Stewardculture no1

Stewardculture magazine

Can applying raw milk improve your pastures?

Book Review:

Born-Again Dirt Is the book of Genesis anti GMO? Comfrey could be your new best friend Kansas group has big idea to feed the world

Stewardculture magazine is a quarterly electronic magazine containing news, articles and features about regenerative farming and gardening that is God glorifying.

Stewardculture seeks to promote Bible-based stewardship agriculture. This simply means we advocate for creation-friendly thinking that emphasizes the fact that we don’t own the Earth or even some small piece of it. Creation is simply a gift given to humans who are commanded to be its stewards as God’s representatives.

Our editorial and promotional content is designed to inform, educate and motivate nearly anyone connected with growing things, with content targeted to redeemed Christians. Each issue will cover a wide range of editorial and promotional content including tips and how-to articles, opinion pieces and feature stories.

Stewardculture’s editor happily accepts by-lined editorial submissions with the right of final editing for style, tone, length and voice.

Editorial and graphical content may not be used in any form, printed or digital, without permission of the editor and attribution.

INSIDE

Stewardculture

Cover story - Raw milk as soil input?

The buzz is growing on use of raw milk as a soil amendment. Find out what farmers are saying about this unique approach. page 3

From My Tractor Seat Editor explains the rationale for launching a new agriculture e-zine is to promote stewardship-based agriculture and gardening. page 4

Book Review Noah Sanders’ book Born-Again Dirt helps us all understand farming is to glorify God first, then feed people. page 5

Kansas group has big idea to feed the world The Land Institute is developing perennial grains that could change the face of agriculture. page 8

Comfrey may be your new best friend A mineral accumulator, a deterrent to weeds and it attracts pollinators. Your fruit trees will love comfrey. page 11

Essay: What is the value of work?

Our editor claims that modern society has denegrated human labor to the point of making it seem wrong. page 12

Editor’s picks Three books to consider adding to your reading list. page 15

Almost Manna: Can’t Miss Recipies Publisher and editor: Dan Grubbs

This issue’s recipe features an old-world approach to using your fresh zucchini: Amish Zucchini Bread. page 16

Into the Barn Stewardculture 19108 Scott Rd. Holt, Missouri 64048 816-729-4422 stewardculture@gmail.com

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Does the Bible actually have something to say about bioengineering in agriculture? A short word study in Genesis has some interesting insights. page 18

Raw milk as soil input?

Field trials show applying milk to pasture is increasing Brix values, reducing compaction and increasing tonnage.

by Dan Grubbs, editor

There’s much buzz surrounding raw milk, and it’s not flies or even the debate about selling raw milk for human consumption. The buzz is positive and farmers and ranchers are paying attention because it’s about the application of unpasteurized milk to fields as a natural and inexpensive amendment. In fact, universities are now interested in conducting studies.

In the past few years, farmers in different parts of the country have been testing or using raw milk as a soil amendment with positive, sometimes astonishing, results. What added energy to this buzz was when Dave Wetzel, an

see MILK on page 6

From My Tractor Seat Observations and opinions from the editor stewardculture@gmail.com

As I welcome you to Stewadculture, the first two questions you will likely have is, “Why a magazine?” and “Why now?”

In this age of digital communications, many ask why start a new agriculture magazine when there are dozens of publications out there directed at farmers. There are some really good ones that are even focused on sustainable approaches to agriculture. So, what will make Stewardculture magazine different from them all?

First, its intent is to advocate for God-glorifying agriculture – practices that reflect stewardship and are restorative to lives and land.

Secondly, Stewardculture will be available for free and online only – not requiring paper, shipping, printing, etc.

As editor, I want to use my Godgiven abilities to guide the editorial content of Stewardculture as a means to demonstrate and advocate for stewardship-based agriculture. We don’t own our homes or farms or any of our equipment.

Once we grasp the idea that we’re stewards and not owners, we take on a whole new mentality about taking care of our yards, our gardens or our farms and ranches in a way that honors God. We can no longer look out over a field or pasture and think we have title or right to it, but that it is owned by

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the One who created it.

versus regenerative agriculture.

Why now?

We hope to bring a small voice to those people who call themselves Christians and call themselves farmers. Why? Because we believe you cannot separate the one from the other and many of us have had little to say of late when we should be the leaders of agriculture because we know the Creator.

This actually is a two-part question. There is the why now as in is this the right time in history. And then there’s the wisdom (or not) of launching a publication in the winter rather than say in March or April. We’ll take the second question first.

For those who practice restorative and regenerative forms of agriculture, winter is an important season in the northern hemisphere.

We plant and manage cover crops and do many preparatory things to protect and foster the life in the soil. From my point of view, there is no planting season if there is no soil life. So, we see this time of year actually as creating the environment in which our farms and gardens will spring to life.

