Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

montanafreepress.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 297 posts

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#51

Post by hahamrfunnyguy »

kaycebasques wrote: post #2

Has anyone here undergone a soil restoration project (big or small)? Did you happen to blog about the progress? There's so much I don't know, like how you even determine that your soil is degraded, or how you measure progress.

I am doing it on a small and unscientific scale. My soil is silty sand with a pretty neutral PH. I need to add quite a bit of organic material to get plants to thrive. In the past, I'd turn everything over with a shovel each year. This year I went to a no-till method for my annual crops putting down cardboard and woodchips as mulch. If a plant gives me an indication of a deficiency, I will address it. For example, sometimes my tomatoes need a little extra magnesium.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#53

Post by majormajor »

durkie wrote: post #46

Is there an economic argument to be made for increasing the amount of money spent in the local economy? I often hear it cited as a benefit in situations like this, and it has a certain feel-good quality to it, but instinctively it feels like it means people pay higher prices: if you're buying seed from the local seed & feed, it's almost certainly more expensive than if you buy it from XYZ megacorp.

Beyond just the an outsourcing-style one? Where the local circulation is more important than the immediate sticker price? Giving your money to someone else local means they can purchase stuff from someone else local who then can purchase stuff from someone else local, etc... vs that money being out of the local economy entirely.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#54

Post by pacerwpg »

blueyes wrote: post #24

Montanan here: This is true. One of the regenerative crop types are pulses (lentils, chick peas), and MT produces a lot. https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/pulse-info/resources-pdf/Growing... The state often appears in stories about agriculture in precarious environments (See Jared Diamond's "Collapse" for one example.) Montana is largely a semi-arid desert, especially over the 2/3's of the state that are northern Great Pla…

Interesting, I saw a map show chick peas as being a big crop in that region and thought it was surprising, just because it's not seen as a huge money crop.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#55

Post by jeffreyrogers »

durkie wrote: post #46

Is there an economic argument to be made for increasing the amount of money spent in the local economy? I often hear it cited as a benefit in situations like this, and it has a certain feel-good quality to it, but instinctively it feels like it means people pay higher prices: if you're buying seed from the local seed & feed, it's almost certainly more expensive than if you buy it from XYZ megacorp.

Maybe not a strictly economic one, but probably a socioeconomic one: that keeping more money in local communities helps those communities to be better places to live.

Whether that is true or not, I don't know. It's definitely true that corporate concentration has been increasing and that many of these communities are in decline.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#56

Post by blevin »

songzme wrote: post #33

There's a guy in Montana called Paul Wheaton who spent the last 6 years building soil rich in organic matter using no chemicals (pesticides & biocides) in his 200 acre plot of land. There were giant hugelkultur beds 15 ft high it was a crazy sight. He believes that in a decade the soil will be so rich in organic matter with healthy microbial activity (with no chemical history) could produce food that cures cancer. I…

January in MT is no joke. Were the activities in that part of the year more on the theory end? Did you have to wait long between your reservation and getting a spot?

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#57

Post by jeffreyrogers »

What is the best criticism of regenerative ag? Everything I see about it is so positive that it seems crazy everyone hasn't switched. Are there really no downsides and it's just institutional inertia/caution holding everyone back?

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#58

Post by kaycebasques »

gdubs wrote: post #47
kaycebasques wrote: post #2

Has anyone here undergone a soil restoration project (big or small)? Did you happen to blog about the progress? There's so much I don't know, like how you even determine that your soil is degraded, or how you measure progress.

My wife and I bought a farm in Oregon and we're in the process of doing exactly this. We don't have a blog yet – working on it - but we do have an instagram account if anyone's interested: http://instagram.com/cleryfarm/ The previous owner had a soil test done, and through that we were able to assess how eroded it was (very). We switched the hay fields over to organic practices, but the biggest projects so far have b…

Thanks for sharing. I followed your account. Looks like you're creating an idyllic life!

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#59

Post by driverdan »

coldcode wrote: post #5

Like everything there are costs and benefits; sometimes people only focus on the benefits of "modern" practices and forget the costs associated with them, like stripping the soil, and the expense and side effects of chemicals. Finding a better approach means taking risks and trying new ideas. This applies to programming as well as growing food.

> the expense and side effects of chemicals

What does that mean? Everything is made of chemicals.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#60

Post by CuriouslyC »

gruez wrote: post #42
kickout wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably referring to dust bowl era land like Oklahoma. I don't like the word collapse, but I'm guessing there are implying that the ground is x% less productive for crop production or grazing). The risk of land collapsing is probably greatest West of the Missouri river where historic rainfall is less and historic topsoil is less (Dakotas, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, etc).

>Probably referring to dust bowl era land like Oklahoma. But in that case the use of chemical seems to be unrelated? >severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent the aeolian processes (wind erosion) caused the [dust bowl] phenomenon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

Overuse of fertilizers can cause chemical burn which damages the soil ecology. In combination with tilling it will gradually destroy the soil quality.

Pesticides destroy insect diversity, including predatory insects that keep pests in check. This is particularly problematic because pest populations tend to recover more quickly than predator populations, so if you stop spraying the problem comes back worse. Pesticides can also harm bird and amphibian populations, which play a role in pest control.

Post reply on HN