Emphasis; Sustainable Agriculture: Growing Awareness

You know I can make time with Yes I saw stable agriculture. It's a kernel of an idea the seed that some are trying to plant on America's farms and effort to ensure the productivity we enjoy today will still be there when future generations need it. We in America here will continue to. Farm ranch road and then throw whatever ground to get maximum yield the big dollars out right now. In the short run when. This land's gone we're a long time and we need to take care of it. Would you say. Oh my goodness. He doesn't take. Down those. People. THE YOUTH. Ruling.

The world. On a healthy field of corn like this might be a fuel of dreams to some farmers but this is the promise of modern agriculture. This is the way things are done down on the farm these days. First the plow and then the discounting exposing the soil then pre and post emergent herbicides insecticides and fertilizers and then the product. A healthy stand of corn a high yielding high producing this is the way farming has been done in the last generation of America. Intensive some would say industrial farming and that raises the question for home many more generations of America. Can we sustain this you. Run away. All. Right.

The University of Illinois agriculture field day at its Dixon Springs Research Center is a showcase for the latest in agribusiness technology and practices modern machinery and chemical inputs to play a big part. But if you listen closely you can also hear the sound of change in the air. Yes and this is some novel way. First. Take on that. That's correct. This is a mylar tape that has a reflective side and then we twist it a little bit and in the winter homes and the reflection in the Honey I repel birds and birds have come in and cause damages as we put this up. We had live very little to no damage. Birds love blueberries and we don't have the chemical controls anymore. They've taken them away from us. They're not going to clear the material they were effective in that's what we used

up til this year. So what to do instead. Now we've built this net. This keeps the birds out and we're testing the very meals in the varieties inside the net compared to those outside the net and how you do it looks very promising. Last year we had a 70 percent difference in you. This year we had an equal loss in pounds but as the plants grew larger was a 30 percent loss. So we've recovered most of the cost of our materials which amount to about $800 an acre and we think that the life of a structure like this would be 8 9 10 years and we think this is the way to go for small commercial plantings so there are other ways besides chemicals to grow good clean safe crop. Absolutely more and more of the chemicals used to control birds and other pests were this permeable are being banned. So farmers are looking for alternatives. Why they gotta have it so they don't go down and get north finding a grand or more to loft a young emerging point to watch on the

fate of how much stages it takes to satisfy your soul right. Or that's what we want to warn you guys saw the latest trouble. They are good and they don't want you. You got half their sight. That's what we're trying to find out. We found that about four bushel of cracked horn or some other alternative bait seems to keep them satisfied for three and Fayette for three to four weeks until your crop gets in March it will color the cost comparable for bushel the crock on to some comical own goal for bushel of practical Harnett two dollars and fifty cents a bosal it cost you about $10 for Eicher some of those other products that were used actually cost as little as $5 right for the chemical products to use. Naturally that made it competitive as far as Farmer was concerned trying to cut costs. But without those products available on the market we can at least control them for raisonable cost. The message of eliminating or reducing chemical inputs could be heard in other areas too.

Equipment like this specialized prayer is designed to use less nitrogen fertilizer by applying it only where it's needed at the roots of the plants. This relates to West's groundwater contamination because we're much more efficient in the nitrogen picked up by the plant we can put lesser rates on and get the same benefits from it. And also are able to decrease erosion in our fields because we vote. When I saw also. Recently. While there are voices of change at events like this government agencies universities and the ag industry itself are for the most part only now beginning to address concerns that current agricultural practices and policies may be harming the environment and diminishing the fertility of the land. Their approach to these problems has been to react. Some farmers on the other hand are simply acting they are getting in the way. Ultimately it must be the farmers themselves who carry out this change.

