How we increased our farm's resiliency with the help of the federal government
Hello Herbies!!
We are taking a break from our regularly scheduled herbal information newsletter to share about the government agencies that support small farms, how we have benefited from them and the ways in which the current cuts will likely impact us. Agencies that directly support and/or regulate our business include the United States Department of Agriculture, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. Sometimes the regulations can feel burdensome, but most people that we've encountered through the regulatory process have been reasonable and truly interested in protecting the public's interest. This is the primary role of these organizations.
In this and future newsletters, we will be spending time explaining a bit about one Department: what it does, how it has helped us, and how changes made to it might be impacting us in the future. Today- because first and foremost we are a farm- we will be writing about the most obvious one and that is the United States Department of Agriculture.
2009 Image: Flags lining out our future "Wildlife Corridor" to replace a monocrop of sod with greater species biodiversity.
The USDA is a large organization that manages many agencies and programs (some of which can be argued are best served elsewhere) that are primarily focused on the food, farming, and the management of our natural resources. In this department we find twenty-nine different agencies, including farming focused agencies such as the Farm Service Agency, the Agricultural Research Service, and the Agricultural Marketing Service. Food safety and public health related tasks and services fall under the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Food and Nutrition Service, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service. You may be surprised to find this is also home to the Forest Service, the Natural Resources and Conservation Service, the Rural Development Agency, Rural Housing Service and the Rural Business Cooperative Service.
The USDA supports state agricultural extension services administered by land grant institutions such as Penn State, provides farm loans, cost share support for things like organic certification (we have accessed these funds to help us with increased labor associated with certification requirements), and educational resources (we use some of their videos to help train our employees).
A huge support for farms that has always been very controversial is grant programming. We understand. And, after working in other industries and later seeing firsthand the HUGE financial risks and pay disparities experienced by farmers, it's hard to argue against what is otherwise support for national security issues: a clean, stable food supply, healthier local economies, and careful management of our SHARED natural environment.
At our farm, one of the biggest ways we have experienced this kind of support is through a grant program called the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP for short). Decades of farming practices have historically focused on quantity of output over quality of land management which has resulted in depleted soils, polluted waterways, and eroded biodiversity. The land that we lease had been managed for sod production- a monocrop of shallowly rooted grasses that is sprayed heavily with herbicides to prevent broadleaf weeds and results in decimated biodiversity. This program assists farmers who are willing to take land out of production and dedicate it to improvement of habitat for native species of plants, birds, insects, mammals, and amphibians, help to repair soils, and promote a clean water supply to ensure the health and prosperity of future generations.
2010 Image: An army of farm supporting volunteers (mostly our CSA members!) helping plant trees and shrubs.
Back in 2009 we applied for and received a WHIP grant that provided for some of the investment we made in planting hundreds of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous species in a 3-acre ribbon around our farmed fields. The project cost over twenty thousand dollars that we spent of our own funds and the NRCS paid for a percentage of the cost of plant purchases, providing around 20% of the project as a cost share incentive. We don't know that we could have justified the project to ourselves, our friends and our family who helped us so much in our first years of farming if we didn't have that support. If nothing else, it helped us stay accountable and dedicated to completing it, in spite of all of the demands that growing food already placed on us.
As a result of this project, we worked closely with these "government workers". We were amazed at how passionate and dedicated they were to serve us. They helped us fill out the applications, kept in touch throughout the process, encouraged us when we felt overwhelmed, maintained a high level of professionalism- exhibiting zero evidence of political leanings one way or another- and treating us with the utmost dignity and respect. With their support, we planted thousands of herbaceous plants, trees and shrubs, created ephemeral pools to hold soil and water onsite, built up berms with walking paths and established a one-acre warm season grass meadow.
2023 Image: The same area as the first image, with maturing trees, a walking trail, and home to many more species.
We learned so much in the process and gained so much respect for the power that these kinds of investments can have on the health of an ecosystem and on our communities. We have noticed, for example, that pest pressure in our production fields is lower while pollinator species, such as wasps, bees, and birds are up. Weather events that would have flooded our fields for days before draining barely impact us as the deep roots of our corridor planting and ephemeral pooling areas provide places for the water to go. Our soil, even if turned over to plant new crops, stays on site instead of washing away as it had early in our farming careers. And because they have a place to go, predator species such as great blue herons, snakes, and foxes now find a home where there was previously none.
We now work with area non-profits, community groups, and we provide educational programming that has been built upon the farm habitat that we have been able to be servants of and witness to. Starting with very little knowledge but with the support of those at the NRCS who had the vision to help see it through, our lives and the lives of those around us have changed as a result of this project. We even changed our farm name to a grass species that now dominates our warm season grass meadow that we feel represents our greatest aspirations for our business and our farm. Andropogon gerardii, otherwise known as Big Bluestem Grass, stands up to six feet tall while also digging deeply, up to 13 feet down, holding soil, sequestering carbon, and providing much needed habitat for wildlife in the face of a changing climate. This plant represents the kind of plant medicine for the planet that we want to promote and the resiliency that we want to embody as a farm, as a community, as a nation.
Next week, we will talk about herbs again I promise (with a little info about how the Environmental Protection Agency is no longer protecting us)! Meanwhile, stay informed and speak up when necessary.