SARE 20/20: Sustainable Innovations Are Revitalizing American Agriculture

Beltsville, MD – A New Mexico farmer cut annual greenhouse heating costs from $2,000 to zero using the power of the sun. Perched at the edge of the Sonoran desert in New Mexico, Don Bustos’ family farm is endowed with ample sunshine – but cool temperatures limit the growing season to only four or five months. When rising fuel costs threatened his farm and family, Bustos tapped nature’s own energy source: the sun. With the help of a grant from the USDA/CSREES-supported Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, Bustos tested a new system that uses solar heated fluid to warm greenhouse beds, lengthen his growing season and increase profits.

Bustos’ innovative approach is just one of dozens profiled in SARE’s newest free publication, SARE 20/20: Celebrating our First 20 years, Envisioning the Next. Featuring farmers and ranchers who are turning to sustainable agriculture to boost profits, protect the environment and build their communities, SARE 20/20 chronicles two decades of agricultural innovation supported by SARE.

“We are proud of how SARE grantees – from every corner of the nation – have used sound research to advance the frontier of sustainable agriculture,” said Jill Auburn, SARE director.

SARE 20/20 highlights cream-of-the-crop projects from more than 3,700 SARE funded grants, illustrating how producers, researchers and educators are collaborating to advance sustainable innovations to the whole of American agriculture. A few examples:

• A nonprofit uses innovative marketing strategies to open new markets for more than 40 produce farmers, resulting in a tenfold increase in sales spanning six years.
• Researchers in the South develop a toolbox of low-cost strategies to detect and target parasites in goats and sheep, reducing the use of chemical dewormers.
• Minnesota researchers find success using reduced tillage and rotations to control corn rootworm.

Download SARE 20/20 for free at www.sare.org/publications/highlights.htm. To order print copies, visit www.sare.org/WebStore, call 301/374-9696 or write to Sustainable Agriculture Publications, PO Box 753, Waldorf, Md. 20604-0753. (Please specify SARE 20/20 when ordering by mail.) Allow 3-4 weeks for delivery.

SARE 20/20 was published by the national outreach office of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), USDA. SARE’s nationwide research and education grants program advances farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities.  The national outreach office operates under cooperative agreements with the University of Maryland and the University of Vermont to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. Visit www.sare.org for more information about SARE.

A Little Thing Called FAITH

Another opportunity to watch Glenn Beck – with David Barton (WallBuilders) and Ira Stoll (Author of “A Life”) – leads to inspirational thoughts for lovers of liberty.

How in the world did I major in Political Science and not know more about my own country? A closer look at the “Father of the American Revolution”, Samuel Adams, will lead you to see how far away from our founding principles we are – as individuals, communities, and a country.

As the American Revolution was taking place, there were many instances when these brave folks fighting for liberty questioned what they were doing.  There was even dissent from people in this country (people who did not want to be “free”), and there were many battles lost before having any chance at succeeding.

However, these people had faith.  They believed that the plight of liberty and of INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, and that these superseded their own well-being.  They were willing to sacrifice their lives for their liberty and the liberty of future citizens.

If we could go back, if we could take back our representatives and our country, we could likely simplify the mecca of  bureaucracy that is leading to our enslavement to a political and economic system that will no longer allow for individuals to act for themselves in a market that is free.

And what should we do?  We have many battles that we are all fighting, in our own lives, professions, and communities.  We must keep questioning, fighting, and standing up for the principles this country was built upon.  And really, to do this effectively, one must have faith.  It is all we have at the end of the day.

READ MORE ABOUT FORGOTTEN HISTORY at WALLBUILDERS

- Tisha Casida

Food Rules by Michael Pollan: Rule #25 – Eat Your Colors

There is good reason to want a diet with a lot of colors in it (and NO not crazy artificial colors that have come from dyes), the reason is that those colors are actually indicative of the phytochemicals that they contain.  Phytochemicals are good for you!

Join a CSA (Community-Supported-Agriculture), find a farmers’ market, and plant a garden!  AND EAT YOUR COLORS!

Pollan, M. (2009). Food Rules – An Eater’s Manual. New York, NY: Penguin Books.