Similarly, we hope Stewardculture will help create an environment in which stewardship-based agriculture will grow.

Is this the right time in history for a publication such as Stewardculture? First off, there is no seasonality to bringing glory to God. And, caring for His creation as God’s stewards is a significant way to glorify the Creator. Secondly, there is an unheard from group of people in the world of agriculture that are largely silent in the polemics of industrial agriculture

As Noah Sanders points out in his book Born Again Dirt, Christian farmers should be the exemplar of farming on the planet.

Stewardculture will bring content that helps foster this idea … an idea that is being drowned out by a host of others who have neglected the Creator and His creation in their practice of agriculture.

Finally, when I look at what should be the difference between a farm operated by a Christian and one which is not, I think of Romans 8. I invite you to examine which kind of farming is life and which kind of farming is death.

Book Review

How can dirt be born again?

Noah Sanders’ book Born-Again Dirt answers that question and advocates for God-glorifying farming.

The number of speakers, consultants and authors in the world of sustainable farming and gardening has exploded.

There’s restorative agriculture, permaculture and Farming God’s Way, to name just a few. And then there’s Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms teaching us to enjoy the “pigness of the pig.”

With so much information out there coming from all over, where is a Christian farmer to go for insight?

Answering this question is largely the goal of Noah Sanders in his book, Born-Again Dirt.

According to Sanders the book is to help point out that the Gospel should not only transform our lives, but it “should also transform our agriculture.” This may seem like common sense to some Christians. To others, it will be an awakening.

In Born-Again Dirt, Sanders wrote, “if we want to glorify God we must be Christian farmers, not just farmers who are Christians.

The way we work the dirt must spring from a BibliNoah Sanders cal worldview.”

He shared that this is the concept behind both the book’s title and the concept of born-again dirt.

practices. Sanders is certainly teaching practices and techniques, in fact, a whole mindset, different than those of conventional agriculture. He takes this position in opposition against conventional farming practices because, as he wrote, they don’t hold up under the scrutiny of God’s word in the Bible.

Sanders wrote that he came to this point after examining his farming operation by holding “every aspect of my agriculture up to the Word of God.” His point is that Christian farmers, indeed all farmers, have a guidebook full of principles that can readily be applied to agriculture, regardless of scale.

In everyday language, this young farmer from Alabama developed his thoughts logically and liberally includes supporting scripture that helps the reader understand how to apply a biblical worldview to farming, whether someone has a window planter box or farms thousands of acres.

It seems the foundational principle Sanders laid out after his introductory chapter is the most important. That notion is that no farmer owns their farm, but are only given stewardship over it by God. This is central to farming that brings glory to God, according to Sanders.

Sanders did dance delicately when it comes to applying Old TestaSanders’ passion clearly comes ment law to agriculture in the through in his description of striv- Church Age. And it’s this area ing to glorify God in every aspect Sanders should be more explicit of his operation at his own farm. in connecting Christ’s fulfillment Those who practice industrial of Jewish law to simply applyagriculture should not take his easy tone and avoidance of judgsee DIRT on page 17 ment as a sign of supporting those

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MILK from page 3 American dairy farmer in O’Neill, Nebraska, and owner of Green Pasture Products, poured a large quantity of unpasteurized skim milk on a portion of his alfalfa and grass pastures. What happened next was a surprise to Wetzel.

When his dairy cows were let out they self selected to graze the areas of pasture where the raw milk was applied. “You could see [improvement] in the grass and feel it in the soil and see it in the life of the soil,” Wetzel said. “So I called Terry and said to him that you have to check this out.”

Scientific studies Wetzel told himself it’s one thing to observe and another thing to study. He wasn’t going to leave his accidental results unstudied, so he called on University of Nebraska Extension and Certified Holistic Management Educator Terry Gompert (now deceased).

A pair of researches at the same university, Charles Shapiro, agronomy and horticulture soil scientist, and Stevan Knezevic, herbicide specialist, joined Gompert to design experiments with Wetzel.

Their testing included multiple application and control plots. The study was designed with practical application in mind with financial consideration for the costs of milk as a fertilizer compared to standard fertilizer. The results were positive.

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of dry matter per acre (see table on pg. 8). This was clearly scientific evidence of increased yield. They also discovered that benefits didn’t increase with ever-increasing application rates. “We found that 2-3 gallons of raw milk per acre was all that was needed,” Wetzel said.

“We had 1,124 pounds more dry matter per acre after application of raw milk,” Wetzel said.

The team also studied any changes in soil porosity using a penetrometer at four depths every six inches and averaging the force required to penetrate with the instrument.

They found the raw milk test plots had soil that was 16.6 percent more porous than the control plots.

The test plots with no input yielded 4,454 pounds of dry matter per acre compared to the milkapplied test plots of 5,578 pounds

It wasn’t long before Wentzel and Gompert headed to the small town of Linn, Missouri, along with a collection of about 50 farmers and

scientists for a field day to share best practices or simply learn about raw milk as a regenerative input.

