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A Farmer Who Wants to Go Beyond Organic
- skosch 8y agoYes, this is important. Regenerative Agriculture is ranked #11 in Project Drawdown's list of solutions to climate change, higher than offshore wind turbines (#22), nuclear (#20), or electric cars (#49) [0]. This will be a political battle first and foremost, as so much farming activity depends on subsidy incentives favouring conventional methods. [0] https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/food/regenerative-agriculture https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/food/regenerative-agricul...
- TruffleLabs 8y agoFor clarity, there is no specific equipment use requirement to be certified organic in the USA. The statement “To achieve certification, Peterson restored 40-year-old cultivation equipment” implies such an action. Peterson could have bought or leased new or used equipment. See background: https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/who_needs_to_be_certified.pdf https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/who_needs... Also, the story mentions the number of farms that are certified organic but that is not the only metric to consider: number of acres certified organic, revenue of the organic ecosystem by year, revenue by sector, organic imports, etc. See details https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Organic_Production/index.php https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Orga...
- dbcurtis 8y agoYou are correct. I suspect the reason he uses old machines is that with 80 acres, he doesn’t generate the free cash flow for anything other than picking over the junk pile.
- dbcurtis 8y agoI am 100% behind the concept, but there needs to be a demonstration of scalability. 80 acres in Western Minnesota isn’t a farm, it is a hobby. Maybe with 10x the land, you could earn a living and support a family. 80 acres is a collection of small research demonstration plots.