We Only Get One Planet
Janet McGarry, AIM Volunteer, April 22, 2021
AIM’s mission is to educate, inspire, and connect communities, responsible farmers, and producers as part of a healthy, earth-friendly, equitable, local and regional food system. AIM’s markets are such a delight to the senses, it’s easy to forget all the effort that goes into creating the beautiful vegetables, fruits, flowers and other products. Most of the farmers and producers work closely with nature every day and are keenly aware of the importance of healthy ecosystems on our planet. In celebration of Earth Day, AIM wants to recognize their eco-friendly practices and some of the producers who work hard throughout the year, nurturing the soil and providing habitat for pollinators, beneficial insects, birds and other wildlife, to bring healthy, delicious food to us. For AIM and our producers, every day is Earth Day.
Caring for the Soil: Soil is the foundation of resilient agricultural land and ecosystems. Healthy soil biology (a community of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, mites and worms – as many as 1 to 7 billion in a teaspoon of soil!) provides a myriad of benefits in addition to increasing fertility so that crops are better able to resist pests and diseases and are more nutritious. Soil sequesters carbon, storing three times more than the entire atmosphere, so can help mitigate climate change. (www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-dirt-could-help-save-the-planet/) Healthy soil retains water, reducing the need for irrigation, and prevents run-off. Amazingly, the world’s soils hold approximately eight times as much water as all the world’s rivers.
J & M Ibarra Farm improves its soil with compost made from farm waste. Neve Farm grows cover crops on fields between planting its beautiful flowers. Since 2013, Stemple Creek Ranch has participated in research with the Marin Carbon Project. The farm spreads organic compost over portions of its pastureland to help the soil sequester carbon and retain water and nutrients. Alexandre Family Farms places a priority on healthy soil and is the first regenerative organic dairy in the United States certified by the Savory Institute and the Regenerative Organic Alliance. The pigs on Encina Farms rotationally graze on 100 acres of organic pastures and over 350 acres of oak woodlands which sequester carbon. MALT-protected Bivalve Dairy uses soil aeration and a no-till drill to seed rangeland to promote growth of native forages and minimize the spread of invasive species.
Water Wise Practices: In the past decade, drought has plagued the state with some of the driest years on record and another drought presently looming. (www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/06/california-is-on-the-brink-of-drought-again-is-it-ready). Scientists predict that climate change will produce more severe droughts as well as more intense storms resulting in floods. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, the primary source of irrigation water, is expected to diminish by 65 percent in the next eighty years posing enormous challenges for over 90 percent of California crops that require irrigation. Farmers can save precious water by using drip irrigation, recycling water and adopting other water wise practices leaving water in streams for wildlife.
Blue House Farm created an irrigation pond on its farm to avoid pumping from a creek during the summer leaving water for endangered Coho salmon and steelhead trout. Inzana Ranch & Produce installed drip irrigation at the base of its fruits and nut trees. Tomatero Organic Farm and Dirty Girl Produce creates delicious, intense flavor in their tomatoes through dry farming. Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese conserves water by reusing and recycling it and Bivalve Dairy irrigates with effluent water from its cattle and runoff from the rainy season.
Helping Out Pollinators: Over 1200 types of crops, including fruits, vegetables and nuts such as almonds, tomatoes, strawberries and avocado, depend on pollination. (www.pollinator.org/list-of-pollinated-food.) In California, crops that depend on pollinators are worth $11.7 billion. (https://wildlife.ca.gov/Science-Institute/Pollinators) Many native plants, the foundation of healthy ecosystems, also need pollinators. However, pollinators and other insects are in trouble and need our help. (www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/11/insect-populations-suffering-death-1000-cuts-scientists). A recent study found that the toxic impact of pesticides on bees and other pollinators has doubled in the last decade. (www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/01/toxic-impact-of-pesticides-on-bees-has-doubled-study-shows)
Toscano Family Farm lets its crops go to flower to attract bees and is planting a full crop of sunflowers this summer. Sunflower pollen has medicinal properties for both native bees and honeybees so bees that are sick or infected with pathogens eat the pollen to self-medicate. (www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32681-y) Kandarian Organic Farms grow butterfly milkweed to attract monarch butterflies and also sells milkweed seeds so others can help provide food for plummeting monarch populations. (https://xerces.org/blog/monarch-population-incalifornia-spirals-to-another-record-low) Marshall’s Farm Honey places its hives on Mt. Tam, conservation land, wineries and backyards where bees pollinate flowers.
