COMMENTATORS SUGGEST THAT FARMING IS ALWAYS BAD FOR THE LAND. BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY.
Farming can increase the ecological health and biodiversity of the land. Here’s one farmer’s experience.
“It was just mind-boggling how much life you could physically see with your eyes compared to what it was like before.”
--Maggie Keith, Steward of Foxhollow Farm
HART HAGAN: What have you seen at Foxhollow Farm in terms of the increases in biodiversity over the years? What have you noticed on your farm in terms of pollinators, bees, butterflies and birds?
MAGGIE KEITH: A lot! It's interesting starting from where we were, which was right after we had a three crop rotation farm from 1980 until 2006. So, that's a pretty long time to have a lot of monoculture on your farm. There was no topsoil, hardly any life other than in the woods. I grew up in these woods and there was a lot of life in the woods but there's 500 acres of woodlands. Our farm now is 1300 Acres. I didn't include that in the beginning, but 500 acres of woodlands creates great biodiversity.
But where the cropland was, Mom and I spent a lot of time in those fields before the cattle came and definitely recognized that above ground there were hardly any birds, butterflies, bees and whatnot. But also below ground.
First of all, you couldn't dig because there was no topsoil and then second of all, if you could get a shovel in, then there was no life underneath the soil either. No worms, no grubs, no dung beetles, none of that.
But watching it progress over the years, after 10 years of doing this (biodynamic agriculture) it was just mind-boggling how much life you can physically see with your eyes compared to what it was like before.
We also have flower farmers who give the pollinators tons of things to have fun with. We have crops that are great for the pollinators and the butterflies. We plant milkweed, and we have huge valleys full of wild flowers to help the birds, bees and butterflies. But just having that diversity of cropland has also helped.