Mission

The Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota supports the development and enhancement of sustainable farming systems through innovation, demonstration, education, and farmer-to-farmer networking.

Nothing New Under the Sun?

By Mary Jo Forbord

For farmers, every year the growing season offers a new menu of challenges and hopeful opportunities—what to plant, where to plant, how and when to market, changing climate, weather and field conditions, labor and capital availability…the variables seem endless.

Here at Prairie Horizons Farm, we have been in a major transition for 6 years—from annuals to perennials, from row crops to pasture, from conventional to certified organic, from dairy to beef, from growing commodities to selling food directly to customers.  You would think we would have farming down to a ‘science’ by now, after devoting a lifetime to it, and having the lineage and experience of the four generations of American farmers that came before us.  Yet 2008 is shaping up to be a year to remember, way different than any other year that has come and gone before it.  Wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice are at record-breaking price levels, followed closely by soaring agricultural crop and livestock input prices, escalating land prices, and oil topping $100 a barrel.  In our complex global economy, many more factors are at work, but what is becoming clear for all of us is that we are entering a new era--an era where business is anything but usual.

Until now, Americans have not had to think much about the price of food, due to a long run of ample supplies and relatively low prices.  Now, with food and energy costs soaring, populations growing, food recalls increasing, dietary patterns changing, global incomes rising, domestic employment and the US dollar falling, many more people will want and need to know how to sustain a safe, affordable and reliable food supply.  They will want and need to know how and where their food is produced, and how to reduce the real cost of food through choices based on nutrient density as well as environmental and social costs. 

And what of the champion of all nutrients and metabolic processes--water?  We are about to see this wondrous liquid of life take its rightful place on center stage.  Water is also the trump card of all best laid plans and predictions.  I can’t quite fathom the impact of a widespread drought on the precarious situation looming for the growing season of 2008. 

Although some of the changes ahead will be very tough, some will be very beneficial and overdue.  I am hopeful that we are ushering in a new era of eating foods grown locally, realizing the multiple benefits of agriculture done sustainably, harvesting diversity and bounty despite changing climatic conditions, unleashing the power of nutrition to prevent disease, and at long last, achieving food security as a non-negotiable human right for all.

Thankfully, I’m reminded of what is precious and won’t change. Solar energy is still free and plentiful, and photosynthesis still converts this life-source energy to provide food for all of earth.  Love, caring and the human spirit continue comfort, heal and strive for the common good.  Over the years, sustainable farmers have anticipated the tough choices facing us, and are well prepared to chart the course toward developing and enhancing sustainable farming systems through innovation, demonstration, education, and farmer-to-farmer networking. 

More and more people, especially young people, are looking for just what we have to offer.  Some have not yet imagined farming in their future, but then again, some have never had the opportunity to do so.  Incredible interest is developing in on-farm internships, farm tours, farm to school programs, farm stays, and on-farm experiential learning of all stripes.   Let this be the season when educating and mentoring young people is the crop that you add to the diversity you already sow.  It’s a crop that just might reap rewards beyond what you could imagine.