Reducing Pesticide Use: Ecological pest management focuses on working with natural systems, by creating habitat to attract beneficial insects that prey on pests that damage crops. (https://xerces.org/pesticides/ecological-pest-management) This eco-friendly practice emphasizes preventing pest problems in order to reduce pesticide use toxic to humans and wildlife. California’s average rate of pesticide use is more than 4.5 times the national average and poses particular health hazards to farmworkers. (www.ucsusa.org/sites/dafult/files/2019-12/farmworkers-at-risk/report-2109-web.pdf.) Planting cover crops and hedgerows with native plants not only serves as habitat for beneficial insects, birds and other wildlife but also sequesters carbon and reduces erosion and water pollution. (www.caff.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CAFF_Hedgerow_Manual_2018.pdf) Instead of using dangerous rodenticides, farmers can put up boxes and perches to attract owls and raptors and nest boxes for bluebirds, swallows and other birds that prey on pest insects particularly to feed young during nesting season. (www.wildfarmalliance.org/beneficial_birds)
Fifth Crow Farms worked with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to establish native plant hedgerows on its farm. Fiddler’s Green Farm helps insects by planting flowering cover crops and not removing wasp nets that become established on the farm. Mushrooms Adventures avoids using rodenticides by using cats to catch mice in its warehouse. Kendric Vineyards puts up owl boxes in its vineyard and Encina Farms is home to a family of bald eagles.
Sustainable Energy and Conservation: Using fossil fuels to pump irrigation water, run farm machinery and transport products to markets all contribute greenhouse emissions. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California. Farmers, ranchers and food producers can use sustainable energy, hybrid and zero emission vehicles and reduce the miles that food travels to market to help shrink agriculture’s carbon footprint. Water conservation also reduces energy used to pump water.
Since 2004, Straus Dairy Farm has used a methane digester which captures methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) from manure and transforms it into electricity. The methane digester provides enough renewable energy to power the farm, farm vehicles and charge Albert Straus’s electric car. The farming couple of Massa Organics lives in an energy efficient home made from rice straw bales.
Waste Not: In 2019, 35% of the food grown in the country went unsold or uneaten. When food isn’t eaten, the resources used to grow this food are also wasted. If all of this unused food was grown in one place, it would cover approximately 80 million acres, more than 75% of California, and consume all of the water used in California and Idaho. Wasted food also represents almost 25% of landfill input and contributes to climate change. (https://refed.com/food-waste/the-challenge/.)
Straus diverts over 90% of its waste away from landfill and was the first creamery in the world to earn Gold zero-waste certification from Green Business Certification, Inc. (https://ediblemarinandwinecountry.ediblecommunities.com/drink/finding-gold-waste-bin) At the end of Sunday’s Stonestown market, Ge Moua Farm donates its unsold produce to other food purveyors. Rodriguez Bros. Ranch donates the tops of its greens to a local farm for livestock feed and also to customers who feed them to their chickens and rabbits. Inzana Ranch & Produce uses nut shells as an eco-friendly pavement for its driveway.
Many producers at the Marin Farmers Markets donate their leftover produce at the end of Market Days to ExtraFood.org, Respecting our Elders, and Marin Community Fridges for redistribution to families experiencing hunger. At Stonestown and Clement St Farmers Market, AIM works with SF Food Runners, and at our East Bay markets, AIM works with RePlate, Daily Bowl, and Eden Urban Farms to collect and redistribute excess produce.
Reusing Glass to Reduce Plastic Use: Growers and producers impact the environment not only by how they farm and create their products but also how they package them. Plastics in packaging break down into tiny pieces of microplastic that travel via the wind and water. These tiny particles pollute marine environments and are deposited on soil where they impact its structure damaging its ability to hold water. Plastic production, management and disposal also produces greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming. Food packaging made of plastic, metal and fiber can contain chemicals harmful to human health particularly for children. Glass containers that can be reused or recycled are better for the planet and your health. (https://foodprint.org/reports/the-foodprint-of-food-packaging/#section_2).
Obour Hummus, Pasture 42, Straus Family Creamery, and Bivalve Dairy all sell their products in glass jars that can be returned and reused.
Stop by and meet the people who grow our food and protect our planet at AIM’s markets this weekend and all-year long!