhouse. Right: Soil blocked plant at the farmers market. (Photos: Jillian Garrett)

Daniel Mays, founder of Frith Farm and another early adopter of the practice, believes that soil blocking also allows for the creation of a larger rhizosphere, (which is defined as the zone of soil where complex symbiotic interactions take place between the plant’s roots and beneficial microbes and fungi), because each block holds more soil than the tapered cells of plastic plug trays. “This means more roots, more soil contact and a more resilient plant.”

The opposite holds true for a plant raised in a traditional plastic pot: The plant’s roots become restricted and, having nowhere to go, head downward to the bottom of the pot, eventually resulting in what feels like an infinite swirl of frustration. When this happens, it is called becoming “rootbound” and this condition can not only stunt the plant but (in extreme cases) potentially even kill it. After being put in the ground, a rootbound plant can remain stunted, unable to overcome its constricted root system. It may take much longer to establish and, in the case of garden vegetables, produce a lower overall yield.

Now that we’ve covered many of the reasons in favor of soil blocking, what about the drawbacks? To be fair, soil blocking does involve a bit of an upfront commitment in the form of the costs associated to purchase the necessary tools, as well as a bit of extra labor involved to make the soil blocks themselves. I believe that these small obstacles are still vastly outweighed by the benefits that the overall system provides (not least of which, for my farm, included increased sales by offering a unique product).

How to soil block

 So, you’ve decided to try your hand at soil blocking—now what? The first thing you need to get started is one or more sizes of soil blockers, which are essentially an ejection-style press that compacts the soil into squares. You can choose from either smaller handheld versions (good for home gardeners and more economical in pricing) or larger (and more expensive) stand-up style ones. Most blockers come in several sizes, allowing you to keep sizing up your soil blocks as the seedlings grow and require more space.  

On my farm, I use three different sizes of handheld soil blockers. To germinate small seeds, I usually begin with a 20-square press (3/4-inch-diameter block size). When dealing with larger seeds such as okra, it’s best to skip this press size and germinate them directly into two-inch-diameter blocks. The one issue to keep in mind with the smaller block size is that the soil can dry out faster than with the larger blocks, so care and attention is needed so as not to accidentally lose fragile seedlings. 

At the onset of the seedlings’ first true leaves, I move them into two-inch-diameter blocks made using the four-square press. As the seedlings become more mature, I move them up to the final four-inch-diameter block size, using the one-square press, a couple of weeks prior to transplanting them into the garden. 

Part of what holds the soil block together is the established root system of the plant. It generally takes a couple of weeks for each seedling’s roots to fill out the soil block, so I highly recommend waiting for that amount of time before moving a seedling up in block size. I also recommend waiting until the seedlings have established roots in their soil blocks before attempting to transport them to market.

Soil blocked plant starts make a unique and popular display at the farmers market. (Photo: Jillian Garrett)

There are as many different formulas for ideal soil-blocking mixtures as there are farmers using the method. Each person has their own idea of what works, and everyone thinks that their recipe is the best. At the end of the day, the important part is that your soil mix is compactable but still possesses good drainage, which is why many folks recommend a blend that includes finely sifted compost (or potting soil) and coconut coir. I recommend experimenting to see what works for you and coming up with your own special blend. It can be something as simple as off-the-shelf seed starter soil or as bespoke as a mix of fine-grained homemade compost and sand with a small amendment of pulverized egg shells (such as that used by Siskiyou Farm). 

I also recommend using a deep rectangular tray (or even a wheelbarrow) in which to mix your soil medium. The secret to soil blocking is achieving the right consistency: If it’s too dry, it’s prone to crumble and fall apart; if it’s too wet, the blocks will slump over and deform. To make the mixture stick together and compact well in the blocker, you need to add a lot more water than you would think. According to Coleman, the ideal consistency is “much moister than most growers are used to. We are talking about something akin to chocolate fudge mix.” Essentially, it needs to be moist enough that, when you squeeze a handful of the soil mixture, a little water comes out.  

After you have filled all the squares in the blocker with soil mixture and smoothed off any excess, press firmly until you see water seeping out of the bottom. Then, release the handle and gently lift the blocker away (I recommend also using a slight rocking motion as you lift up), thereby freeing the soil block squares. Don’t feel bad if your first few attempts end in tragedy (mine certainly did!); perfecting this technique can take a little practice.

Beyond decreasing my reliance on plastic, soil blocking has had the added benefit of increasing my plant sales. By being one of the first farms to implement it on a commercial scale in my area, I can offer a unique product that really piques customers’ interest. Displaying shelf after shelf of soil-blocked plants in my farmers market booth is an excellent recipe for attracting curious passersby who want to know more about the pot-less plants. I have noticed a marked uptick in foot traffic and revenue at my booth by offering my plants in soil-blocked as opposed to potted form. 

While soil blocking does require a bit more labor and an upfront investment in tools, its benefits far outweigh these minor obstacles. Eliminating the need for plastic pots, creating healthier plants and root systems and—if you’re selling plant starts— increasing sales, are all reasons to give soil blocking a try. 

The post Soil Blocking Has Many Benefits. What is It and How Can You Get Started?  appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Many people are eager to do their part, and individual actions, taken as a whole, can make a big difference. At the same time, it’s important to remember that individual responsibility alone cannot solve the plastic crisis. Government regulation that holds manufacturers and polluters responsible is key to addressing the issue. 