But change doesn't happen everywhere to everyone at the same rate. I more or less feel like that I have to fit my management to my my individual feel. John Brand could be labelled a traditional farmer but labels are sometimes misleading. A graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale John returned to carry on the Washington County Family Farm southwest of Centralia in 1979 continuing many of the tried and true farming practices that worked for his dad. He appreciated crop rotation and I'm fortunate I have a very good balanced farm between corn soybeans and wheat. I have very few they created acres that go into the same property. On the road as important as crop rotation is government farm programs can get in the way by limiting crop choices. Farmers who participate in federal farm programs for instance have to grow the same crops year after year on prescribe a portion of their

fields to keep their acreage base current and qualify for crop subsidies. But federal farm policies do have their plus side when it comes to conservation. In order to participate in government programs you have to participate you have to believe the crop residue in place because they are going to be starting to us project the residue as a matter of fact my landlord on this farm was contacted a couple weeks ago that they were going to come out and check for residue levels on our Holly road of all soils. And I just made it a policy on any land that the government is designated as highly wrote of always just automatically No-Tail part of what's called the sustainable agriculture movement is getting away from the industrial crops of corn wheat and soybeans to diversify. John Brinks alternative is one that a generation ago most farmers have. I guess I look at my livestock enterprises as my alternative

crops. I don't feel like with livestock enterprises that I really at the present time have the time to devote to alternative crops although I think in the future with the way agriculture is headed we're going to have to take a look at those things more and more. We're finding that that livestock can be a very not only for its immediate value as far as a. It's marketable value as a as a as a meat but also the byproduct from from that is being very useful in the operation often you put the manure on the wheat field behind your house. Yeah it was a real pretty looking stand a week. So that's helped your fertility then yes. How about the meat itself. Using antibiotics. A lot of those things they use a small amount of antibiotics but. They get my hogs don't get any antibiotics. Probably after they're I'd say approximately a month.

I don't use any a hormone as in feeding my cattle. I don't I don't believe in doing that and I just feel like that I'm producing a much better product because it is a product that I am consuming also and I don't want my family to consume anything that that would harm them and if I'm concerned about it for my own family why should I be concerned about it for my neighbor. A major health concern is the myriad of Agra chemicals used in farming and the possible unforeseen impacts of long term exposure to this. I do hope that someday we can we can totally get away from the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides I think it will not only be good for for the farmers that are in direct contact with it but also for the products that we sell which directly effects those obviously by a problem. But the change will require risk for farmers like John brink putting his farm and family in economic jeopardy is not something he takes lightly.

I don't think you really want to jump into something. On a large scale right off the bat because because one one failure could could ruin you for several years to come or maybe possibly for your entire future. Tom Anderson the single is taking some of these risks because after looking into it he saw it as a sure thing that could reduce his costs. I began to look at ways to cut corners financially. When. I found out that this might. Not only being good for the environment. Was good for my pocketbook. Tom and his dad farmed five hundred acres in Saline County northwest of Eldorado one of their fields in particular may prove to other farmers curious but cautious that sustainable AG can work to start with three years ago. We pull soil samples on this peel. Away process at this point right here. There's an area where the soil type is basically the same from side to side and threw

out all my farmland. I look for a place where I did have a good even soil type on each side to feel that I could divide. So that when we weighed out a comparison it would be fair and honest and I wanted to prove not only to myself but for anyone else that's willing to look at the records. Some things will work a marker in the middle of the field shows the boundaries of this experiment. I tried to plan approximately 200000 plants per acre or seed Couric or at the time I planted it. To fertilize it I did apply on this side. 100 pound of 1846 and hundred pound sixty and my cost per acre on man was coined over 35 cents a side over here. You know fertilize a few weeks later it was harvest time. A weight comparison would furnish the hard data sought by both the Illinois storage Alliance

and the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources who are working with Tom Anderson on this project. What we've just got to be doing here is. Why you know side by side. To see whether the fertilised. In comparison with a non fertilized egg. What the difference was. The results came out that. The non fertilized part of the field made thirty five point four bushels per acre compared with the fertilize part at thirty six point. Four bushels per acre. That. Figures out the side made me five dollars and sixty four cents per acre more money. But since I spent twenty dollars and thirty five cents per acre for the fertilizer. I actually. Lost and fertilize $14 and 71 sands.

We've been pulling soil samples on this field each year after we've done yes and I said this is the third and second crop now that I've had a side by side with the same part of the field not being fertilized for three years. A lot of the experts and all would say that. What I've done is mine in the soil and taken all my fertility out this one side of the field and where I've been applying it to keep it up there. So for the soil samples have it show dead that the soil samples have been basically the same the side where I've been applying fertilize has not risen infertility level but decides or I haven't been applying it hasn't dropped either. Basically at the same place where they were four years ago when I pulled samples of first started this project Tom concedes that eventually he'll have to fertilize his experimental field but he may be able to do it without chemicals. If another experiment works out. I can see you've got a problem on water here. Something else going on in the field. Yes.

