Twenty-five minutes north of Duluth, at Fairhaven Farm, first-generation farmer and University of Minnesota Duluth alumnus John Beaton is redesigning small-scale agriculture in a changing world.
Fairhaven Farm grows vegetables and flowers, but the farm’s bigger goal is to care for the soil and strengthen the farm for the future. As a sustainable farmer, Beaton believes that building soil health is foundational to the success of his farm. His soil health principles are simply to disturb the soil less, keep it covered, grow many types of plants, and keep living roots in the ground as long as possible.
To continue to build the soil health on his farm, Beaton needs to plant and rotate a diverse mix of crops. But like many farmers, he ran into a common problem: the right tools cost money. “Small farms, even big farms, have extremely small margins,” he says. “It’s hard to make these investments.”
Source : umn.edu