So, what can you do? 

Recycle right

Recycling won’t stop the tide of new plastic being produced, but it can make a dent in how much virgin plastic goes straight into the landfill. Make sure you’re up to speed on which items are recyclable in your area, and keep in mind that your waste doesn’t disappear into thin air the moment it goes into the bin. 

“Human hands touch everything,” says Logan Harvey, senior general manager of Recology Sonoma Marin, which recently debuted a new recycling facility in Santa Rosa, CA. Despite employing a plethora of the newest technology to sort mixed recycling, human sorters manually review all the materials, sometimes dealing with non-recyclable items that range from head-scratching (an elliptical machine) to disgusting (used diapers) to downright dangerous (hypodermic needles). Recycling guidelines aren’t merely abstract recommendations; rinse and dry items and pay attention to your municipal guidelines.

Reduce, reuse and refill

You’ve heard it before, now hear it again: Reducing consumption of plastic and learning to reuse items before or instead of throwing them away are among the most important things you can do at the individual level. 

“It’s really the reuse, refill models that are most effective,” says Erica Cirino, communications manager for the advocacy group Plastic Pollution Coalition and author of Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis. “There are more and more refill shops, which are basically markets where you can get food and other home products, from washing machine powder to dish soap and toothpaste, without all the plastic packaging, by being able to fill up your own containers and bring them home.”

Reuse and refill map created by Plastic Free Future.

Short of that, Cirino advises looking for places where you can buy food that’s simply unwrapped, such as farmers markets and grocery stores that carry products loose or wrapped in paper. “Look for better options until more of these truly zero-waste shops can emerge,” she says. 

Get inspired 

Social media zero-waste influencers can perpetuate unrealistic standards for how little waste normal people with busy lives can realistically achieve. However, there are hundreds of clever ideas online to minimize waste or give items new life through repairing, crafting, decorating, gardening and reorganizing. To find ideas, search for keywords like “zero waste” and “plastic free” on your social media platform of choice to find accounts dedicated to creative ways to reduce and reuse. 

 

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Join forces

As awareness of the plastic issue has grown, so have the ranks of nonprofit organizations dedicated to addressing the problem through education and action. Some, such as  the Surfrider Foundation, The 5 Gyres Institute and Plastic Oceans, are dedicated to ocean plastics; others, such as Break Free From Plastic and the Plastic Pollution Coalition, envision a global movement to stop plastic pollution. These types of organizations often have the most up-to-date information about campaigns and opportunities to act; they’ll also gladly accept monetary donations to support their work.

There may also be local groups and initiatives to get to know in your community, which can be the most immediate and actionable way to get involved. “Being active in your local policy-making efforts and being aware of what’s happening in your own community is the most important place to start,” says Cirino.

Support legislation

Local and state-level laws such as plastic straw and plastic bag bans have proliferated over the last decade. Such bans are largely effective, with some exceptions, but they are a piecemeal solution to a much larger problem. 

In Canada, a national ban on single-use plastics, instituted in 2021, was recently overturned, granting a win to plastics manufacturers. The federal government has since appealed the decision, and the ban remains in place while the appeal works its way through the courts this year. 

Although previous iterations haven’t had success, US lawmakers recently introduced sweeping legislation that would address the issue at the federal level. The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2023 “is largely considered to be the most comprehensive attempt to address plastic pollution in US history,” says Cirino. “It’s not perfect, but it would better protect communities that are already harmed by plastic pollution, hopefully address recycling issues and also shift the burden of plastic pollution off of municipalities and taxpayers onto the actual producers of plastic pollution.”

To support the legislation, you can contact your congressperson and let them know what you think about the issue. You can also submit a form letter here.  

Educate yourself and others 

The issue of plastic waste can feel scary, complicated and overwhelming. There’s no simple solution, and no single person can solve it alone. Educating yourself, and sharing what you know with your friends and family is a great first step to raising awareness. 

There exist many books and documentaries on the issue of plastic waste. One of our staff picks is Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future (2023). Written by journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis, the book tours readers through the history of waste and recycling and explores where our waste—from plastic and paper to food waste, sewage, nuclear waste and more—really ends up and what it means for our future. 

***

We want to know: What products, tactics and strategies are you using to cut down on your plastic waste? What resources are most helpful? Tell us in the comments—we’d like to publish a story with reader recommendations!

The post What You Can Do About The Overwhelming Problem of Plastic Packaging appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Becoming certified organic, however, is not an overnight process for farmers. Adopting approved organic practices is only part of it. For a food to become certified organic, the farmland must be proven to have not received any pesticides or unapproved substances for at least three years. 

For farmers who use more conventional methods but are interested in transitioning to organic, the process can take years. The investment of time is not without risk. During this transition period, yields can drop and farmers can still be years away from a return. Despite these obstacles, there are several reasons that farmers still pursue organic certification, such as environmental and health benefits.

We talked with Lindsay Haines, National Pest Management and Organic Systems specialist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, about what this transition looks like and what kind of government-backed support aspiring organic farmers can lean on.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Modern Farmer: Can you tell me what the process of transitioning to organic farming looks like for producers in terms of requirements?