At the present time here I've got a copy of it here you bitch. This one of mine down here. It's a lagoon which produces nitrogen. On the roof because it's all of you. It has the ability to produce massive amounts of nitrogen compared with other early games. Next spring. When I grow and get about me high. With good weather conditions this winter hopefully if it doesn't freeze out or something happen like that hairy bitch that will be knee high and a good stand across the field will produce an left Mike region and I can plant a corn crop without. Having to purchase chemical nitrogen or other. Different varieties. For you. There are rather like. A lot of the other like you are the winner and. This one happens to be one that can be.

In a normal corn soybean rotation because of the fact it can be planted this fall after soybeans are harvested it's getting very close to the time it needs to be planted. But it can be planted nail. Next spring. Once the temperature reaches about 40 degrees this stuff is amazing how fast it will grow. Another thing that Tom likes about Harry Vetch is that it attracts earthworms. Dr. Bill Gregor a private. Consultant. Around Springfield. This guy really gets excited about getting these earthworms. And grown in fields. And he says that we need. 20 to 25 are formed per cubic foot. And give us a couple seasons ago eventually. But. If we get 20 25 or more per cubic foot of soil. They. Make all these little holes in their

oil. And we can break up much more compact. Then. All the diesel fuel and cold steel. Ever Made. Well Tom Anderson is environmentally conscious. He has not totally abandoned chemicals for example in the spring when the Vetch is knee high. Then I will spray to the edge. It's very very easily deal with 240. I would like to totally eliminate the chemicals chemical herbicide but at present time. I don't feel I'm ready I don't have the equipment that I think it would take to make that change. Or the time. Well Tom is concerned about the environment. The bottom line is his top concern. The thing that got me interested was the fact that. The. Money's tight on farm. Prices and all. The benefits of that virus. I'm not putting on any more than that really.

Yeah that was part of it originally and originally wasn't my intentions and I thank you. You get to talk with the most people it's involved in the sustainable agriculture movement. There's basically two reasons they get involved. One is the economic benefit. They are now that they could save some out-of-pocket costs for expenses and. Hold expenses down things like get. In another is to find people that's got a serious illness within the family that may possibly be connected to the use of aircraft or chemicals requiring. Cancer. Someone get from traditional chemical intensive farming organic but Major make that change. Oh I'll add that back to the late 70s early 80s and one of the things was that my father developed throat cancer after a summer of spying. Post-merger served side on soybean called Diana and

we was pretty sure what give it tame but you know there was absolutely no way we could prove that so that started this thing about the situation and then we was growing alfalfa and turning in under with a plow in plank corn just having tremendous corn yields on us you know on certain fields and we thought well you know we used to do that why don't we. We did it's more we just kept experimenting we found Harry Patch and it worked better than a lot of the other Outlook games because it grows so much faster. And you know one thing led to another and here we are today. This is Jerry Hall samples farm west of green up in Cumberland County. He's put sustainable AG to work on more acres than any other farmer in Illinois. His farm and Tom Andersons are both used as demonstration farms for sustainable AG by the Illinois stewardship alliance. Tom grow some popcorn as an alternative crop. Cherry grows a number of alternative crops and he grows them all totally organically grown. What are you going to grow in this field the sides are that. Well this field to go to two pumpkins.