Again, more grass Ralph Voss of Voss Land & Cattle Co., hosted this field day on his land where he had test plots of raw milk applications (sprayed). With penetrometers and refractometers, scientist and farmer alike tested Voss’ land. With an application of as little as two gallons of raw milk per acre, 28 days later Voss’ milk-sprayed plots were reviewed by Gompert as well as the others present According to Voss, the pasture sprayed with raw milk produced an extra 700 pounds of grass on

David Wetzel and his O’Neill, Nebraska, dairy can be found online at Green Pasture Products.

a dry-matter basis per acre than the pasture without the milk. He said he went back to the same field 20 days later and it was evident where milk was applied and where it wasn’t. The grasses were “at least 6-8 inches taller.”

Again, less compaction “The most amazing thing of all is the reduction in compaction where we sprayed the milk,” Voss reported. Penetromer tests in Voss’ pasture showed non-milk pastures were three times more compacted than the milk-sprayed paddock.

Penetrometer results showed it took 100 psi to insert the 28-inch test probe in the milk-sprayed field while it took 300 psi to insert the test probe in the control pasture.

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Dry Matter Yield After Application of Raw Milk

Porosity of Soil After A

simultaneous testing with cod liver oil

measured with an analog pe

Soil Input

lbs/acre

Increase

Soil Input

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No milk or oil Oil only Milk only Milk & oil

4,454 5,313 5,578 5,819

859 1,124 1,365

No milk or oil Oil only Milk only Milk & oil

9 9 9 9

Data reported by University of Nebraska Extention Terry Gompert, UNL Extention Educator-Knox County with Charles Shapiro, PhD and Stevan Knezevic, PhD

“There’s no comparison between the soil that was sprayed with the milk and that that did not get sprayed with milk.”

Voss later presented some of this information at the Small Farm Today Conference and Trade Show.

“I think our grass is considerably better since we started spraying.

We’ve never had better looking grass than we’ve got right now,” he said.

Higher Brix levels Voss also told his audience that the pasture sprayed with milk had grass with a Brix level on average of three points higher than control grass.

Brix is commonly understood as a measurement of sugar content of an aqueous solution made from a plant. One degree Brix is one gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution.

Voss’ Brix tests in his pastures were measured starting in October where his best fescue measured 26-29 consistently on a 32-point

Brix scale. For comparison, the Brix level of a premium Napa Valley red grape is 25. His Brix tests were usually conducted around 3:30 p.m.

Wetzel told of a farmer in New Mexico who was measuring Brix levels and found an increase. “The Brix values held for 30 days,” he said.

Gompert reported that he witnessed grasses with Brix values form 0.5 to 25. It’s commonly understood among organic producers that for plants to start to be pest and disease resistant it should have a Brix value of at least 12.

More than just grasses A conventional farmer near Wetzel had a milk compressor failure.

Since the milk company wouldn’t take that batch of milk, his neighbor needed something to do with the raw milk. According to Wetzel, his neighbor took the milk from the bulk tank and sprayed it on a large alfalfa field.

“A few weeks later he returned to

the field to do his cutting and he had to get off his tractor to look because he wasn’t sure it was really alfalfa. The leaves were so big he was questioning whether it was alfalfa,” he said.

When his neighbor’s alfalfa was chopped and processed, the employee doing the job contacted the farmer asking why his alfalfa was so different. “The tonnage was significantly larger compared to my neighbor’s other fields.”

To better understand what was happening, Wetzel’s neighbor worked with a dairy nutrition expert to do a feed-value analysis.

They took samples from the milkapplied field to compare to his next-best field where raw milk was not applied. He reported beneficial nutritional differences and 20 percent to 30 percent increase in feed value.

Wetzel’s neighbor’s milk-sprayed alfalfa tested out with the following results: • Moisture: 22% increase

Application of Raw Milk

enetrometer at four depths

6” 12” 18” 24”

99 94 93 98

133 127 123 125

214 199 178 176

321 278 247 253

• Protein: 16.5% increase • Acid Detergent Value: 14% decrease • Nutrient detergent value: 19% decrease • Total digestible nutrients: 7.5% increase • Calcium: 12% increase • Phosphorus: 15% increase • Potassium: 18.5% increase • Chloride: 43% decrease • Sodium: 17% decrease

Other benefits Voss reports “tremendous weed control” due to what he believes is simply more dense grass. “The weeds can’t compete with the grass that’s growing in the soil that you’ve sprayed with milk,” he explained.

Wetzel believes the practice also helps with pest management. “We sprayed a field one time that was loaded in grasshoppers,” he said. “I came back about half an hour later

and there wasn’t a grasshopper out there.”

enjoy the benefits that Voss and Wetzel are already experiencing.