Lindsay Haines: The basic requirement is to not have any what they consider prohibited substances applied to your ground for at least three years. So, that could mean you transition ground that hasn’t had anything on it for other reasons—it was just not used or in a conservation program or something. There weren’t any inputs, it wasn’t producing anything, so it can transition right away. 

Or in the more common circumstances, if people are farming conventionally and using some of the prohibited substances, they have to then stop using those substances and start doing other things—whether they plant a conservation cover for three years or actually start producing crops without those prohibited substances, but you have to document that you have done that for at least three years. So, it could be right away if you didn’t have a history, and you can prove it, or more typically three years, because you need that period of time to remove those prohibited substances.

Much of our conventional agriculture uses synthetic inputs. And they can have some very short-term impacts and long-term impacts. [In organic farming], we want to switch from that chemically based system to a biologically based system. And so, it does take a little time for the system to reset, so to speak.

Certified organic farms can’t use pesticides or other prohibited substances. (Photo from Shutterstock)

MF: During this transition period, what are some of the obstacles or hardships that producers can come up against?

LH: A very common problem with organic folks is weed management. The chemical products that many farmers use are very effective in terms of terminating weeds or plants that they don’t want in their system. If you’re doing things organically, there’s no similar, easy way to do it. It’s usually a combination of practices farmers have to use. They have to use lots of cover crops, and they have to have a more intense crop rotation and they may use some tillage. 

There [are] some infrastructure issues. You need some infrastructure first, before folks can know, ‘if I grow this, where am I going to sell it?’ So, some of the other initiatives across USDA are dealing with that. Bottlenecks with [organic] meat processors is a huge issue. There’s not enough certified meat processors, and then a lot of granaries that don’t have these segregated facilities. But it is getting better. 

MF: Organic certified foods may fetch premium prices. But as producers transition to organic farming, can there be a loss in yield or a financial burden that comes along with making this transition?

LH: There definitely is. We actually are offering what we consider “foregone income” for certain crops and certain regions of the country [to] compensate farmers that will see that sort of dip in yields as they transition. But once they get through the transition, I often hear farmers say it actually takes more like five years [to] get back to the yields that they might have had before. But they definitely do get back. 

Even though they may be getting premium prices, they still have different costs. I hate it when people just focus on the premium prices, because there’s so much behind that in terms of investing in the production and the values and the environmental benefits. So, it’s a big picture. It’s not just about the premium prices.

MF: The USDA offers some support to farmers going through this transition, through programs such as the Organic Transition Initiative. How does the initiative aim to help address some of these obstacles?

LH: A few years ago, the secretary said he wanted all the departments to investigate ways to help people transition. And so, we got a bunch of folks together in NRCS and thought how can we help folks, and we wanted to pursue this foregone income piece. And so, we did the deep economic dive and came up with some ideas for that. 

But we also wanted to help folks overcome the learning curve. Anyone in any business that wants to change how they do things has to learn a new way of doing things. And so, we want to really invest in farmers who want to invest their time to [research and try] these new ways of doing things organically. The thought behind it is to invest in folks, spending more time learning about these new ways of managing, attending workshops, getting mentors, working with other crop advisors or organic experts to find how they need to make every management decision differently throughout their growing season.

Certified organic farms must prove that the land has not received prohibited substances for at least three years. (Photo by Shutterstock)

MF: Part of the initiative is to bolster organic markets. Is there anything that farmers or non-farmers can do to also help support the growth of the organic market?

LH: I think the more people can ask questions [and] be informed, because labeling is just incredibly confusing to people. While the organic standard is not perfect—there’s fraud everywhere, right?—it does set the standard. So, you can go to a place and look at what the standards are, you can talk to your farmers. I just think it’s a great opportunity for people to come together, both farmers and consumers, to learn about our food and our environment.

MF:  Is there anything else you would like farmers or non-farmers to know either about this transition in general or about the Organic Transition Initiative?

LH: I just encourage people, if you’re not familiar with NRCS, [to] come to your local field office, get to know the folks, have folks out to your farm, learn from each other. Get to know your farmers, get to know how your food is produced. Most farmers welcome those sorts of interactions. And I think we’re all better for it, when we learn more about how our food is produced, and our allies with the agriculture industry, wherever people are on the spectrum. It’s very important for our food and also our environment.

***

For farmers: You can learn more about the Organic Transition Initiative here and apply by March 1 through your local USDA Service Center to receive help making this transition. 

For interested readers: To get a deeper understanding of the organic label, read our coverage here.

The post What Does it Take to Become an Organic Farmer? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

With numbers like that, it’s clear that wasted food is a big issue, with an impact on the environment and food security. For problems this large, it’s easy to feel like individual action can’t make a difference. But in this instance, since we know that the largest share of wasted food happens at the household level, individual action being impactful isn’t just possible, it’s necessary.

“If we don’t take action as individuals, we will not be able to solve this problem,” says Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED. “All the grocery store and restaurant work and supply chain work that’s happening out there will not solve this problem without people in their homes changing their food habits as well.”

After talking to some experts in the field, we put together a list of recommendations for cutting down on your food waste at home.

Buy less

While this isn’t particularly groundbreaking, it really is the key to reducing home waste. Don’t buy more than you can consume within a given time period. The thing is, many of us become guilty of this without even realizing it. 

