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Sustainable Agriculture: Reflections On The Importance Of Place

Extension Educator Tianna Dupont recently traveled to New Mexico as a fellow in the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Extension Educator Fellows Program. In this essay, Dupont reflects on what she learned about how climate and culture shape the meaning of "sustainable agriculture" in New Mexico.

The dust whips through my hair and the sun glares off white soil into my eyes under my wide brimmed hat. It is hot, not baking, but a harsh bright heat that I am not used to. "What do the cows eat?" I wonder, as I look across barbed wire fence at scruffy, pale grass dotted with juniper and gangly cactus so black at the base it appears burnt. After a week I finally saw the cows. "Cows," I screamed for the fifth time that hour. After slamming on the brakes for patches of brush and old farm equipment, which somehow resembled cows at sixty miles per hour, no one was paying much attention to my exclamations. But, there was no missing them this time. The cows were in the middle of the road. We took pictures of the four girls with great pointed horns from inside the car as if we were in Yellowstone, too much the city slickers to get out of the car for fear of those graceful horns.

I was privileged to be able to travel to New Mexico recently as a fellow for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Extension Educator Fellows Program, run by the USDA. Our goal, as we travel to each of the four regions of the United States over the next two years, is to examine what sustainable agriculture is and to help farmers share best management practices across the country. Driving up to each farm we were ready to observe "sustainable agriculture." What greeted those of us hailing from wetter climes was -- dry. This year has been drier than most with only four inches of rain compared to the average of ten. Coming from the humid East Coast where just the week before we had four inches of rainfall in one day, the dryness impressed me. But, as we spoke with farmers, I realized that community and history, as well as water, shape the agriculture, and the sustainability of it here.

Let me introduce you to a few of the farmers we met.
veg farmer at a work station

Fidel is an enthusiastic new farmer growing vegetables in house lots tucked in the suburbs of Albuquerque. As comfortable in Spanish as in English, his short stature and dark black hair are a reminder that this place was Mexico long before it was sold to the United States. His high tunnel is full of knee-high tomato plants and greens fill every niche of space in his small field. With land scarce, he farms on four different lots people lend him. First drawn to farming for the work he tells us, "I started this farm as a business, now it is a way to live." He and his fellow co-op farmers are driven by a sense of community. They market through a co-op to Albuquerque public schools. "A huge percentage of public school kids are in the school lunch program, and are on food stamps," he told us.

The National Center for Children in Poverty estimates that 28 percent of children residing in New Mexico are living in impoverished homes. New Mexico has the highest rate of child poverty in the nation. One of the missions of the co-op is to make healthy food accessible to these kids. Fidel explained that community and tradition also influence what they grow. Marigolds are traditional for "Dia del los Muertos." Day of the Dead is the day after American Halloween, a day to remember your ancestors long since and recently passed. The petals from the marigolds Fidel grows are sold to his community members who use them to form a path for the ancestors to find them to be honored on this day.
Dupont-NewMexico-dairy

Mike De Smet gives a tour of his dairy farm to the group of Extension Educators.

Mike De Smet welcomed us, a busload of Extension Educators from across the continent, in front of his brand new store with "Local Farm Fresh Milk" emblazoned on the storefront. Young, savvy and full of energy, Mike explained how De Smet Dairy and Creamery has become New Mexico's only Grade A, dairy farm bottling raw milk. Mike is a third generation dairy farmer. His grandfather started Bosque Farms in 1945. Like many dairy farmers, his dad sent Mike off to school. The farm would not support them both. But dairy was in his blood, so Mike studied dairy in college and went on to work in Wisconsin dairies after graduation. When he came back, he knew that in order for the family dairy to survive, they would have to transition to niche products. For years in New Mexico, get big or big out has been the trend in dairy. Now most New Mexico dairies are large: 2,600 to 6,000 cows. Mike's choice to produce raw, one hundred percent grass milk is built on the demands of his customers. Many drove hours into adjoining states to find a similar product before he started. But, Mike's choice to stay in the area is predicated on his family's tie to the land. "This land is attached to family,"Mike told us. His grandfather acquired the first 160 acres from the Homestead Act and worked for years to acquire the farm next door. Though they lost part of the farm when his uncle died in a tractor incident, the family tie to the land is strong. Even with rising land prices as Albuquerque creeps closer, they plan to keep the farm.