I hope to kill the vets either probably by dragging it. I may have to mow it. If worst comes to worst all I want to look like well I want to look like this. This right here when I come in the point you know it is just a field full of hairy vets generally spring the gross 20000 pumpkins over the summer all without the use of herbicides or insecticides. But the farmers adjacent to Terry's Great Pumpkin Patch do use chemical and buds. Most of my fields don't have any runoff from their fields as far as water goes. But you know spray drift could definitely affect them. If we was growing a crop of. Well vegetable crop of any kind and somebody was to come over here and spray 240 or some of the volatile chemicals you know they could wipe out a crop pretty quick especially something like pumpkins I guess. Yeah pumpkins they wouldn't like 240 very well and they would a large leaf like that's going to soak up a lot of and I am

sure would you have conversations with your neighbors about. When and where they're going to spray. You know most of my neighbors are pretty courteous if I know if I got a pumpkin patch here and they can see it. They're definitely going to wait till the winds out of a different direction or at least come and talk to us about it. They would come in and spray a cornfield and wipe out a pumpkin field because the pumpkin fields probably worth four times what that corn field. And. You know nobody wants to have to pay damages like that. Nevertheless he can't escape what his neighbors do. You know I'm not going to stand here and lie to you whenever whenever they spray it's drifting. And I'm going to pick up residual grit there's no doubt about it. I don't care if you live in Carbondale or if you live in Chicago Illinois. You're getting Drifters free. So. You know. This is a fact. Terry could market his pumpkins as organically grown to boost sales. Truth is he doesn't have to.

Well tell you we started out with about a half acre of pumpkins and people would drive they were out of the House and people drive by the house and you'd think they'd never seen a pumpkin in all their lives. Just cause there's a half acre out there so we just opened it up to the public for a new pick pumpkin patch. As a resident. You know you're probably. Right. How close are you to beginning your picky. Brother Yes on right now. Well what Terry is doing is what the people were doing a hundred years ago knowing how to use the land and the right production instead he used all artificial and right you know all of fertilizers which is destroyed our land and our our environment here in the United States and the reason we're in the problems we are today that when you go in the river Your face is not good.

Nothing is what it was a hundred years ago and it was because of carelessness and maybe over education and not using good common science and one thing we sprayed on air this year was that I sprayed on fish emotions which is the organic product you know worry about and sex or you know I haven't had any and therefore no fungus side. So what you get is good for you unless some drift in from somewhere that you market it that way if you say these are healthy areas because the owner thinks but I will say that they're healthier we tell people that they're you know they're grown chemically curried But as far as the market and too I mean we sell anyway. Wearing a lot of farmers at least two years ago he stuck about and got a clean field. You know that now. No offense but you know there's some ways in

here than about here that's well known and you can live with it as long as you know while the berries you know next to the strawberries Terry's dad is growing a more typical crop. Well here's a conventional crop this way to your farm in a conventional way. Well actually this this grandma here could have been certified this year but certified organic certified organic right. My father went in your area for the week that I should know yeah but it's what a lot of farmers are growing wheat are you participating in the farm program on this crap now. I just don't have no use for and I don't need it. As far as income wise I'm probably making more now I did when I was in it. So in that you've got to wean yourself away from the U.S. That's why I'm saying people can't see past that that farm program payment. Once they get by that and they see that they can make it there all right. Well those farmers that are in the program I'd say but golly going sustainable AG I'm not going to get my

subsidy program. I am not going to cost me money to get in a sustainable way. That's not that's not true if they've done their research and they've been educated on sustain Leider culture there's no reason why they should lose money going in a sustainable way. That that's a fallacy. Weeds could drastically affect his yield in this wheat field. Yet this crop is virtually weed free despite the fact that no herbicides reuse. So is this a piece of equipment most farmers have. Well you know most stuck somewhere along the fence row in a shed somewhere. Roderigo Roderigo Well what's different about it for you. Why don't we use it for. Basically we control most people use it to break the crust off of emerging crops and we use it for we you know and we'll try to Roderigo on about the fourth day after we point and what that does it in the weed airs or in the white what I call the white stage into the green. They're just

sprouting. If we can kick it up to the sun it just melted away and so we have a better grass and we feel that in addition to weed control jury also has to worry about erosion in his bottom line. Yeah like what happened on his neighbor's ground for years. This is kind of what looks like a like a slew. Yes sure is. Well at least places like this this field can't be far now because it's got a way to let it all time and loss of productive area. Actually if the truth was known and I think probably in the future this will bear out but most of this ground in a Bottle be converted back. Actually it's the only way to puncture vied unless we do some very specific things like water breaks in in key areas. Rich bottom lands oil and this is the envy of most farmers. But Terry feels this ground is better suited for raising cattle. If we put a corn crop or being crop of rhythm on the river comes out and takes a crop. We got to plant back corn or soy beans if there's time when with grass if the