There are a lot of different mindsets that can contribute to food waste at home, says Brian Roe, leader of the Ohio State Food Waste Collaborative. Some of these can be very well-intentioned, such as the provider mindset—overprovisioning so as to always have enough on hand for everyone. “Your love language translated into a waste language,” says Roe. “People are more focused on trying to be that good provider and don’t necessarily think about the waste as much.”

When that’s the case, keep a food diary. Every time you toss something out, mark it down. Look for patterns. Are you buying too many bananas? Are you cooking in portion sizes that leave you with leftovers you aren’t eating? Roe also recommends physically collecting the waste in one place. The visual of how much it is can motivate change. Noticing these patterns is the first step in breaking the cycle.

You can also keep track of how much you spend on food and compare it to how much is wasted. Many consumers are financially motivated, and they don’t want to waste money. However, that isn’t always enough of a mindset to reduce household food waste.

“The point of waste and the point of purchase are so far apart,” says Roe. “People aren’t reconciling their books the way a retailer or processor is.”

Store it right

Have you noticed that every time you buy spinach, it wilts before you can use it? Do your raspberries go bad within days? Storing these things properly makes a difference.

Secondly, proper storage can prevent things from getting lost in your refrigerator. Using clear storage containers so you can see what’s inside or marking the contents with labels and dates is a good way to keep what you’ve got at the front of your mind.

Harvest Public Media recently ran a piece about how canning is coming back into style. Canning used to be very popular at the household level, but it has largely fallen out of practice. While many people do this to preserve their garden’s harvest into the winter, you can also draw upon tried and true preservation techniques to avoid throwing away surplus food before it goes bad. Try canning, jarring or jamming.

Lastly, use your freezer to buy yourself extra time. “Freezers are a great way to put a pause button on your food,” says Gunders.

Safely canning or jarring vegetables is a good way to avoid wasting them. (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Reevaluate ‘best by’ dates

We’ve all pulled a can of soup out of the cupboard only to see that its “best by” date has long since passed. But these dates are widely misinterpreted, says Gunders. Many actually refer to best quality, not to actual safety. 

“There is a small subset of products that can have some kind of increased risk associated with them,” says Gunders. “Deli meat is a great example. But we have no way as consumers to tell the difference at this moment because there [are] no actual legal definitions for the words they use next to the dates.”

There is now a push to create legal uniformity in the language you see on packaging so that it’s easier for you to tell what these dates actually mean. There is a voluntary language guide, which you can find here, but it is not universally adopted.

In the meantime, give things a sniff or taste, says Gunders. If it seems fine, it probably is. Of course, this doesn’t apply to everything. As a rule of thumb, Gunders says the exceptions are likely to be the foods that pregnant women are recommended to avoid.

[RELATED: The Staggering Scale of Food Waste, Explained]

Try weekly fridge clean-outs

It’s normal to accumulate extras in your fridge. Leftovers that you couldn’t quite finish or some surplus ingredient that you didn’t use all of, such as fresh herbs or half an onion. These are the items that are most likely to be tossed out unnecessarily. But you can reduce these occurrences with a designated day to use them up. Maybe you dress up leftovers with the extra ingredients you have lying around, or perhaps you cook all the extras into a stir-fry or soup. Being intentional about this can reduce the amount of food you toss.

“[Shop] your fridge before you go back to the store to really make sure you’re using stuff up,” says Gunders.

Compost as a last resort

We love compost. But, ideally, you are composting the parts of your food that can’t be used for something else. Roe says that research has suggested that, for some people, reducing food waste upstream and composting the scraps can be complementary attributes of a conscious consumer. But there’s also evidence to suggest that, sometimes, composting wasted food mitigates the guilt that people feel about letting it go bad. To address the food waste problem, compost should be the last resort, not a way to absolve yourself from wasting food.

A lot of things that often get tossed actually have viable uses in the kitchen—think, radish tops in your pesto or zesting your organic citrus rinds. For some clever tips on how to do this (plus many more), check out FoodPrint’s ABCs of Reducing Food Waste.

This graphic shows the optimal steps for reducing and handling wasted food. (Courtesy of the EPA)

Get the app

Thinking of creative ways to plan ahead during shopping trips or reuse ragtag ingredients may not be your strong suit. For those of us who might need help imagining what half a bell pepper and some shredded cheese might turn into, there are fortunately an abundance of phone apps that might help, such as Your Food – No Waste Inventory or KITCHENPAL: Pantry Inventory.

Roe recommends Hellmann’s campaign to decrease food waste, where you download the Fridge Night app and it helps you squeeze one more meal out of the stragglers in your fridge.

“You don’t have to be perfect at provisioning, you don’t have to be perfect at storing. But if you have the ability to make up for it at the end and the motivation to find the things in the fridge and put it together, then you are going to save money, get that one more meal a week out of your fridge [and] waste less,” says Roe. “And so, it kind of helps correct for other earlier errors in the chain.”

Learn more. Most of the data used in this article was sourced from ReFED, a leader in understanding food waste through data. Check out its homepage, Insights Engine and  Policy Finder for more information.

Let us know. We picked up these tips by talking to experts, but a lot of people have developed strategies from their own experience. Let us know in the comments about a creative way you reduce food waste.

The post A Bulk of Food Waste Happens at Home. Here’s How to Cut Your Footprint. appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Just about every farmer will tell you that dealing with wildlife is a frustrating balancing act. While most people love wild animals and want to see them exist in healthy numbers on the landscape, farmers don’t necessarily want to see those animals enjoying their hard-earned agricultural crops. Yet, as the world becomes increasingly urbanized, more and more wildlife habitat is being taken away and turned into housing developments or converted into farmland. 