The likely explanation for the pests leaving a milk-sprayed field, according to Wetzel, is that many insects cannot process high sugar levels. “The sugar from the milk either kills them or they gotta get out of there,” Wetzel said.

Giving Voss the last word, he reported to his tradeshow audience: “What we found a few years ago is that by spraying raw milk you can really get a tremendous boost in your grass production. What we learned from this raw milk is that it helped our grazing in that it gave us more grass and we were able to graze better.”

He also indicated that a similar thing happens when you increase the Brix level in a grass. “Bugs don’t like that. They look for low Brix level plants mostly because bugs can’t handle sugar.”

Voss’ efforts in Missouri confirm what University of Nebraska studies showed. As little as two gallons per acre produces optimal results and no appreciable differences are found when applying raw milk at higher concentrations. This is significant when comparing to the cost of standard organic or chemical fertilizers. In fact, the cost of raw milk as a fertilizer was a fraction of chemical fertilizer.

More questions As interesting as what Voss, Wentzel and dozens of others are finding, are the additional questions that all this raises. For example, what is the optimal timing of application? What is the optimal timing of harvest? And many more.

Whether additional questions ever get answered or whether milk turns out to be the next big hit for pasture care is yet to be seen. This will probably require large research institutions to come out in favor and some agribusiness company to monetize it. As Wetzel put it, farmers want a scientist standing behind them telling them it will work. Until then, the word will spread on a grass-roots level and more farmers and ranchers will

Kansas group has big idea to feed the world From Salina, Kansas, The Land Institute offers a real solution to a growing problem.

If you follow agriculture, you likely have noticed more and more people who don’t believe the world can be fed by a chemical-intensive, genetically modified monoculture approach. In fact, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has officially declared this fact and called on governments to shift their subsidies and research funding to small farmers and practitioners of agroecology The official position of Stewardculture magazine is that by its very nature, industrial agriculture is incapable of healthfully feeding the people as diverse as this planet hosts.

Yet, the solutions to feed the world are diverse and varied, some even backed by famous billionaires. But, in all honestly, will one approach to agriculture be the right choice? Of course not.

One trend that is capturing attention and causing the large agribusiness companies to scramble is big data. Some posit that with the right data, industrial agriculture can be even more productive. But more productive at producing what?

According to Dan Grubbs, Stewardculture editor, one agricultural solution – perennial grains – shows bright promise of being a bridge between our current monoculture system to the way mankind will feed itself in the future. “But, the disturbing thing about this is that there isn’t much media coverage of perennial crops as an agricultural

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solution for feeding the anticipated 9 billion world population expected by 2050,” he said.

According to Grubbs, the trendy ideas such as vertical urban farming, hydroponics, big data and other creative solutions seem to be forms that have high operational costs and require significant startup investment. “Our solutions have to be based in soil building and polycultures which are better suited for the smallholder rather than building a cost-intensive hydroponics tower,” he said.

Many older farmers are commonly heard to opine, God ain’t making more dirt; meaning there is a finite amount of land on which mankind should practice agriculture. And that reason alone is good enough to explore unique and creative ideas for growing food. “But, given this finite growing medium, what if you could grow grains with equal yield and better nutrition than existing varieties and only have to plant them once?” Grubbs asked.

Perennial crops, such as those being developed by The Land Institute, hold exactly this kind of promise. “As I understand the beauty of what the hybrids the researchers at The Land Institute are developing, a farmer would never have to re-sow their grain crop and their farms would behave more like the natural prairie than a monoculture farm,” Grubbs added.

Imagine only having to pass over

fields once to plant grain varieties that are drought and pest tolerant.

Imagine reversing annual soil loss and even increasing topsoil tonnage per acre and reestablishing its microscopic life. “This is the kind of idea we find attractive at Stewardculture,” Grubbs said, “because it is a regenerative technique that restores soil conditions closer to the way they were created to work.”

When adding these benefits to the fact that farmers can deliver comparable yields to annual grains that have had billions of dollars of research behind them and thousands of years of genetic work, perennials offer an agriculture that is much friendlier to the planet and will meet the demand for food until agriculture transitions to small holders producing actual food for local and regional communities.

“Why the tremendous promise of perennial grains isn’t part of the mainstream dialog of feeding the world is beyond me,” Grubbs com-

photo courtesy of The Land Institute plained. “I honestly believe that adoption of this form of farming would revolutionize agriculture.

This would serve as a landing from which we could launch an even more sustainable form of agriculture.”

There has been some token media coverage of perennial breeding research being conducted at The Land Institute. One example is a National Geographic article in April 2011 by Robert Kunzig (read online version here). Referring to the researchers at The Land Institute, Kunzig wrote: They’re trying to breed perennial wheat, rice, and other grains.

