Growing Hope Foundation

​Dear friends,
I hope this finds you enjoying a beautiful and relaxing summer, wherever you find yourself!  One of the things I am doing to relax in my spare time in these beautiful summer months is digging into a book that has been on my "to read" list for years.  If you're familiar with it, you know why it has taken me so long to actually commit.  The book is "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett.  And, not that I judge whether or not to read a book based on its physical dimensions, but this particular book is close to 1000 pages long, and it is oversized at that.  So, the appearance alone is a bit intimidating.  Also, the subject of the book could give a person pause, wondering if it will be worth the investment of time.  It is about the process of building cathedrals in medieval times and the people who spent their lives doing so.  I started reading it last week and I am only on page 41, although it has enraptured me and I already feel invested in the characters.

However, the purpose of bringing it up in today's blog post is not to commend the book to you.  I use it as the backdrop of an idea that is spoken of so frequently in certain circles these days that I think the dire nature of the subject is oftentimes lost through the "popularization" of the topic.  The topic is that of food insecurity.  Food insecurity is real for many people throughout the world, some places more than others; some races more than others; some socio-economic classes more than others.  To varying degrees, food insecurity is a current issue to contend with.

It is also an age-old issue that humanity has had to contend with.  Sometimes I think because today we can discuss this particular topic in very detached settings, we lose some of the desperation faced by those people who deal with it.

This is where the book comes into play for me.  Like I said I am only on page 41, but already I have met folks who deal with food insecurity every day.  The setting of the book, as I mentioned, is medieval times.  Life was much wilder then.  There were not state-run welfare programs for the poor to sign up to receive relief, save for the church.  In the particular scene that really painted a vivid picture for me, a family was journeying through a large forest, on their way to a town in which the father hoped to find work.  Along with his wife and two children, they shepherded a pig on their journey, one they had bought as a piglet and had been feeding for months in order to sell for food that would make it possible for them to survive the winter.  As they travelled through the wild forest, a band of robbers attacked the family and stole their pig, the only thing that provided them with a sense of security for their long-term sustenance.  All of a sudden they were "food-insecure."

Certainly I have read more recent, and real-life, accounts (this novel is a work of fiction) of people dealing with food insecurity.  But, for some reason, this image of this little family's whole survival being put in jeopardy because someone else, who was probably equally as hungry (not that it was right) stole their pig.

Probably most of us reading this blog post cannot relate to the notion of food insecurity.  But, I would like to challenge us all to try to conjure up to what lengths we would go to secure food for our families if it meant the difference between life and death.  From the comfort of our own homes it can be easy to shake our heads and "tsk, tsk" at people who would commit crimes of all sorts.  But, we might look at it differently if we were not sure where our next meal, our next 5 meals, our next 25 meals were going to come from.  That is what it means to be food insecure.

My point today?  Simply to ponder.  (And, if you come up with a way to participate in doing something to help someone who is food insecure, all the better!)

Peace to you today, my friends.
Julie

​Hello my friends,
Do you remember when "they" used to say that corn was doing good if it was "knee-high by the fourth"?  And that meant the Fourth of July!  Heck, these days it is knee-high by the middle of June!  Ever wonder why?  Well, recently I landed on that observation.  And, even though I did have an idea (because I like to understand trends in agriculture), I still had to pause to wonder at this advancement.  And, because Growing Hope is conservation-minded in its approach to farming, I couldn't help but do a little perusing a variety of publications which would suggest that some of these advances are due to employing more conservation-type methods of farming.  In my reading I came upon a great article published by Cornell University, a land-grant university in Ithaca, New York.

I realize not everyone is especially interested in learning about Conservation Agriculture, but I figure this may be the only place you have been introduced to, and continue to learn about, this important subject.  And so below, in italics, is the text of that article.  If you really pause and consider what a powerful change Conservation Agriculture is making on the world, you just might find yourself surprised by how interesting the topic really is!

I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did!

Peace to you today.
Julie


Advantages of Conservation Agriculture

Conservation agriculture is generally a "win-win" situation for both farmers and the environment. Yet many people intimately involved with worldwide food production have been slow to recognize its many advantages and consider it to be a viable alternative to conventional agricultural practices that are having obvious negative impact on the environment. Much of this has to do with the fact that conservation agriculture requires a new way of thinking about agricultural production in order to understand how one could possibly attain higher yields with less labor, less water and fewer chemical inputs. In spite of these challenges, conservation agriculture is spreading to farmers throughout the world as its benefits become more widely recognized by farmers, researchers, scientists and extensionists alike.
Specifically, conservation agriculture (CA) increases the productivity of:
 
Land - Conservation agriculture improves soil structure and protects the soil against erosion and nutrient losses by maintaining a permanent soil cover and minimizing soil disturbance. Furthermore, CA practices enhance soil organic matter (SOM) levels and nutrient availability by utilizing the previous crop residues or growing green manure/ cover crops (GMCC's) and keeping these residues as a surface mulch rather than burning. Thus, arable land under CA is more productive for much longer periods of time.
 