The future of healthy wildlife populations may partly depend on our ability to learn how to peacefully coexist with them in close quarters, and this is especially true with farming. Farmers can be immensely important allies for wildlife, with agricultural land creating vital havens of habitat. The question then becomes: How can farmers balance the need for wildlife to live on the landscape with the necessity of producing economically valuable crops? 

I’ve been a rural resident and a regenerative farmer for nearly two decades, currently operating an 81-acre farm in a remote corner of northeast Washington State. During that time, most of my energy has been devoted to learning how to peacefully coexist with wildlife both on and around my property. That is not to say that the path to peaceful coexistence has been smooth. What I can tell you is that it has been enlightening—and the health of my farm has been so much the better for it. 

A herd of deer grazing in a hay field. (Photo: Jillian Garrett)

While the farmer in me may have a difficult time admitting that creatures such as gophers possess anything other than evil intentions in their hearts, deep down I understand that they—along with the other wild animals—all have an important role to play in maintaining a balanced ecosystem. What is imperative to realize is just how much of that also translates to the overall health of the farm: Wildlife biodiversity is far more significant than many people (farmers included) appreciate. 

Most of us already have some understanding of the importance of biodiversity on our property, at least from the perspective of beneficial insects and songbirds. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed installing Audubon-approved nesting boxes around my gardens to increase the populations of swallows that visit each year. They have made an enormous dent in the number of mosquitoes and biting flies that plague me and my livestock during the summer. This is a simple solution for increasing bird biodiversity, but what about when it comes to the larger animals? 

Welcoming birds and bugs onto your land is easy in comparison with wildlife such as deer, elk or even predators such as coyotes. For help on this topic, I turned to my local Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife office, where I spoke to Reagan Harris, a wildlife conflict specialist who assists rural residents and farmers in learning how to coexist with wildlife on their property. 

According to Harris, hedgerows are one of the best ways to increase wildlife biodiversity and habitat as well as direct animal movements away from valuable crops. Hedgerows don’t have to take up a great deal of space either: They can be something as simple as a 20-foot-wide row of shrubs or trees that run along a fence line or a riparian area. Hedgerows can also greatly benefit farmers by serving as erosion control on stream banks or as windbreaks for fields. These hedgerows not only help to create important areas of food and cover for a wide range of birds and other animals, but they also maintain critical travel corridors that help wildlife to move from one section of habitat to another. 

Hedgerows around agricultural lands provide wildlife habitat and travel corridors while funneling animals away from crops. (Photo: Jillian Garrett)

On my own farm, I have incorporated large sections of hedgerows along creeks and strategic fence lines that surround my hay fields. These hedgerows mostly consist of native shrubs that grow well on my property_hawthorn, serviceberry, chokecherry, etc. Over the years, I have learned the real trick with hedgerows is to utilize plants that provide food as well as cover, ensuring that creatures such as deer are more occupied eating hawthorn berries and leaves than they are in my hay crops. I have observed the hedgerows on my farm providing food and habitat for a wide range of wildlife, from cottontail rabbits and ruffed grouse to black bears and mountain lions.

[RELATED: Old Hedgerows are New Again as More Farmers Embrace Benefits]

While hedgerows help direct the flow of wildlife traffic away from agricultural land, Harris still recommends that farmers fence off their most valuable crops whenever possible to prevent conflict. Fencing doesn’t need to be permanent, and there are many ways of utilizing temporary fencing during the growing season. The important part is to make any long-term fencing as wildlife friendly as possible, especially when enclosing large sections of land. 

A good place to start is to spend time observing wildlife movement patterns on a property before beginning fencing projects. According to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks’s helpful guide on building fences with wildlife in mind (PDF), which I have often utilized in my own fencing projects, this helps prevent the closing off of important travel or seasonal migration corridors. That means that animals are less likely to jump over, damage or become entangled in fencing, which, in addition to preventing wildlife mortality, also saves landowners the hassle of costly and time-consuming fencing repairs. A quick and easy fencing solution that Harris recommends for farmers and rural landowners is called lay-down fencing, which is essentially a section of fence that can be laid on the ground when not in use. This allows wildlife to pass through a field when the area is not in production for crops or being used for livestock.  

Learning ways to direct animal traffic away from valuable crops is an important part of the solution for peaceful coexistence, but that doesn’t mean that farmers and wildlife can’t work together to create a mutually beneficial relationship. An easy way for farmers to do this is by allowing wildlife access to recently harvested or mowed fields. Hay (or grain) stubble provides excellent forage for wildlife, especially songbirds and gamebird populations, which, in turn, can help farmers by devouring insect pests that plague crops. 

One of the many ways I have learned to incorporate this on my own farm is by simply cutting my hay fields a little later in the season to provide crucial habitat and cover for wild turkey poults, helping to keep them safe from predators. Later in the season, once the hay fields are cut, these same turkeys provide welcome assistance in keeping the grasshopper population down (which is hugely beneficial to the health and aesthetics of my vegetable crops). In this way, the wild turkeys and I have figured out how to create a symbiotic relationship where we both come out winners. 