Wes Jackson, co-founder and president of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, has promoted the idea for decades. It has never had much money behind it. But plant breeders in Salina and elsewhere are now crossing modern grains with wild perennial relatives; they’re also trying

to domesticate the wild plants directly. Either way the goal is crops that would tap the main advantage of perennials – the deep, dense root systems that fuel the plants’ rebirth each spring and that make them so resilient and resource efficient – without sacrificing too much of the grain yield that millennia of selection have bred into annuals.

This may sound like some far-off future and other ideas are needed to bridge today to that bright tomorrow. But, Grubbs knows first hand that future is now. “I’ve see Kernza™ wheat flour for sale and seen the result of it being used in bakeries,” he said. “Kernza wheat also is being used in brewing beer.”

What is Kernza? Nothing less than the realized dream of a perennial wheat that is already being harvested and processed into food.

Kernza (technically, wheatgrass) is the trademarked wheat variety developed by The Land Institute.

It’s not a pipe dream. Perennial crops are a near-term solution to feed the world; especially when deployed in a context of sustainable agriculture that Wendell Berry simply called “good farming.”

Why hasn’t this taken the world by storm with truckloads of funding support flowing into The Land Institute or similar research organizations? Notwithstanding the bedfellows of politicians, landgrant universities and agribusiness companies; the agricultural media appears to be disinterested or baffled. “Regardless of the cause of the media vacuum, the result is the same: silence during a time when news of real solutions are needed. The shame is that perennial crops are the answer to so many of industrial agriculture’s problems.

But, you wouldn’t know it.”

Note: For an update on the research progress of The Land Institute, visit their website here.

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“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9

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ing up nutrients that most plants can’t reach. These nutrients are then pushed out into the plant’s leaves. Then, when the leaves are cut off (chop and drop) and allowed to cover the ground, they decompose more quickly than most plants releasing the nutrients at much shallower levels making them accessible for plants with shallow root systems. When combined with a bit of finished compost, comfrey will feed your fruit trees the good, wholesome stuff they need.

Comfrey may be your new best friend If you would like to use less chemical fertilizer for your fruit trees or are tired of weeding around them, there’s a solution. Does watering your fruit trees less often sound good? Yep, there’s an answer for you. The solution to all these things is the humble, yet mighty plant known as comfrey.

A very hardy plant, comfrey is a perinnial herb of the boraginaceae family of plants with a scientific name of Symphytum officinale, or the more popular Symphytum uplandicum. The most popular cultivar is known as Bocking 14 which is sterile and propogated by root

cuttings. Though wildly popular as a medicinal, comfrey is a perennial and strong growing in most zones with somewhat fuzzy leaves that grow to more than a foot long. The leaves grow from a main crown that eventually will sprout flowering stems with bell-shaped flowers that range in color from purple to blue to pink.

But, it’s not its blossoms that are coveted by most growers, though pollinators love them. Its greatest characteristic may be that comfrey is a nutrient accumulator.

Comfrey has a long tap root that reaches deep into the soil draw-

A single comfrey plant can spread its growth pretty wide, as much as 3 to 4 feet across, making it very difficult for weeds to compete.

Many fruit orchards have comfrey around the base of their fruit trees or under their berry bushes. Since the comfrey roots are deep, they’re not overly competitive with the other plants. When practicing chop and drop techniques, comfrey leaves can halt weed growth.

Simply select a number of leaves to cut from the plant and lay them out accordingly around the area as a covering mulch. No need for herbicides, propane burners or hand weeding.

Finally, since the comfrey plant is wide and the chopped and dropped leaves cover the ground, it helps the surrounding soil retain water longer by shading the ground and blocking the solar energy that would vaporize the water at or near the surface of the soil.

Essentially it creates a beneficial shade and ground litter.

This cursory look at comfrey should be supplemented by the many resources out there on the benefits of comfrey as a companion or guild plant. There’s an entire comfrey world out there to enjoy.

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Essay

WHAT IS THE VA

Something I read the other day made me ponder about the nature of work. Or, more precisely, how many of us of American and Occidental cultures view work. I now know we have it wrong.

In mankind’s rush from an agrarian society to an industrial one, increases in human productivity seemed to be gained through mechanization. In fact, this increase in efficiency was lauded as miraculous – it still is today.

Now that we have largely left the industrial age to move into an age of data, efficiency still seems to be the objective. Or, maybe naïvely stated, the objective is to liberate humans from having to do things, especially physical work.

There is a lot of attention being paid to agriculture on the continent of Africa. Articles written on the subject often described how many of the laborers are women who are working long hours in the fields. A key message of one particular article I read was the promise that GMO crops and Westernstyle industrial agriculture will help keep these women from “spending long days stooped over” in the fields. The tenor was that those who oppose GMO crops are forcing these women to “backbreaking” work. The careful choice of words in the article was intended to make the reader feel shamed into supporting GMO crops.

