You may not believe climate change is real. You may not care. You might simply be a Carwood customer because of the fabulous quality of our beef. This is all fine. I've learned that it is not my place to try to influence or change peoples' minds. For me, I've been witnessing the impacts of climate change right here on the farm. Obviously not dramatically through floods, fires or hurricanes as other places have experienced, but with more subtlety. Seasonal temperatures have been different. Precipitation patterns havn't followed historically seasonal trends. Certain animals, such as pheasants that were present in great numbers when I was a kid are now completely absent from the farm.
As concerns about climate change grow, so does the amount of research regarding it's causes and solutions. Over the past several years, increasing evidence is proving that current dominate farming practices play a role in the problem, but also because of the shear magnitude of the globe land use by the agriculture industry provides key portions of the solution. And I do believe the problem can be solved. If you do much reading about climate change, it's easy to be overwhelmed and begin to think we are doomed. I know I've felt that way at times. In those times, I start thinking about the ingenuity of humanity. We've created all these things that have made our lives incredibly comfortable and convenient (cars, air conditioners, fertilizer to grow more food, and on and on) but have unintentionally caused problems. Then you begin to realize how many people are working on solutions, right now, as you read this.
This brings us back to the farm. It's been in my family for over 100 years. I want it to remain that way for another 100 years. The only way that happens is if the farm changes it's methods. If you are an avid reader of this newsletter, you know we are trying to do this through regenerative practices. Later this week or next (depending on the weather), I will be planting clover into my established pastures in the hopes I can get a good stand of clover growing. The clover will fixate nitrogen in the ground to feed the grasses that grow next to it. Then I will be able to reduce applications of fertilizer to keep the pasture healthy. I have the farm down to about 80% no till and hope to be up to 95% of the farm under no till methods by next year. This will allow the carbon that is in the ground to stay there and not be released into the atmosphere. I'm in the middle of instituting a new crop rotation that includes cover crops that support the no till, supports maintaining the soil's nutrient content naturally and removes carbon from the air as close to year round as possible.
These are just the basics. One of the problems is, I have few ways of measuring if any of these methods are actually achieving intended outcomes. Many of the solutions are also complex to implement and some haven't even been discovered yet. And I'm just a farmer. This responsibility isn't just on me and it shouldn't be. This is why partnerships with stakeholders from the scientific and academic communities along with the government and companies in the food industry who are impacted are important. I'm currently working on establishing relationships of this nature to support the efforts to create a farming model that is profitable and ultimately, at some point, helps to reverse climate change. (I want to be extremely clear here, I'm not advertising Carwood Farm to be reversing climate change right now. We are far from it. We are committed to working towards this goal)
These efforts will require a long sustained effort by this and many other communities both now and well into the future. We all can play our part. To be continued...
As concerns about climate change grow, so does the amount of research regarding it's causes and solutions. Over the past several years, increasing evidence is proving that current dominate farming practices play a role in the problem, but also because of the shear magnitude of the globe land use by the agriculture industry provides key portions of the solution. And I do believe the problem can be solved. If you do much reading about climate change, it's easy to be overwhelmed and begin to think we are doomed. I know I've felt that way at times. In those times, I start thinking about the ingenuity of humanity. We've created all these things that have made our lives incredibly comfortable and convenient (cars, air conditioners, fertilizer to grow more food, and on and on) but have unintentionally caused problems. Then you begin to realize how many people are working on solutions, right now, as you read this.
This brings us back to the farm. It's been in my family for over 100 years. I want it to remain that way for another 100 years. The only way that happens is if the farm changes it's methods. If you are an avid reader of this newsletter, you know we are trying to do this through regenerative practices. Later this week or next (depending on the weather), I will be planting clover into my established pastures in the hopes I can get a good stand of clover growing. The clover will fixate nitrogen in the ground to feed the grasses that grow next to it. Then I will be able to reduce applications of fertilizer to keep the pasture healthy. I have the farm down to about 80% no till and hope to be up to 95% of the farm under no till methods by next year. This will allow the carbon that is in the ground to stay there and not be released into the atmosphere. I'm in the middle of instituting a new crop rotation that includes cover crops that support the no till, supports maintaining the soil's nutrient content naturally and removes carbon from the air as close to year round as possible.
These are just the basics. One of the problems is, I have few ways of measuring if any of these methods are actually achieving intended outcomes. Many of the solutions are also complex to implement and some haven't even been discovered yet. And I'm just a farmer. This responsibility isn't just on me and it shouldn't be. This is why partnerships with stakeholders from the scientific and academic communities along with the government and companies in the food industry who are impacted are important. I'm currently working on establishing relationships of this nature to support the efforts to create a farming model that is profitable and ultimately, at some point, helps to reverse climate change. (I want to be extremely clear here, I'm not advertising Carwood Farm to be reversing climate change right now. We are far from it. We are committed to working towards this goal)
These efforts will require a long sustained effort by this and many other communities both now and well into the future. We all can play our part. To be continued...
Your Farmer,
Corey
Corey