Even something as simple as putting up owl boxes to encourage the presence of owls, which, in turn, eat rodent pests, can be hugely beneficial to farmers and their crops. Owl boxes are something that I have started to incorporate on my own farm, and it has been very helpful in controlling the gophers that plague me every year. There has still been a bit of a learning curve though: At first, the owl boxes were not as successful in controlling gophers as I had first hoped. Then I realized that my outside greenhouse light, which automatically turned on at dusk, was negatively impacting the ability of the owls to hunt in the dark. Once I started keeping that bright light off at night, the gopher population began decreasing as the owls were better able to hunt in my gardens. As a result, I was able to enjoy the starry skies each evening as well as the peace that comes from knowing my pepper plants were being protected by these feathered farm friends. 

Owls are excellent farm friends for helping with rodent control. (Photo: Jillian Garrett)

Learning to live with wildlife also means learning to live with natural predators on the landscape, especially in rural areas where populations of creatures such as rodents and rabbits can be high. While smaller predators such as foxes and coyotes can be beneficial in helping to control everything from gophers to ground squirrels, they can also present a problem for farmers with livestock. Here, Harris recommends a good nighttime shelter to keep poultry and small livestock, such as sheep and goats, safe from predators. She also suggests using hot wire fencing for any livestock pastures, making sure that the fencing is offset from areas of brush or thick timber from which a predator might be able to ambush. 

I have implemented these suggestions on my own farm and, as a result, have been able to enjoy the perks of wild predators with minimal conflict. As a final suggestion for living with predators, Harris suggests incorporating livestock guardian dogs as another excellent option for mitigating conflict, helping to protect domestic animals while still allowing wild ones to exist on the landscape. 

At the end of the day, every farm is different, requiring customized and sometimes creative solutions for living with wildlife. What works for my farm may not work for yours, nor is every attempt to coexist with wildlife always successful. The important point here is the need to try, especially as vital habitat continues to vanish in the onslaught of increasing human populations and development. Farms are in a unique position to help, as well as reap some of the potential benefits, by providing substitute habitat and maintaining essential travel corridors for wild animals—making farmers important allies to the wild creatures that continue to call these places home.

The post I’m a Farmer Who’s Learned to Coexist with Wildlife. Here’s How You Can, Too. appeared first on Modern Farmer.

That’s why Ragan Adams, the veterinary specialist for the Colorado State University extension, recommends thinking through possible emergency scenarios before they occur, so you can have a full picture of what you might need. Different operations will have different priorities, and living on a flood plain versus a fault line will change your preparations accordingly. 

“If you have a dairy farm, there’s not many places you’re gonna move 1,000 cows and be able to milk them the next day,” says Adams. “So, people tend to put their emphasis on being able to shelter in place, be independent. In the beef industry, if you’ve got a cow-calf operation, oftentimes your benefit is land, so you move them to other pastures. Or in a hurry, if it comes up fast on you, you would cut fences and open gates and let them run for it.” 

While there are different strategies for individual operations, there are some principles to keep in mind when devising an emergency plan. 

Make a plan and practice it

It’s not enough to come up with an escape route or a plan in the abstract; you have to put it to the test. That means in the case of an evacuation, does your family know how to safely get off of the property and what to bring with them? There are resources, such as this Red Cross worksheet, that can help you work through every step of an evacuation. The Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) has resources for most every emergency you can encounter, from Tsunamis to swine fever. 

On a farm, think about everyone that might be on site. If you have employees or seasonal staff, emergency training with clear instructions is a must. Everyone should be aware of what to do in the event of an emergency and where to safely meet up afterwards. For a large staff, it’s a good idea to designate a team captain or leader who can be briefed on specific instructions and shepard folks along. 

And don’t forget about your animals. Get them used to being loaded into trailers, carriers or whatever mechanism you use to transport them. If you have the option to let them out to a further pasture, practice running out to the fencing or guardrails to ensure the livestock can safely move where they need to go. “If you have a trailer, but you haven’t put your horse in it in three years, when there’s all this excitement and everybody’s worried, those animals can get very worried. So, it’s important for their owners to practice getting them used to it,” says Adams. She recommends running through a drill yearly, to keep everyone up to speed. 

Have a buddy

What if you’re out of town when disaster strikes? Or if the emergency is too big to handle alone? Farmers tend to look out for one another, and this is no different. If there are several producers in your area, consider developing a phone tree or other communications plan if there is adverse weather in the forecast. 

And, says Adams, include your buddy in your planning session. “I know of a group in Colorado that has annual days in the spring, they’ll get a whole bunch of people together and practice loading their horses, so that everybody gets [comfortable],” says Adams.

Stay in contact

Make sure you have a reliable source of communication that is not a cellphone. Cell towers and service can easily go down in inclement weather, or signals may be jammed. Even landlines aren’t foolproof in certain situations. “The more reliant you are on one source of communication, the more you need backups,” says Adams. 

Adams suggests keeping a radio on hand, so you can get alerts and information as needed. She keeps a solar-powered ham radio on her property, which also allows her to radio out in case she needs assistance. Some municipalities or counties also have designated channels or feeds for emergency alerts. You can often sign up for alerts through your local emergency management office or private services like this one. Keep in mind, however, that you don’t want to solely rely on a cellphone or internet services. 