Lately I’ve been studying essays about economics, especially as practiced in the highly developed world, and how different economic theory will advance our societies. Most of the economists call for hyper-efficiency in how things are done. Few of these economists make human physical work the central pivot of their theories.

Now, I’ve set up my short essay here this way because I wanted to point out that there is tremendous pressure to liberate humans from physical work. Because we’re reared to, we assume that life is better without physical work and that gains in efficiency are a primary objective in the home, at work and at leisure. At the heart of this is a mindset that believes physical work is less desirable than brain work or no work at all. Chart the course of your average day step by step. How much of your daily personal environment is designed to reduce physical work? Our lives are so used to the things that reduce our physical work that we can’t even think of them because we take them for granted.

So, to my main point. When it comes to agriculture, we applied the lessons of the industrial revolution and layered over those our developments in technology and now shout from the tops of grain elevators how efficient we are. We publish reports and write news articles highlighting how a single farmer can now feed some number of people. Often this is compared to a past figure to, presumably, show how advanced we are today.

The result of all this is that we now denigrate physical work. Apparently, physical work is beneath humans and we should do all we can to eliminate it. That may be putting too fine a point on it, but think of how we rear our children and try to guide them not into vocations, but into careers. The modern parent says, “why on Earth

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ALUE OF WORK?

by Dan Grubbs

would I send my daughter to private school and then to college only to have her herd sheep and goats on a small farm?

Now when you add the idea that we’ve lost the intrinsic and inherent value of physical work to the true costs of what we’ve done to eliminate it, especially in agriculture, we turn our back on a smarter way to think about the world around us. These true costs are even winked at by intelligent economists who adhere to the concept of “creative destruction” – a notion that says the losses experienced in advancement of technology are more than made up for in gains of efficiency. Will advancement of technology be worth it when the soil no longer will grow crops?

Instead of seeing an integrated creation, we see too narrowly and often with self-centric eyes. In our desire to both artificially sate ourselves and reduce our physical work we have destroyed our work ethic, handicapped our ability to compete in a global economy and have started irrevocable damage to the creation in which we find ourselves.

To that last point, because we devalue work, we force an ever-increasing mandate for hyperefficiency to support this kind of society. This is especially true in agriculture and our subsequent food supply. According to Jonathan Benson writing for Natural News, “All around the world, the push to globalize the food supply by consolidating food production into large-scale, corporatized agricultural systems controlled by a select few is causing massive environmental destruction and immense poverty.”

So, the “back-breaking” work the system was supposed to save us from is forcing more and more people into leaving their homes, collapsing rural communities, over populating urban centers and creating far more poverty for more of the world’s people than ever before. The exact opposite from what was claimed would happen.

Since the push to greater productivity through technological improvements and cultivation of marginal land, we are on a path to eventual elimination of our land’s ability to produce and the complete destruction of rural society and the continuation of mass urbanization. And, we’re doing this in the name of profit for a very few and giving only token notice to the impact on the biosphere and the impact on society. Just because we can do a thing – in this case have a farmer operate 5,000 acres single-handedly through advanced mechanization and technology – doesn’t mean we should do a thing.

What is the value of physical work? Ask those who are not employed. Or, better yet, ask those who now live in the ghettos, barrios and slums of the world’s cities infested with disease, crime and inescapable poverty. That is what industrial agriculture will do to Africa and South America. That is what happens when physical work no longer has value in a society.

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Events

The 2014

Acres U.S.A.

Conference and Trade Show

Editor’s Picks

Few books can truely be said to be groundbreaking in their prophetic nature. Poet, farmer, quiet radical, Wendel Berry, in The Unsettling of America: Cultural and Agriculture unleashes a prophetic opus that, with amazing accuracy, told us what our lives and the biosphere would be like as a result of the practices of industrial agriculture. The truth of his prophesy will astound you considering the book was written nearly 40 years ago and is still as fresh today as it was when Berry wrote it. With rare eloquence and the sensabilities of a poet, Berry lays out both the how and the why the world is on a wreckless path of destruction by both the post-modern midset and the application of the practices of the industrial revolution to agriculture ... all due to avarice.

Founder and visionary of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, Wes Jackson gives the world a an approach to living sustainably as a human society. In Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture, Jackson passionately urges for us all to learn from and mimic nature in order to not just feed ourselves, but to sustain the entire biosphere. I claim that this volume will be one of your favorites for 2015.

In it you’ll find a good precis of what Jackson and his colleagues call “the 50-year farm bill,” their policy approach to changing agriculture and the positive ripple effect that would take place if their policies were adopted.

This would make a good gift to any current or future politician you know.

