Natural Techniques Help

Farm Profitability and Preservation

Guest Editorial

by Jacinda Witt

The demand for locally grown and organic foods continues to increase and that demand has created a growing awareness that there are fewer and fewer farms to meet that demand. That awareness is creating a growing need, not only to preserve our farms and farmland, but to revive local agriculture, in order to insure future supplies.
So the question being asked is, “Why are our farmlands disappearing?” One answer is that selling real estate to developers has been more profitable than small to medium scale, local farming. Of course, there are as many reasons for the disappearance of farmland as there are farmers, but they all need to feed their families and pay their bills, the same as everyone else.
There are farmers whose yield consistently dwindles despite farming more acreage. At the same time, the costs of farming continue to rise even if their yield does not. This is true of both conventional and organic, or natural, methods.
At a recent agricultural meeting, preserving our farmlands was a main topic of discussion. When it was announced that one of the suggestions for preserving farmland was to make farming profitable again, laughter was among the responses. It was said that the suggestion was too over-arching and idealistic.
It was then asserted that farming can be profitable and that it is not as difficult as most might tend to think. Three ways to improve profitability are to shorten growing time, increase yield, without increasing the acreage farmed, and produce a value added crop. Now you are laughing, right?
There is a farm in our midst that is doing just that. Virgin Farms, in Albuquerque’s South Valley planted seed beginning June 8th of this year. We were harvesting yellow squash only three and half weeks later and acorn squash after only fifty days, instead of the usual ninety. We have produced approximately twenty tons of organic, natural produce off of less than four acres in less than 120 days, without sacrificing nutrition.
At Virgin Farms, our focus is healthy soil. Healthy soil produces healthy vegetation. Healthy soil is a natural deterrent to weeds and healthy vegetation is a natural deterrent to insect infestation. Nutrient dense, meats and produce are a by-product of healthy vegetation and healthy people are by-products of nutrient dense foods.
The nutritional value of the foods produced today, both conventionally and “organically,” generally lack nutrient density and, therefore, the nutritional value we are told we require for good health. The problem is that our soils are severally depleted, mineraly and biologically. The good news is it is possible to solve that problem, as Virgin Farms has.
At Virgin Farms we have dedicated ourselves to being a model for profitable farming, and we are achieving that goal by shortening growing time, increasing yield and producing value-added foods, i.e. foods with actual nutritional value.
Suddenly, idealistic is realistic.

For further information: www.otiusa1.com or www.tewww.technogreencorp.comchnogreencorp.com

Farm Fact

Nearly 1.8 million acres of farm and ranch land have been protected around the country by state farmland protection programs. Such programs, which purchase conservation easements on agricultural land, offer farmers and ranchers an alternative to selling agricultural land for development in areas experiencing intense development pressure. The programs also help to keep land available for future generations of farmers. To learn how much land your state has protected to date, view AFT’s “PACE: Status of State Programs” fact sheet at www.farmlandinfo.org or call the Farmland Information Center at (800) 370-4879.