Keep your vehicle prepared

The final piece of the escape plan is ensuring that your vehicle is prepped and ready for transportation. That means ensuring that it’s gassed up and roadworthy. It could also mean keeping copies of printed maps handy in the vehicle—if those cell towers are down, GPS signals aren’t going to work well. 

Make sure that any attachments to the vehicle, such as trailers or flatbeds, are in good condition and easy to work with. Make sure that all tires are full and patched and that everyone knows how to operate any machinery they may have to work with. 

In the event that your area loses power, are you able to manually open fences, garages, gates and locks? Practice using these manual options, and make sure any electrified fences or gates have an override option in the event of power outage. Keep flashlights and other safety equipment in areas with easy access, so if lights go out, you’ll be able to see what you’re doing in the dark. 

The post How to Evacuate Your Animals in an Emergency appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“When faced with that immensity of a problem, you’ve got to really focus on, ‘Well, what can I control?’” said Natalie Balbuena, researcher with Food & Water Watch, in a recent webinar. “There are a lot of key tools that I think begin with awareness.”

You can take steps to limit your PFAS exposure, even in your home. (Photography by Shutterstock)

Educate yourself and your community

Although it sounds simple, educating yourself about PFAS can lead to real change. Dana Sargent, executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, has been working with community members to test home wells for PFAS. These conversations can be devastating, she says, when people with sickness in their families find out that the water they’ve been drinking is contaminated. For a lot of people who learn about their exposure, the next step is telling other people they know.

“A lot of these folks that have come to know about this are sharing with their neighbors,” says Sargent. “And that is vitally important, because education is the first step towards policy change.”

[RELATED: Toxic PFAS are Everywhere, and Remain Largely Unregulated]

Case in point: There have been a lot of restrictions on who qualifies to get their well water tested in North Carolina. Sargent has been pushing for a pullback on these restrictions, and as more community members learned about the issue, they began contacting the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) as well to voice their concerns. 

Just this December, NCDEQ announced that it is pulling back restrictions, allowing thousands more people to get their well water tested—a big win, says Sargent.

“Action does effect change,” says Sargent. “We’ve got to beat it with a frickin’ heavy hammer in this town and in this state, but it does work.”

The documentary The Devil We Know is one good place to start. It provides a thorough look into the history of PFAS and how it affects human communities. 

Utilize your buying power, if possible

There’s no doubt about it—being able to be selective about where you spend money is an economic privilege. Systemic factors like this make certain communities disproportionately impacted by PFAS contamination. This is a justice issue, because non-contaminated products should not be accessible only to the wealthy.

“This is definitely an environmental justice issue,” says Balbuena of Food & Water Watch, “primarily because it really connects to a lot of the historical injustices when it comes to placing low-income communities of color next to certain chemical-producing, plastic-producing [and] fracking sites and just having them exposed to all these toxins and then being left with not only paying for the development of those things but also a lot of health effects.”

For those who are financially able, the Center for Environmental Health provides a list of PFAS-free products including textiles, foodware and more. Another accessible list that includes cosmetics, baby products and furniture is available here.

Voicing priorities to companies is also effective, even if you can’t use your dollars in a certain way. It can change company behavior.

“There are companies starting to respond and you can start to get some PFAS-free products,” said Kyla Bennett, director of science policy for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), in the Food & Water Watch webinar. Lowe’s took PFAS out of its indoor residential carpets. IKEA removed it from its processing. “I think those are some victories that we can take heart from.”

Limit plastics and other known dangers

Products containing PFAS won’t be labeled as such, and we do not yet have labeling requirements for products claiming to be free of PFAS. When it comes to products labeled PFAS-free, Bennett cautions that you have to be careful of greenwashing. Sometimes, one PFAS may be removed from a product just to be replaced with another. Look into the company’s verification process, if possible. 

Still, there are some things that you can assume contain PFAS. Bennett recommends avoiding #2 plastics as much as possible. This could be food containers, shampoo bottles and the like. Waterproof items, such as mascara and rain gear, can also be sources of exposure.

Another known danger is nonstick cookware. “Get rid of your Teflon pans,” says Sargent. “Obviously, if you get rid of it, you’re putting it into a landfill, it’s going to end up back in the system in some way. But like, don’t cook on that garbage.”

Know where your drinking water comes from

About 20 percent of exposure to PFAS comes through drinking water. One thing you can do, says Bennett, is look for certified filters to reduce PFAS loads in your home. Under the sink reverse osmosis is effective, but can be costly to the individual household. It also requires maintenance by the homeowner, which can make it difficult for renters.

“Reverse osmosis is very expensive,” says Emily Sutton, Haw Riverkeeper for the Haw River Assembly. “And that’s an environmental justice issue to say that only the wealthiest of us can have safe drinking water.” 

Knowing where your water comes from is important, says Sutton. Last year, in response to the PFAS contamination in the Haw River that was contaminating Pittsboro’s drinking water, the town installed a granular activated carbon filtration system. This effectively removes the majority of the PFAS from the town’s drinking water. 

The Haw Rivershed. (Photography by Emily Sutton)

Be vocal

The EPA recently withdrew its conditional consent for the chemical company Chemours to import waste containing PFAS to its North Carolina location, stating that the agency initially received inaccurate data from the company. Sargent believes the reversal is largely thanks to the fact that local residents have become such strong voices on this topic.