Noah Sanders in his book, Born-Again Dirt helps point out that the Gospel should not only transform our lives, but it “should also transform our agriculture.” This may seem like common sense to some Christians. To others, it will be an awakening. In Born-Again Dirt, Sanders tells us that “if we want to glorify God we must be Christian farmers, not just farmers who are Christians. The way we work the dirt must spring from a Biblical worldview.” He shares that this is the concept behind both the book’s title and the concept of born-again dirt.

Read a full review of Sanders’ Born-Again Dirt on page 5.

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Almost Manna: Can’t Miss Recipes

Amish Zucchini Bread Ingredients: 3 eggs

1 teaspoon of baking soda

2 cups of zucchini , shredded

2 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of cooking oil

2 teaspoon of vanilla 3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking powder 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon of cloves

1/2 cup of chopped nuts 1/2 cup of raisins

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs until foamy. Stir in sugar, zucchini , oil and vanilla. Gradually add dry ingredients and spices. Stir in nuts.

Pour into bread pans which have been greased only on the bottoms. Bake at 325 degrees for 60 to 80 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. Makes 2 loaves.

Peasant Soup Ingredients:

3-4 medium red potato

3 cups white bean (or any mild bean)

1 small head of cabbage

Fresh parsley for topping

3 large carrots

1 medium white onion

1/3 stick of unsalted butter

3 cups of cooked chickpea

(optional beef or chicken stock)

Cut carrots into thin rounds and simmer on low for 45 min , then add large diced potatoes and shredded cabbage . Once it begins to be al dente’, add pre-cooked chickpea and beans. While carrots and potatoes are simmering, lightly sauté mushrooms and onion in butter then add to stock and let simmer until desired level of softness for your carrots and potato.

DIRT from page 5 ing “principles” found there. To be fair though, he does state that Christians are saved by grace and not bound to the laws in the same way as in the Old Testament. And it bears reminding that Sanders is not teaching about salvation overtly, but about God-glorifying agriculture.

That’s not to say that Sanders doesn’t address the gospel. At the end of Chapter 2, he wrote that with the knowledge of the curse on the Earth and how sin entered the world and that Christ is the only solution to that problem, “…what we can and should do as Christians is seek to apply the redemption of Christ to every areas of our lives, including agriculture.”

He added to that thought, “Unlike other farmers, we have a hope in the fact that Christ is returning to restore all things and that this current world, groaning under the curse of sin, is only temporary.”

Sanders pointed out that man’s expertise in farming pales in comparison to the Creator who designed natural processes and the functions of plants, soil and the rest of the biosphere. He wrote, “We cannot begin to understand the living creatures and systems in creation well enough to be able to manipulate them as industrial agriculture does today. To treat a chicken as if it were a source of raw material such as metal or wood in a factory, denies the value of life that God has given that creature.”

“I believe that as Christian farmers we should look not primarily to the world’s farming experts, but to the farming Expert,” Sanders wrote. That seems to make perfect sense, but in case someone missed

this teaching, Sanders hones the point more sharply. “If we want to learn from the Expert, what do we do? In order to develop Godglorifying production methods for farming we need to honor the principles we see in the design of creation. Our production is going to be most successful when we manage creation in a way consistent with its design.” He added, “If we want to have production models that glorify God, then these models need to honor the principles in creation that reflect His wisdom and character.”

From this foundation, Sanders outlined very specific ideas about how to actually apply biblical principles in agriculture. He even got somewhat specific about what a “born-again dirt” farm should look like by examining and applying biblical principles to the farm and its operation.

Sanders wrote convincingly on the role of the Christian farmer as faithful steward of the land. This involves cultivating a Christ-like heart as well as cultivating the land in a way that brings honor to God. Farmers are to be faithfully caring for the land so that it sustains the life that is all around it. The Christian farmer is an attentive farmer who is both diligent and hardworking, but who is also thoughtful in planning.

The logical flow of the writing moves to more carefully examining God’s principles of design which begins with a deeper understanding of soil and its health. He outlined the need to follow God’s design based on season, patterns and even periods of rest. “The principle of resting helps cultivate in our hearts a trust in the Lord and confidence in His provision,”

Sanders wrote. “Sometimes we may be tempted to think that there are times we need to work and can’t afford to rest. One of the reasons God wants us to rest is to be reminded that we are dependent on Him for provision, not on our own strength and ability to work.”

He was quick to point out that rest doesn’t mean neglect. “When God created and rested on the seventh day He ceased from all the work He had done, but He obviously didn’t cease from caring for and maintaining His creation. Without the care of God all of creation would fall apart. Through Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17) and have their being (Revelation 4:11). Therefore, in following His example, we need to rest from work, but not neglect the care of what we are responsible for.”

He further defined rest for farmers and the land. Sanders wrote that letting the land rest means not taking away from it or causing a negative sum. Caring for a fallow field by planting a “green manure crop for the benefit of the soil during the fallow year could … be an application of caring for your soil while letting it rest.” The field gains something positive not a subtraction of something from it.