Labor - Because land under no-till is not cleared before planting and involves less weeding and pest problems following the establishment of permanent soil cover/crop rotations, farmers in Ghana reported a 22% savings in labor associated with maize production. Similar reductions in labor requirements have been reported with no-till rice-wheat systems in South Asia and various CA technologies in South America. Much of the reduced labor comes from the absence of tillage operations under CA, which use up valuable labor days during the planting season.
 
Water - Conservation agriculture requires significantly less water use due to increased infiltration and enhanced water holding capacity from crop residues left on the soil surface. Mulches also protect the soil surface from extreme temperatures and greatly reduce surface evaporation, which is particularly important in tropical and sub-tropical climates. In Sub-Saharan Africa, as with other dryland regions, the benefits of conservation agriculture are most salient during drought years, when the risk of total crop failure is significantly reduced due to enhanced water use efficiency.
 
Nutrients - Soil nutrient supplies and cycling are enhanced by the biochemical decomposition of organic crop residues at the soil surface that are also vital for feeding the soil microbes. While much of the nitrogen needs of primary food crops can be achieved by planting nitrogen-fixing legume species, other plant essential nutrients often must be supplemented by additional chemical and/or organic fertilizer inputs. In general, soil fertility is built up over time under conservation agriculture, and fewer fertilizer amendments are required to achieve optimal yields over time.
 
Soil biota - Insect pests and other disease causing organisms are held in check by an abundant and diverse community of beneficial soil organisms, including predatory wasps, spiders, nematodes, springtails, mites and beneficial bacteria and fungi, among other species. Furthermore, the burrowing activity of earthworms and other fauna create tiny channels or pores in the soil that facilitate the exchange of water and gases and loosen the soil for enhanced root penetration.
 
Economic benefits - Farmers using CA technologies typically report higher yields (up to 45-48% higher) with fewer water, fertilizer and labor inputs, thereby resulting in higher overall farm profits. In Paraguay, net farm income of no-till (NT) farming on large-scale commercial farms increased from $2,3467 to $32,608 more than farms using conventional tillage over a 10 year period. The economic benefits of NT and other conservation agriculture technologies, more than any other factor, has lead to widespread adoption among both large- and small-scale farmers throughout the world.
 
Environmental benefits - Conservation agriculture represents an environmentally-friendly set of technologies. Because it uses resources more efficiently than conventional agriculture, these resources become available for other uses, including conserving them for future generations. The significant reduction in fossil fuel use under no-till agriculture results in fewer greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere and cleaner air in general. Reduced applications of agrochemicals under CA also significantly lessens pollution levels in air, soil and water.
 
Equity considerations -Conservation agriculture also has the benefit of being accessible to many small-scale farmers who need to obtain the highest possible yields with limited land area and inputs. Perhaps the biggest obstacle thus far for the technology spreading to more small-scale farmers worldwide has been limited access in certain areas to certain specialized equipment and machinery, such as no-till planters. This problem can be remedied by available service providers renting equipment or undertaking conservation agriculture operations for farmers who would not otherwise have access to the needed equipment. Formulating policies that promote adoption of CA are also needed. As more and more small-farmers gain access to CA technologies, the system becomes much more "scale neutral."
 
Active role for farmers -As with any new agricultural technology, CA methods are most effective when used with skillful management and careful consideration of the many agroecolgical factors affecting production on any given farm or field. Rather than being a fixed technology to be adopted in blueprint-like fashion, CA should be seen as a set of sound agricultural principles and practices that can be applied either individually or together, based on resource availability and other factors. For this reason, farmers are encouraged to experiment with the methods and to evaluate the results for themselves- not just to "adopt" CA technologies. Selecting among different cover crop species, for example, needs to be determined in relation to particular agroecological conditions of the farm, including soil type, climate, topography as well as seed availability and what the primary function of the GMCC will be. Similarly, planting distances, irrigation requirements and the use of agrochemicals to control weeds and pests among other considerations, must be decided based on what the farmer needs as well as the availability of these and other resources.