Ok, so there’s farmers, and there’s farm managers. Being a small-is-beautiful guy, I’d rather see more farmers than farm managers. But there are big farms and there will be big farms. So there will be farm managers. What we need is for everyone involved in agriculture to embrace sustainable practices.

Last week, one of my program contributors shared a story about a farm manager who took over operation of several farms 25 years ago. The manager told farmers renting land from him that, instead of tilling in the fall, they would be required to sow cover crops.

Some farmers didn’t like that. But the farm manager tells of one farmer who hasn’t applied chemical fertilizers for eight years. His yields are the same or better than when he used chemicals. He was able to sell off some machinery that was no longer needed. His costs are less and his profits are up. Most important, his soil is being enriched instead of degraded. Continue Reading →