Today's field contrast: on the left, unwatered corn, beans, zucchini, on the right, watered arugula
This
is one infernal dry summer. For a multitude of farmers across large swathes of
southern Ontario and many other parts of the world – conventional, GMO and
organic – the extended months of little to no rain will result in reduced
harvests, lower yields, draining of water sources, and perhaps the enforced sale of livestock.
Naturally, lower farm income will be on the table at the end of the year, a
situation dire enough for some to put them out of business.
Fellow-farmers
I have chewed the cud with at farmers markets have told me they are having to
truck in water. Some have drained their wells and ponds and are drawing from
swamps and creeks. At least one farm has turned to crowd-funding to ensure delivery of water to thirsty plants.
Without rain, of course, these are short-term solutions which are uneconomical
and unsustainable in the long run.
At
our small farm Rolling Hills Organics we have switched to a much-reduced
planting regime. We have watched helplessly as successive early plantings have
been sacrificed to the dry, taken over by weeds which have in turn been
sacrificed to the mower or tiller. With the initial weeks of no rain, it seemed
counter-intuitive to till the dry soil in order to plant. As the drought conditions
have gone on, however, we have found it necessary to water and till, plant and
water, water and water (using our drilled well with good pressure), so as to
continue to have greens for markets, albeit at reduced volume. Early in the morning, late in the afternoon,
every day we are watering. (We do not have a switch to flip as the bigger
farmers do). The heat is befuddling, but the deep-seated dry is demoralizing.
There
is always something that hampers production; in early summer last year, I found
myself apologizing to customers for the scarcity of salad greens: “From June to September, our greens are
grown in mineral-rich, glacial-till soil and enjoy sun, rain, dew, wind, heat,
cold, all the elements that nature bestows. This Spring season has been
unusually challenging with its extremes. Hence the tardy start with field
production. We do not have commercial climate-controlled greenhouses, nor do we
buy in greens from other farms. With warmer nights now finally here, next week
we will be able to offer more. Thank you for your patience.”
Back
to this year, when the rains finally return (and a beginning could be
imminently upon us), normal service and the regular full Fall production will
be resumed. As market farmers growing many different crops, we are able to be
nimble in negotiating mother nature’s curve-balls. We can write off one crop
while another thrives; we can plant more, or less, water more, or less. We can
wait out the storm rolling through. But sometimes, the extremes are severe
shocks to the farm system, and they are increasingly systemic.
Make
no mistake: This challenging season is not just a wake-up call that can be
doused by a few buckets of water; this is a full-on jarring alarm that we
cannot merely turn off to nod off to sleep again. Extended water shortages may
well be a major part of our future and of farming. We need to conserve water,
conserve soil fertility, moisture and
nutrients, conserve crop resilience and diversity. With no water, there is no food and no life.
The big boys with their massive acreages of glyphosate-drenched corn, soy and
wheat face their own challenges in assessing the unsustainability of their
animal feed, ethanol, industrial processing mono-crop model.
For
you farmers market customers out there: stick with us small-scale local
farmers. Yes, some of us are facing challenges, we always do; but no, we are
not giving up on you. We weather adversity well, coming back stronger.
We’ll
have some greens on Saturday. Come early.