Sanders built a strong case against the kind of agriculture that produces food that isn’t the healthiest available to humans or that harms creation. He boldly writes that it is not honoring to God to produce food or food ingredients that aren’t healthful.

If we as farmers want to promote health and the general well-being of the people we serve with the things we produce as farmers, it’s very important that we seek to

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grow food that’s not only safe, but also full of nutrition! It takes more effort to improve our soils and use more traditional seed varieties, but what would we want someone to do for us? More importantly, what does God want us to do for others? We need to reflect God’s love and care in the very nature of the food we grow.

This leads us to the controversial practices of genetic modification.

He wrote, “At first glance genetic engineering sounds useful. But our question as Christian farmers is not “Do GMOs work?” but “Do they honor God?” It’s a compelling question we must all take to heart. Sanders offered his own answer. “In my opinion, the unnatural manipulation of genes violates the natural order of God’s creation.”

Not leaving the Christian farmer with only theoretical and theological discussions, Sanders gave practical explanations of bornagain farming, such as how to get started and the role of marketing, all while supporting his position with scripture strewn throughout his text for biblical support of what he asserts.

Farming is not about financial gain or high crop yields, Sanders taught. Rather, farming is another means for man to worship God in trust and gratitude.

In Born-Again Dirt, Noah Sanders makes a convincing and compelling argument that a God-glorifying agriculture is one that is born out of a stewardship mentality, a creation-mimicking approach and a Bible-based set of principles. To that we simply respond, Amen!

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Into the Barn

Is the Book of Genesis anti GMO It might seem like a stretch to some people, but there may be a biblical case to be made against use of sterile seeds, GMOs and even less-than-whole grain ingredients in our food.

Now before you dismiss this idea out of hand, take a moment to consider the words below without thinking of the current food system, but simply to digest the ideas based on the text presented.

In Genesis, God’s creative fiat was expressed in several ways. When it comes to flora, Gen. 1:11 is particularly important. In this verse, God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation(1), plants(2) yielding seed(3), and fruit trees(4) on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them.”

Now, one could take from Genesis that soil (earth) is vitally important for plant life; and, that plants are to be self replicating (yielding seed). No earth-shattering revelation there. Yet, consider that agribusiness companies are flooding the world marketplace with plants that do not self replicate when exposed to growing conditions. These companies are pushing commodity crops that grow

sexually sterile seeds by scie design. Is this an adulteratio God’s design? Would anyone to answer to God for use of nology in this way?

However, there is more cons to say that transgenic manip tions (GMOs) of seed is an a teration of God’s design. Pu the gene of one species of an into the gene sequence of a cannot be supported as natu healthful, let alone, part of G creative process to feed man nor His command to be crea our fruitfulness.

One could take this notion e farther. If man changes the so that it no longer can expr “seedness” then it could be v as contrary to God’s design.

Moore, famous founder of B Red Mill in Oregon, was quo the May 2013 issue of Acres saying, “…if you take away t seed’s ability to be a seed, lik taking the germ of the bran you have essentially destroy the value of it.” If you read t whole interview titled “Purp Profit,” it’s easy to take Moo words to mean that not usin whole grain is a contradictio

1 -KJ: grass, NASB: vegetation | deshe = deh-sheh: a sprout; by analo 2 - KJ: herb, NASB: plants | eseb = eh-seb: to glisten (or be green); gr 3 - KJ/NASB: seed | zera = zeh-rah: seed; figuratively fruit, plant, so 4 - KJ/NASB: tree | ets = ates: a tree (from its firmness); hence wood

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God’s plan for feeding mankind.

These ideas are certainly debatable. But, it’s useful to examine God’s design of creation and look carefully how mankind is working in harmony with it and where we are contradicting it … to our own disgrace and demise.

Noah Sanders, in his book BornAgain Dirt, put it this way. He wrote that how we farm or garden should be based on a biblical world view, not a secular one. Every part of our farms and every way we farm should bring glory to God. “If we want to glorify God we must be

Christian farmers, not just farmers who are Christians,” Sanders wrote. The differences between these two perspectives are vast, and they started to diverge as far back as the first generation of man.

The damage industrial agriculture does to the soil and the watershed combined with bioengineering of the crops which are overlaid with petroleum-based poisons are certainly not Edenic conditions, and not even those described after Adam was banished from the Garden.

even seed ress its viewed . Bob Bob’s oted in s U.S.A., the ke by away, yed the poseful ore’s ng the on of

ogy grass (tender) grass, green, (tender) herb. rass (or any tender shoot): grass, herb. owing time, posterity: – X carnally, child, fruitful, seed (-time), sowing-time. d (plural sticks): - + carpenter, gallows, helve, + pine, plank, staff, stalk, stick, stock, timber, tree, wood.

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