COMING AROUND

Once in awhile you see something out of industrial murkiness that indicates an "aha!" moment and it's truly refreshing.  Those of us on the good farming side can take great solace in such revelatory stories. 

                  A case in point is McCain's, a potato company with holdings around the world that supplies 25 percent of the entire planet's potatoes.  It turns out they've been having devastating crop failures over the last decade.  So much so, it's gotten their attention to dig (pun intended) into the cause.

                  Guess what they found?  Soil. In a wonderful Wall Street Journal article June 30, (yes, I'm behind in my reading) the problem and solution are both presented in a matter-of-fact way that makes all of us in the nonchemical tribe smile.

                  As if reading from a textbook, the article states:  "Years of intensive farming drained the fields of their nutrients."  Changing production protocols developed:  "Intensive farming practices that were heavy on fertilizers and pesticides were found to be damaging soil health and were ruled out" (discontinued).  For the record, I would suggest it's not the intensity that was the problem; it was anti-ecological intensity.  You can definitely have intense production and top-tier volume with intensive biological and ecological management.

                  Featuring a British farmer named John Bubb to try some new techniques, the solutions read like an ecological farming playbook.  "Crops like peas and clover are planted between rows of potatoes to help bring nitrogen back into the soil.  Cover crops like winter wheat are grown in the off season, to help bind the soil and stop it being washed away.  Wildflowers were planted at the edges of the field to improve biodiversity and get more pollinators into the area.  He gets neighboring sheep farmers to bring herds into his fields to trample the soil and eat the leftover plants.  They leave behind a vital source of manure."

                  Can you imagine?  On our good farming side, we've been looking and praying for a tipping point, like "How long, oh Lord, how long?  How long must we endure this assault on Your creation and our banishment to society's horribles fringes?"

                  Could we actually be seeing a farming enlightenment?  If we are, let's be welcoming and encouraging.  We could gloat.  We could say "I told you so."  Yes, it's tempting.  But how about we just smile, extend a hand, and say "Welcome."  According to official McCain statements regarding continuing efforts to breed more resilient varieties, "a variety is only as good as the soil it's grown in."  Do I hear an "Amen?"

                  I love the last paragraph especially, quoting farmer Bubb:  "Bubb said the soil he used to tend lacked life and made poor harvests more likely.  Now, he is trying to get more bugs and critters living under his feet.  'It's taken us 50 years to get rid of all our worms and it's going to take us quite a few years to get them all back again.'"  Bubb noted that his dad doesn't understand any of this new protocol, but his grandfather would have understood it completely.  What a wonderful family departure and return story.  A generation wandering in the wilderness and now the son is finding his way back home.

                  Think of all the scientists who disparaged animals in potato fields as vectors for pathogens.  And worms.  Worms?  I thought the soil was just something to hold up plants while we administered an IV of concoctions to grow Star Trek sustenance.  Okay, I'll stop the satire, but it does the heart good, doesn't it, to see a major industrial player bow to God's designs.  Yes, it does.  This revelation puts the kabosh on decades of condescension and marginalization from "life is mechanical" agronomists.  Welcome to nature.

                  Do you think yesterday's generation of agronomists will admit their folly?