Environmental Defense Fund: Let’s focus on a farm’s performance, not its size

[HuckleB]

http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2015/03/17/lets-focus-on-a-farms-performance-not-its-size/

"...

It’s a myth that large farms can’t be sustainable, just as it’s a myth that all family farms are small and better for the environment.

Take Christine Hamilton, for example, whose family farm produces corn, soybeans, winter wheat and cattle across 14,000 acres in South Dakota. For years she’s been participating in USDA conservation programs, using no-till practices, planting trees to limit erosion, and utilizing variable rate technologies to improve the environment and her yields.

There are also places like Fair Oaks Farms, which milks over 500 cows … an hour. To make their large operation more sustainable, Fair Oaks pumps methane from its livestock to an on-site natural gas station that compresses it into fuel for the farm’s fleet of 40 milk trucks.

...

It’s time we shift the public debate and get everyone on board the sustainability train. Arguing about a farm’s size won’t deliver environmental benefits. In the end, it’s all about performance."


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A good piece that works to get to the heart of what matters, instead of the marketing hyperbole that pushes fear aimed at increasing profits for one sector over another.

[HuckleB]

1. Kick.