We have the ability to reshape our national farm policies as we consider a new Farm Bill in the coming months. We can push for more controls on pesticides by promoting the ideas in PACTPA (Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act). The natural world is ready to change with us, it’s just waiting for us to give it the opportunity to succeed.
It has been a busy four weeks for me since the last Iowa News landed in your inboxes. So much has happened that I probably wrote three or four versions of this edition in my head since then.
Perhaps the most well-known tool a farmer can use to introduce diversity into their growing system is the crop rotation. Each farm is different and may benefit from a crop rotation designed specifically to fit the needs of the land and the stewards who tend it.
If you drove around my area of Iowa prior to the last snowfall, you probably observed a fair amount of “snirt” on the edges of fields and in the ditches by the roads. If you're not from around here or you are not a person who periodically drives in rural areas where row crop fields are the predominant feature in the landscape, you might not know what snirt is. Snirt is snow intermixed with topsoil – an indication that wind erosion has taken place.
We enter another year where all of us who work at PAN and everyone who works as partners in the effort to build a better, healthier, and more equitable food and farming system must take a deep breath.
Roundup and other glyphosate products are the most widely used herbicides in the US. Altogether, we are looking at application numbers that approach 300 million pounds per year, with sales to the tune of $2.3 billion in 2020 alone.
After nearly two decades of vegetable and fruit production, I have come to the conclusion that one of the most under-used tools in a farmer's toolbox is intercropping, or multiple crops in one growing system.
Many people like to glorify the efforts of small-scale, diversified producers of quality food. They like to point to the willingness of these growers to work with, rather than against, nature. Some, myself included, believe that this sort of farming, using many of the principles of agroecology, is a key component for building a healthier, more just world.
Wasps are excellent beneficial predators and surprisingly good pollinators. More people need to know the roles they play.
I’ve spent more time than most reading the use labels on pesticides. I can tell you that it has nothing to do with a riveting plotline or excellent character development. Instead, it is because of where we live (Iowa) and what we do here (small-scale, diversified farm).
