Deets On Eats

View Original

TOURING PETALUMA: Tara Firma as Sustainable Farm

TD

Cows grazing at Tara Firma farms.

Dear Foodie Fam,

It’s National Agriculture week!

I wrote a post about visiting a sustainable farm in Petaluma but if you want to know more about sustainable farming, read on to see what I learned!

WTH?

Brandon at Tara Firms Farms opened up a world of fascinating farming facts to me and Dutch. Visions of the movie “Interstellar” flash through my mind when I remember that farmers need to be part biologist to really optimize their farms. Maybe a few years back, I would have lazily just left facts to experts but these days, I use my blog to sort out things I don’t understand. 

I’m no expert but if you want to see me wrap my head around some of my questions about sustainable farming… read on!:

WHY WAS BRANDON TALKING SO MUCH ABOUT SOIL?

You learn at a young age that you need soil to grow things. Duh. The topic is deceptively more complicated -and important- than a kid could probably grasp. Healthy soil means…

  • …healthy plants that don’t need pest eradication and other artificial farming hacks.

  • …delicious grass that cows do not pass up in their search for more delicious grazing.

  • …yields that last year after year for generations.

  • …food sources that are healthy and (according to modern day chefs) more delicious because they have more nutrients. 

How do you get healthy soil? ...You feed it what it needs.

Soil doesn’t just need modern day fertilizer. It needs a slew of macronutrients like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur… let’s not dive into the bevy of micronutrients also necessary. Soil needs these things so much that it almost speaks to farmers… For example: Did you know the presence of certain kinds of weeds indicate just what sort of nutrients your soil is missing?

SOURCE: United States Department of Agriculture

WHY DID BRANDON KEEP TALKING ABOUT “RHIZOMES”?

SOURCE: The Daily Garden

Rhizomes are teensy subterranean plants. Tara Firma farmers pride themselves on feeding all their livestock, including these little guys. Well fed rhizomes means well fed soil…

Rhizomes are a small part of a little empire of minuscule critters. They are completely codependent. Furthermore, their health dictates the health of the soil they thrive (or do not thrive) in. 

The biggest reason to nurture this bitty world is shockingly simple: The circle of life is a thing. 

The health of every small part of our ecosystem eventually dictates the health of all the parts we see (and consume). Healthy soil yields food sources longer than soil that is continually deprived of a thriving microbial kingdom.

SOURCE: United States Department of Agriculture

WHY DOES TARA FIRMA HAVE SO MANY ANIMALS?

Tara Firma farms hosts goats, chicken, sheep, cows and pigs. They model farms from a century ago which almost always had chicken, corn, cows and pigs. Today, less than 10% of farms have chickens and/or cows; another 10% has pigs and another quarter has corn. This means the ecosystems at today’s farms are lacking nutrients -and flavor- boasted by older farms.

We live in a world where the cost to run a farm is lowered. Modern plows have made soil easier to cultivate. Efficient fertilizer has simplified what the soil is fed. It’s also removed the need to own and maintain animals as “natural lawn mowers” and reduced the need to even put animals to pasture. Today’s farms hosts a very fragile ecosystem.

If you check out the first blog I wrote about Tara Firms farms, you’ll notice Brandon mentioned the roles each animal on the farm plays. This teamwork really does add to a more bountiful farm. 

On-farm mixing (polyculture, inter-cropping, or co-cultivation) is the raising of more than one plant/animal in one area on one farm… it:

  • is old school

  • demands more tools

  • calls for detailed management

  • means smaller yields of individual food sources

However, on-farm mixing has lovely, sustainable benefits… it:

  • provides a farmer with more streams of income and year round work

  • recycles resources when by products make food for livestock and livestock make manure to fertilize the soil

  • nurtures healthier and biodiverse soil, making re-establishing grasses and shrubs much easier…

  • eliminates weeds, pests and disease

  • conserves water

  • creates resistance to climate extremity

  • saves space because plants in one field might bloom in a different season than the others it shares a plot with

  • opens up farmers to work together and be more active in their community

This box was donated by a local market. Pears going bad are perfect feed for the pigs at Tara Firma Farms!

Babydoll sheep hanging out with the chickens at Tara Firma farms.

Monoculture chooses and elevates a singular piece of a complicated puzzle and disturbs the entire ecosystem that is meant to keep soil fertile and food sources healthy and delicious. Monofarming is almost like stripping an orchestra of all their instruments except the cello and expecting it to perform orchestral pieces alone or better… that performance might sound nice, but it loses it’s original, natural meaning, beauty, fullness and “flavor". Plus, without other musicians to relieve them, your cello player is going to get exhausted. Well… land gets exhausted, too.

These goats are “lawn mowers” at Tara Firma Farms.

WHY IS BEING CARBON NEUTRAL A BIG DEAL?:

Tara Firma has good reason to be proud of their carbon management: they are carbon neutral. They do not contribute to the excess CO2 mess agricultural and land management practices are adding to the atmosphere. They cannot be credited for that part of global warming. They do take part in the effort to make sure there’s healthy farms in the future.

The fact that all that CO2 is being flung into the atmosphere where it’s not necessary makes one almost want to cancel farms, altogether. However, there’s a place to put that extra CO2!: Back into the loving arms of an Earth that’s already hungry for it.

These days, Petaluma farms practicing ways to feed CO2 back into the ground are thriving. According to the Marin Carbon Project, some Petaluma Farms are using land management and conservational practices to sequester and store photosynthetically derived carbon back into their hungry soil where it can be made into plant material and soil organic matter. 

Tara Firms is part of The Marin Carbon Project (MCP) which seeks to enhance carbon sequestration in rangeland, agricultural, and forest soils through applied research, demonstration and implementation.

SOURCE: The Marin Carbon Project (MCP)

To find out more about the Marin Carbon Project, click here! 

As an eater, I hope you find all this as fascinating and important as I have found it! 

SOURCE: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

SOURCES: