On a small farm in Omaha, spring is making its presence felt. Patches of snow melt, flowers rise from their beds and a pair of Canadian geese nest in the tilled fields.
"It's the same pair, and they come back every year for about three weeks," said Mark Brannen, co-owner of Benson Bounty.
From the outside, the 1.5-acre homestead, bordered by homes and a car lot, may not seem like much. But since 2015, Mark Brannen and his wife, Michelle, have managed to foster a complex ecosystem amid the variety of herbs, vegetables and other produce they grow and sell. By rotating crops, planting cover crops, using homemade compost and limiting outside inputs, they've created a sustainable system - and they've done it using many of the key principles of an agricultural approach known as biodynamic farming.
"One of the biggest things for me ... is the focus on the farm as a whole system," Brannen said.
Biodynamic farming utilizes the relationships between plants, animals and soil to turn one's waste into another's energy and eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Practices include only treating crops with compost and water as well as setting aside land for biodiversity and natural habitats.
Not only do these practices create more sustainable farms, but they also could help fight climate change. Organic farming, closely related to biodynamic farming, requires significantly less energy and produces less greenhouse gasses, such as nitrous oxide and methane, than conventional agriculture. And while these practices represent a tiny portion of all farms in the U.S., interest is growing and advocates say the mission couldn't be more important.
"It's about healing the earth - the plant communities, the animal communities, as well as the human community," said Evrett Lunquist, director of Certification for Demeter Association, Inc., and co-owner of the Common Good biodynamic farm near Raymond, Nebraska.
The Missing Piece
While Lunquist studied agronomy as a college student many years ago, he came across biodynamic agriculture in a comparison study between two farms. The idea that farms could work with, rather than against, the environment clicked with him.
"It was the piece that had been missing in my college studies," Lunquist said.
The early concepts of biodynamic farming were articulated in 1924 when Austrian scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner gave a series of lectures to European farmers who were noticing a quick decline in soil conditions, crop quality and animal health after using chemical pesticides.
Source: publicnewsservice.org
Photo Credit: istock-scharfsinn86
Categories: Indiana, Crops, Sustainable Agriculture