Organic growing helps people and the planet
Rodale Farm Day showcases farming for health of humans and the environment
Rodale Farm Day showcases farming for health of humans and the environment.
On really hot days, the heritage hogs at Rodale Institute might get a face full of water as a farmer turns the garden hose loose.
Rest assured, the pigs love it, says Shelby Dukes, animal husbandry coordinator at Rodale’s experimental organic farm in Maxatawny Township. Getting hosed off ranks up there with wallowing in mud, which acts as a natural sunscreen.
On July 19, everyone needed sunscreen at Rodale’s annual Field Day, a chance for the public to visit the 333-acre farm and learn about basic and applied research on organic agriculture. Organic methods are recognized for maintaining and improving fertility, soil structure and biodiversity while reducing erosion.
Stacy Vogel of New Jersey, a first-time visitor to Rodale, liked what she saw.
“It’s about stopping old behavior,” Vogel said as she scooped up brochures and chatted with experts.
Vogel operates Homestead Slow Food of Tewksbury Township, N.J. Calling herself a “poop chef,” she creates custom compost for farmers and home gardeners.
Field Day attracted about 400 people from 20 states and four countries. Half of the visitors were farmers and the others were policymakers, students and the curious.
Montana farmer Bob Quinn was there with his new book with co-author Liz Carlisle, “Grain by Grain: A Quest to Revive Ancient Wheat, Rural Jobs and Healthy Food,” available in the Garden Shop. Another significant visitor was Scott Koepke of Iowa, manager of Etzel Sugar Grove Farm.
‘Bible’ of organic
“It’s my first mecca trip to the sacred soil,” said Koepke, who considers Rodale’s organic practices his bible.
It’s all about biodiversity,” Koepke said about farmers planting crops other than the usual soybeans and corn.
“The economic viability is the challenge,” said Koepke, for whom the highlight of Field Day was absorbing the history of Rodale’s seven decades of doing things differently.
Making money isn’t a problem for Vogel, whose customized compost business has tripled this year. Giving back is a part of that success, and that’s why she donates compost to nonprofit groups and teaches impoverished people how to garden with it.
She calls the work gratifying and says, “Why should only rich people have organic food?”
Her friend, Martha Kimmerly of Provenance, an organic farm also in Tewksbury Township, said she was specifically interested in the organic orchard, hogs and hemp at Rodale.
“We’re trying to encourage regenerative options besides the usual corn and soybean rotation,” Kimmerly said.
Helping visitors understand the intricacies of the many parts of the farm is what experts were doing at 11 stations showcased at Field Day.
Stations included the apple orchard, pastured hogs, honeybee conservancy, compost, farming systems trial, water quality with Stroud Water Research Center, agriculture supported communities vegetable production, high tunnel/grafted tomatoes, indutrial hemp trials, vegetable systems trial and organic no-till for grain production.
Heritage hogs
Rodale’s pastured pork production started in 2015 with a new hog facility, a model for farmers who want to reduce stress on the animal and lower the amount of waste produced.
Pigs are omnivorous and are happiest while foraging, which several heritage breeds are allowed to do at Rodale. On Field Day, visitors watched a sow — a large black — nurse 4-week-old piglets in a deep bed of straw. Nearby, a shallow pit awaits if they want to do some wallowing.
“The mud is a natural sunscreen and bug repellent, and it cools them off, “Dukes, the animal husbandry coordinator, told visitors leaning over the stalls.
Giving these animals access to pastures has the added benfit of making them friendlier and easier to handle.
Meanwhile, at the high tunnel for grafted tomatoes, Daniel Kemper told visitors the gothic spire is the best way to remove snow from the roof and protect the four varieties of fruit staked up within the cozy structure.
Kemper talked about how they take the best of two tomato plants — one with strong roots and the other with good fruit — to create a plant that’s more resistent to disease. Consider the great white — a yellow tomato named for the shark — which is less acidic and packs a flavor punch that makes it a favorite of farmers’ market customers.
Several hemp varieties – not just fiber – are grown at Rodale, in the third year of a four-year hemp trial that is repeating, said Tara Caton, project leader for the hemp trial.
“We want this plant to be plugged into a farmer’s planting plan,” Caton said.
“Our theory is that hemp grows really fast and it shades out weeds, which is huge for us, providing solutions for organic farmers,” Caton told the crowd at her station.
Growing hemp benefits the soil of any field, and yields wider environmental benefits, she said.
Organic agriculture is all about soil health, keeping nutrients, such as carbon, in the soil and not dispersed into the atmosphere. Farmers want to see that something works, and Field Day is a way for producers to see these practices in action, to pick up a handful of soil and learn what kind of yield Rodale farmers are experiencing.
Rodale invented the roller crimper, which fits onto the front of a tractor and delicately crimps the plants at intervals, never uprooting them. This creates a flat weave of mulch, suppressing weeds while retaining the nutrients.
The goal is to keep transitioning more conventional farms to organic production, said Margaret Wilson, media relations specialist at Rodale.
“We want to send the mes
“We want to send the message that, yes, things are bad, but we can heal the planet.”
— Margaret Wilson