Farming and beekeeping are all connected.  I thought this article that I wrote would be of interest to some on this list.



We need to change the way we farm. There are several things that are changing that will require us to farm in ways that most farmers don't do today. The energy we use to run our farm machinery is continuing to increase. Farmers plow the fields, disc, rake, plant, cultivate, apply pesticides and herbicides, irrigate and harvest the crop. There is a need to decrease these steps in order to save energy, keep the costs of farming down, improve our environment and still provide affordable food to feed the world. 

There has been much discussion about fossil fuels that will someday run out. Burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming and the costs of fossil fuels will continue to rise. Other direct costs to farmers are fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides. These are all made from crude oil. Commercial fertilizers release nitrous oxide into the air which is a greenhouse gas. Any unused fertilizer either soaks into the ground which ends up in the ground water which will at some point in time be released into streams or become runoff. The excess nitrogen then adds to the woes of the Chesapeake Bay by aiding algae growth. I don't think we know enough about what pesticides are doing to the environment. They are being looked at as a possible cause of CCD (colony collapse disorder) which is causing the loss of honey bees. 

The American Indians learned that by planting fish along with their seeds they could get a better crop. They also learned that to continue with this practice left too much oil in the soil and reversed their crop gain. They had to change growing fields for awhile until the oil dissipated. Our early settlers soon found that if they continued to grow tobacco on the same ground, year after year, that they too saw a poorer crop each year. They found that if they let the land lay fallow for a few years that they could go back and plant tobacco again. 

When we apply commercial fertilizers to crop residues they decompose faster and are mostly lost to the addition of humus to the soil. There is also the prospect of using crop residues for the production of ethanol. This too would subtract from the plants adding organic matter to the soil. We can't hope that growing crops for ethanol is the answer to our energy problems. We can already see what it has done to food prices. 

We need to learn not to waste things. Animal manure has its place in farming if it is done right. If you apply it directly to the fields, some will wash off into the streams before it can be an effective soil builder. Before manure is applied it should be composted to some degree to reduce the amount of nitrogen. What is left will add much carbon to the soil. This would be aerobic (with oxygen) composting. Then there is anaerobic digestion. This is without oxygen. It will produce methane gas which can be used as fuel and also removes some nitrogen. Either method should be used before depositing manure on farm land.

We have learned that we can grow cover crops that capture nutrients and add humus to the soil. Much of the soil we have today does not have much humus (top soil). Some of the earth we plant in is just a medium to hold up the plants while we feed them synthetic commercial fertilizer. We can do the same thing with hydroponics. We can grow plants in sand or poke the roots through holes in plastic sheets and spray the roots with water and nutrients. We need to practice farming methods that increase the humus in the soil. We also need to plant those type of plants that sequester nitrogen and carbon from the air and deposit them into the ground to eliminate the use of commercial fertilizers. Soil with humus also holds more water and nutrients and prevents them from running off or soaking into the ground water. This would mean less irrigation and less commercial fertilizers. We have made progress planting cover crops and utilizing no-till farming. But there is another way.

We need to do more organic no-till farming. This is growing crops like legumes that capture nitrogen and carbon from the air and put it into the ground. These crops would be grown, shredded, rolled flat and the new crop planted by no-till method all in one pass. The equipment to do this has been developed by the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. This method has been tested by Rodale and has shown that it can reduce the 39% nitrogen that ultimately reaches the Chesapeake Bay from agriculture. At the same time it would restore our once fertile land to some resemblance of what was here many years ago. 

Bill Bartlett

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