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Down on the Farm: Students Talk with Farmers and ask, “What is
Sustainable Agriculture?”
Please click here
for an interactive tour of the VSF experience at Shelburne Farms!
Farming
has always played a prominent role in the lives of many Vermonters.
Today, Vermont’s farmers face new challenges: rising fuel costs for
inputs, an increasing human population and resulting demand for land, and
tighter environmental regulations due to contaminate runoff. For
example, the Lake Champlain
State of the Lake Report from 2008, reported that agricultural lands
are a significant source of phosphorus runoff in the Lake Champlain
basin.
Transitioning from the previous day’s examination of water quality on
Lake Champlain, Agriculture Day provided VFS students the opportunity to
talk with local farmers within the watershed about their response to
environmental and economic restraints through the implementation of
various agricultural models.
 Following
an invigorating morning bike ride from UVM, the VFS group arrived at
Shelburne Farms, to start the morning’s discussion with Assistant
Dairy Farmer Nat Bacon and Director of Professional Development Jen Cirilo. Nat and Jen spoke about Shelburne Farms’ overarching mission
of cultivating a conservation ethic to the public at its 1400-acre
facility. Shelburne offers an exemplary agricultural model to most
industrial sized dairy operations of its kind; serving as both
“an educational resource and by practicing rural land use that is
environmentally, economically and culturally sustainable.” Nat
emphasized, “the
more we can solely use the five key ingredients (sun, soil, plants,
animals, and people) the more sustainable we will be," and added that
industrial-sized dairy farmers face a host of restraints before becoming
true “sustainable agriculture”.
“The more
we can solely use the five key ingredients (sun, soil, plants, animals,
and people) the more sustainable we will be.” – Nat Bacon
After a short tour of the farm and
eating their fair share of free cheese samples at Shelburne, the crew
hopped on bikes and headed down the road to Ten Stones, an intentional
community designed, organized, and developed by its 17 member families.
According to their website, “[the members] have no common creed other
than a desire to live cooperatively, ecologically, and economically.”
Cami Davis, an art teacher at UVM and resident member of 10 Stones
described the trials, tribulations and JOYS of living in such a
close-knit community. She told of the consensus decision making that,
although crucial in creating the foundation of the community, often led
to heated interactions amongst members. However, once all the kinks
were ironed out through the intense planning process, the creation of a
truly beautiful place to live was underway. Today the 16 clustered,
half-acre home sites at 10 Stones are surround by 85 acres of woodland,
meadow, and agricultural land. The community boasts a huge beautiful
garden that provides all its members with fresh produce throughout the
growing season and canned goods for the rest of the year. 10 stones
also features a constructed wetland for wastewater treatment, a common
house for community activities, and sustainably constructed green
homes.
 The
groups next destination, would take them to Windy Corners Farm, home of UVM facility member Roelof Boumans
for a delicious
homegrown farm lunch and tour. Roelof and his wife Tini operate a
small-scale farming operation for their own consumption just outside
Charlotte. Utilizing organic no-till agriculture and raising their own
cows, chickens, goats and pigs their farm serves as a testament to
sustainability in farming, but without the economic pressures of turning
a profit for livelihood.
The
group’s final destination of the day observed a more traditional dairy
farming operation down the road at Dijkema Farm. Leaping from the cab
of his John Deere, Dijkema’s seed manager took some time to share with
VFS students the present day challenges of running such an operation on
limited resources. “It’s hard work, but a lot of fun” he said,
“Sometimes you have to work 15 or 20 hour days to get the job done.”
Dijkema Farms at the high point of its season milks 135 cows producing
over 10,000 gallons of milk with a staff of only five. While in recent
years Dijkema has made considerable investments to infrastructure,
improving animal and worker living conditions, the economic pressures of
profitability and scale are visibly forefront to the total mitigation of
environmental impacts on the landscape.
The group’s final destination of the day observed a more traditional
dairy farming operation down the road at Dijkema Farm. Leaping from the
cab of his John Deere, Dijkema’s seed manager took some time to share
with VFS students the present day challenges of running such an
operation on limited resources. “It’s hard work, but a lot of fun” he
said, “Sometimes you have to work 15 or 20 hour days to get the job
done.” Dijkema Farms at the high point of its season milks 135 cows
producing over 10,000 gallons of milk with a staff of only five. While
in recent years Dijkema has made considerable investments to
infrastructure, improving animal and worker living conditions, the
economic pressures of profitability and scale are visibly forefront to
the total mitigation of environmental impacts on the landscape.
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