Further documentation of the revolutionary effect organic farming is having across all of agriculture and society.
In step with strong, growing interest in food and the environment, articles like this one from the NY Times, which promotes organic-centric soil-building cover crops, are no longer merely delegated to the pages of ag publications like the Farm Journal. Forward-thinking, organic-based, good-farming content – as reflected by our recent series of Agrarian Elder Primers – is increasingly finding its way into general interest broadsheet publications as varied as Harpers, LA Times and Elle. Jim
“Before cultivation, Indiana was blanketed in prairie grasses and forest, and the carbon content of the soil was as high as 10 percent in places. Today, after decades of tillage, which moves carbon from the soil into the atmosphere, and monocropping, the level on many farms is below 2 percent, Mr. Fisher said. Cover crops restore organic matter back into the soil, at a rate of about 1 percent every five years.
“‘As we put carbon back into the soil, it gives us a bigger tank to store water naturally,’ Mr. DeSutter said. ‘This is one way we build resilience into the system.'”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/business/cover-crops-a-farming-revolution-with-deep-roots-in-the-past.html?_r=1
