The second leg
of my journey took me north to Vermont to meet farmers and understand why they
were changing their management practices. A big concern for these farmers was
water management. Vermont has a growing local food movement, connecting consumers
with farmers and its location allows it access to many urban affluent
populations including Boston and New York.
The Centre for
Sustainable Agriculture in Vermont was running a project looking at farming and
climate change and working with farmers using research on-farm to provide farm-level
data. I saw a range of projects, including monitoring nutrient levels, sediment
and water loss from fields under different tillage and the use of woodchip pads
as an out-wintering strategy for livestock farmers. Connecting scientists and
farmers makes it possible to see what works before making large investments. It
was a great couple of days meeting people who were open to new ideas and
proving concepts by looking at farm-based research.
The big issue
in Vermont is water quality and there is a real threat that there may be
increased regulation to address the issues of run-off, water quality and soil
erosion. I met with the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition, a farmer-led
organisation set up to provide leadership and a unified voice for farmers to
proactively protect water quality in Lake Champlain. They are a not-for-profit
organisation that makes sure farmers’ voices are heard by the general public,
policy makers, other farmers and regulators.
Their chair
explained: “We are a group of farmers in the Lake Champlain Basin who have
taken a leadership role, showing that farm economic resiliency and a clean lake
can work together. We are primarily a farmer-based corporation that exists to
be a unified voice for farmers who are proactively addressing water quality.”
Following my
time in Vermont, I journeyed to Pennsylvania to a conference on Sustainable
Agriculture and then flew to Colorado to talk metrics and models with the team
that construct America’s annual inventory of greenhouse gases. They are developing
tools for farmers that allow them to understand the impact or opportunity of
changing management on emissions, and are integrating these into delivery
programmes.
My next blog
will take me to Nebraska, where I will be looking at soil health and
understanding how with their low rainfall affects their farming.