“We pushed back hard and they’re like, ‘We can’t do this to that community. They’re paying attention,’” says Sargent. “That’s huge.”

***

This guide accompanies our reported story about the history of PFAs, why regulators have been slow to act, and how one community successfully reduced the amount of these chemicals in their water. Read that story here.

The post You’ve Already Been Exposed to Toxic PFAS. But You Can Take Steps to Minimize Future Exposure. appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Instead, you think to yourself “my garden is too small to actually make any profit.” “Who would I even sell to?” “I don’t have the space to scale a business properly,” while you weed and prune and tend to your plants.  

If you’ve looked out over your garden plot and thought any of those things before, Jill Ragan would like a word. The proprietor of Whispering Willow Farm, who also runs a popular YouTube channel documenting life on the Arkansas farm, has made it her mission to help everyone get the most out of their garden—no matter what the size. In her new book, The Tiny but Mighty Farm, Ragan walks readers through the basics of everything from plotting out a garden to germinating seeds to supporting other producers in your community. But most importantly, she debunks the myth that only those with multiple aces can have a successful farming business—something she discovered first-hand when she and her husband first began farming.

“When we bought our first piece of land, we were broke … We couldn’t afford more than an acre,” says Ragan. “At first, I felt really defeated by that.” She worried she would only be able to grow enough to feed her family; she certainly never imagined that she could feed a whole community. But when she started speaking with other small farmers—such as Ray Tyler at Rose Creek Farms, who successfully farms on only an acre—it changed her perspective. “That’s when I started thinking, ‘I don’t need to spend more money on more land, I need to spend more money educating myself on how to use my land better.’’

So, that’s what she did. She plotted out garden patches, ensuring every bed was positioned optimally, and researched garden tunnels to learn how to protect her crops from the elements and maximize output. After all that work, she came to another realization. “When you scale up your land, your inputs go up, too,” says Ragan. “It’s going to take you so much longer to pay yourself back the debt that you’re in. If you would have just stayed small … you probably would have been better off.” That’s why one of the key tenets in The Tiny but Mighty Farm is not just to start small but to not be afraid to stay small. It’s entirely possible to build a business from your suburban backyard garden—and Ragan is happy to coach you through it. 

But before you even put your hands in the dirt, the first step, she says, is to define the pillars, values and visions for your business, which are the immovable core tenets, the guideposts for growth and your goals and dreams. Ragan adds that it’s important to sort out each of these beliefs from the get-go, since they will ultimately influence how you operate. 

“If you’re going to grow food, you might have that fork in the road where someone’s asking you to compromise,” says Ragan. Maybe you are a completely organic grower or maybe you’ve committed to no-till practices. Maybe you’re a conventional producer, but you know that you’re keeping half of your land untouched because you want to use it for something else. Whatever you’ve decided, Ragan says to make that promise to yourself and let those promises guide your decisions. Ragan advises growers to write down their values and put them somewhere visible (hers are posted on her dining room wall) so they can be referred back to whenever needed. Once you’re clear on what you actually want out of the business, it’s time to get to work. 

Ragan has filled the book with charts and notes sections to help with things such as plotting out succession planning and mapping out a garden, which readers can copy or fill in directly. Using notes, maps and spreadsheets is crucial, she adds—especially when utilizing a small space. “I didn’t want this to be a coffee table book. I want dirt on the pages, I want you to jot notes down,” says Ragan. 

She recognizes that kind of organizational impulse doesn’t come naturally to everyone. In fact, it didn’t come naturally to her, either. “I’m not going to lie, that’s not who I am at all,” she says. “I’m totally a free spirit. By nature, I’m not an organized person.” But after a few months of trying to wing it on the farm, she realized that simply wasn’t going to work. “I may hate [spreadsheets] with every fiber of my being, but the farm was suffering because I didn’t have these systems in place.” Today, Ragan credits the success of her farm and business to those spreadsheets and organizational systems—and they can help readers get started, too. 

One of the most important things to schedule into those charts and planners is rest time—and not only once you’ve done the work, planned out the garden and finished your first planting. No, says Ragan. Plan for regular rest and relaxation throughout the process. Farmers and growers of all sizes can burn out, especially if they’re also attempting to sell their products. 

“It may sound silly, like why do you need to block out time for relaxation? When I walk into the garden, I immediately see fruit that needs to be harvested, beds that need to be weeded or something that needs to be stalked up a trellis, and it’s my natural instinct to go and fix the problem,” says Ragan. “But when you constantly do that, you’re never enjoying the bounty of what you’ve worked so hard for.” Ragan says she learned to schedule blocks of 30 minutes at a time where she would go and sit in the garden: just sit, without worrying about the work that needed to be done. Even if you have one raised bed or an acre of land, it’s the same principle. You’ve worked hard, she says, so give yourself time to enjoy the literal fruits of your labor.

The Tiny but Mighty Farm is for hobby gardeners, full-time farmers or anyone looking to get from one end of the spectrum to the other. But no matter where you are in your journey, Ragan believes you’re ready to grow. “Don’t wait. The more you wait, the more you’re going to make excuses,” she says. “The only way you’re going to know how to farm and garden is by getting your hands dirty and making those mistakes. Don’t hesitate, don’t question yourself. Just dive in.” 

The post How to Turn Your Garden Into a Business, No Matter the Size appeared first on Modern Farmer.