Gerald Chacon and his family have been ranchers for longer than New Mexico has been part of the union. In 1598 his family came and settled close to Espanola. "We have been in livestock ever since," Chacon told us. As Chacon explained the interesting history of land tenure in the West, I started to understand how present and influential history is for farmers and farming in New Mexico. From 1598 to 1846 land was given to individuals and communities as part of the Spanish and Mexican Land Grants. Generally, the irrigated land around the edges of the land grant was divided and owned by individuals. But the dry land in the center of the land grant was held in common for grazing. Gerald's family established at the Rio de Chama Land Grant in 1806, one of the 300 land grants given by Mexico.

However, Chacon noted with some irony and hardness in his tone, in 1897 the United States broke one of the contingencies of its treaty with Mexico which guaranteed continuous land tenure after the land transfer of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and all the common lands from the land grants were transferred to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "In the East politicians think that it is by great generosity that the government allows ranchers to use bureau land," Chacon explained. "They don't understand that communities here have a chain of title to the use of those lands."

He is right. The historical rights of access to land in the West are not something we learned in political science class. But in New Mexico historical land rights are still a very present influence on the sustainability of New Mexican rancher livelihoods. In New Mexico where it might take one hundred acres per cow to achieve sustainable stocking rates (compare that to two cows per acre in Pennsylvania), it takes a vast expanse of land to run a viable operation. Two days before our visit President Obama had designated "Rio Grande del Norte National Monument," effectively removing more land from community management.

The blue, blue sky contrasted with the red soil. Long rows of sweet corn were just barely peeking through. May 20th, might seem late for early sweet corn and beans, but just ten days before near Santa Fe the temperature had dropped to a deep frost and so few things were planted out yet. Schwebach Farms owner Dean Schwebach explained how community and water shape many of their farm decisions. With thirty-four acres of sweet corn and Spanish white beans and seven acres of mixed veggies, Schwebach decides how much he will plant each year depending on what his water allotment might be. Much of the water in New Mexico is from the "acequia" ditch irrigation system. After three years of drought, the allotments are low. If you are on a priority ditch, you may have water all season. But many farmers already knew in May that the acequia water will run out in July. Schwebach explained farmers have to rely on well water to make up the difference (if they have it, and have rights to it). Seven years ago Schwebach installed a buried drip irrigation system.

Now there are 230 miles of plastic tubing seven inches below his rows of vegetables. These thin tubes drip the water out slowly so that it can be absorbed by the plants. Because the tubes are buried, very little water evaporates. "We save 30 to 40 percent of the water compared to the ditch irrigation we used before," Schwebach explained.  Although the extreme weather and drought shape many of the decisions on the farm, community and quality of life are important drivers for Schwebach and other farmers we visited. "We are motivated by the health of our family and to have healthy food for our community," Schwebach explained. Community is important in the balance of their trade-offs with sustainability. For example, while most of what Schwebach grows is grown using organic practices, a few products are not because it would make them too expensive for his community to buy. "We grow food that is affordable to people and good too," Schwebach told us with pride that they are able to feed their community.

So, what is "sustainable agriculture" in New Mexico? I believe the answer to this question is steeped in the climate and culture of the place. As a student I learned that there is a legal definition of sustainable agriculture. In summary: an integrated production system or site specific practices that will, over the long term, satisfy food and fiber needs while enhancing the natural resource base, sustaining farm economic viability and enhancing quality of life for farmers and society.  When asked, I personally say, sustainable agriculture systems are those that are able to produce sufficient food forever without degrading the resource based upon which production depends.

In New Mexico the most limiting resource to sustain is water. As Mike De Smet stated, "Drought is a major problem for us. It is the next big crisis." But farmers in New Mexico also have to balance their environmental goals with quality of life for themselves and their communities. "My goal is to give a good quality product to my clientele," Ken Boltz told us, "to make people happy with my eggs." Often this quality of life in New Mexico is tied to a history most of us know little about. "How do they expect us to live if the government keeps dispossessing us of land? Sixty percent of land is public here," Chacon reminded us. The sustainability of agriculture is complicated. Nowhere have we reached long-term sustainability. But I am happy to have been reminded about the importance of place in our conversation around sustainability.


Source:psu.edu


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