Time to Loosen the Purse Strings Mr.
Irving: We’ll All Benefit
It was the kind of article you’d expect in
Acres USA, the Canadian Organic Grower, or from the Rodale Institute. Instead “Cover Crops, a Farming Revolution”
was in the business section of the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/business/cover-crops-a-farming-revolution-with-deep-roots-in-the-past.html)
. True blue meat and potatoes mid-western U.S. farmers singing the praises of
non-cash crops like hairy vetch and cereal rye. These are your very
conventional corn and soybean growers who’ve done very well over the last two
decades. Between U.S. government subsidies, and ethanol mandates, they’ve made some
serious money, but they’ve watched their soils deteriorate from short
rotations, and worry about extreme weather events, high heat and drought. “Our corn was wilting when temperatures hit
103 degrees” said one farmer, “I felt like I had a gorilla on my shoulder.” The
number of farmers using cover crops is still small, but they report big
benefits, increased yields, less need for fertilizer and pesticides, erosion
control, and the ability to withstand
droughts. Organic matter levels that had
gone from as high as 10% to below 2% from constant cash cropping, are going up
again, at about 1% every two years. The
article quotes an agriculture department official, “We’ve never seen
anything taken up as rapidly as using cover crops,” said Barry Fisher, a soil
health specialist at the Natural Resources Conservation
Service.
PEI needs a cover crop revolution too, and its
already started on some farms. The Hogg
family near Kensington just won the
Gilbert Clements Environmental Award. In the Guardian Adam Hogg was quoted: “We’ve done a lot of cover cropping
during the past two or three years on all our potato ground… and we are trying
to reduce the amount of fall plowing as best we can.” John Hogg said “We try very hard to make sure we have a
cover crop on the land. We’re constantly looking for something that is better
than barley to hold the ground better and ensure it’s not blowing soil away on
us.” Contrast that with what many saw in late January: bare fields, frigid
weather turning soil particles into freeze dried coffee, and valuable top soil
blown into ditches and neighbouring back yards.
The Hoggs are the
first to admit they’ve got some advantages over many other potato growers. They
grow varieties that can be harvested earlier than the long-season russet
Burbank that french fry makers demand, time to plant a cover crop in the Fall. I’m going to suggest two other things the
Hoggs have, a fierce determination to protect the health of their soils, and
profitability. It costs money to grow a
crop that will be plowed in rather than harvested. They sell to a potato chip market that pays
fairly, while many other potato growers cope with at best marginal contracts
with Cavendish Farms. The Irving owned
company has convinced enough farmers
that Cavendish is uncompetitive because of the lack of irrigation, higher energy and transportation costs, with its big U.S. counterparts in the U.S.
North-West. Growers have reluctantly
accepted price cuts and rollovers for several years now and tried to survive
growing cash crops like soybeans in rotations rather than true cover
crops. That’s got to change, and here’s
why it should now.
The low Canadian
dollar is giving Cavendish Farms a windfall of money, between $20 to $30
million at least by my calculations, simply by carrying on business as usual.
The 70+ cent dollar is just where it was in the mid 1990’s when the Irvings and
McCains couldn’t wait to build new french fry plants here. The McCains have
left (and probably regret it), but Cavendish carries on. I encourage, I implore
Cavendish to share some of this “found money” with growers, and for growers to
insist that it does.
And don’t stop there.
Keep working on new varieties like Prospect that can be harvested earlier with
less fertilizer, demand more research into cover crops that can contain
wireworm, improve soil fertility, and let’s make bare fields in the fall as
unacceptable as drunk driving . If there isn’t time for a cover crop, then at
least spread straw to slow down erosion. All of these come with costs. According to the Times article the U.S.
government subsidizes cover crops there, and some states like Maryland pay the
full cost of cover crops for farms next to Chesapeake Bay. I don’t expect that
here. What I do hope for is that farmers here are paid fairly so they can make better
decisions, bring the same determination to improving soil quality as the Hogg family. As one
farmer said to me: “It’s hard being green when you’re in the red.”