river comes out just almost as fast as that ground dries up we can be back out on pasture. It just doesn't hurt. Well many kinds of grass when the river gets on it just doesn't hurt. But this will be grass fed cattle instead of corn or some other means of food at your feet exactly I mean you look at all the other societies that raise cattle especially Argentina New Zealand. They don't feed your cattle grain or strictly on grass and you talk to people it's ate that steak and they say it's as good or a lot of media say it's better than what green is so good cheaper and easier on the environment. Oh much much more so because you've got the ground covered up you've got. As far as cheaper. Yeah much cheaper that's cheaper on the grass than yours with part of the Sustainable AG movement is getting away from growing the same old grain crops. Much of which ends up as feed for livestock not food for people. Material samples farm demonstrates more than just the annual cycle of high input chemical intensive farming

can be broken. He's shown that the federal crop subsidies many conventional farmers depend on are a habit that can be kicked. Tarry whole sample doesn't need a subsidy. Alternative crops that are not part of federal farm programs are an important part of sustainable AG. And here in the part of Illinois known as Egypt vegetable and fruit crops are an alternative. That's a tradition a tradition that's returning. Orchard just kill a common site in Southern Illinois but large scale vegetable farming is making a comeback. Crops like peppers squash and tomatoes are not necessarily sustainable Eig not when they're farmed by the chemical intensive mechanical intensive methods that Mark modern agriculture. It's this California style industrial produce production that mostly fills America's market basket these days but the same concerns of groundwater contamination and soil loss to any role whether it's grains or greens.

Back in Little Egypt some vegetable farmers are doing what can be more properly called sustainable farming. And they've been finding a ready market at another tradition come back to life. The Carbondale farmers market. No no we. Do it right. Yes. Oh my goodness. What. Did I tell you. I would say I would keep the feelings. Is it. Doesn't. Go down. The people down you know you start out. Okay. Yes. Yes. This

is it. This is all we've. Done this is it's $2. Then we. Say. OK. Yes yes. We have. She came up on paper we were going to make a living raising how the neighbors were so she convinced me we could do it and just as I was already on board we had to laugh. We want to head. We didn't make a living home. But we kind of go on growing things and not convinced that we got that or we would have been. From a small farm north of Dongola in Union County. Doug Young his wife Judy

pet ago and their daughter Vita are earning a living doing what they love to do growing things. I wouldn't enjoy it on this scale if I wasn't getting some income from it I'm good now and come from it even as a labor of love. Working a small farm is no easy road to hoe. You can just slice along under the soiling is going to cut the roots you know little tiny plants. That's why it works best on a little plant little weeds. And you know I can make real time with this. Back of. The work on the equipment a lot. Yeah out of our quit we don't. Well we got a couple things that are new but most of our equipment all our tractors are in the category. And that's probably our biggest one up you know that's our biggest thing that makes us so we can be. So we can sustain the older equipment an old fashioned manual labor are two keys for keeping a modest operation like this competitive and sustainable.

If something breaks on one of those industrial farms a specialist may have to be called in. The one special wrinkle Doug and Judy have are their greenhouses. I've been doing green house ever since we started vegetables I had to grow tomato plants pepper Pratts and I had extra space so I started flowers and I was amazed. People bought them you know. I was amazed that I was able to do it you know. I get found I can do just as good a job as the you know I was the fellow that won my heart. If not better. This time of year when you're just getting your vegetables going are flowers a bigger part of what you do. They're bigger part of the money we bring in and because I can I can sell these guys as soon as they soon as they get a blossom on them where the vegetables they cut a long way to draw yet. You know if you're going for several months they're waiting for mine in the yeah this keeps you going for at least a couple months right. Make your far more sustainable. Yeah you could you could put it that way.

Will you live kind of out in the country here. You get customers coming into the green oh I'm a mess. Yeah. People take it like an excursion or something you know and they come out here. Tomato plants coming up over here and there are these for Duggar. Yeah those are dogs tomatoes those are just some are almost We just plant them a couple trays at a time they're ready to go up to the tomato house they grow better out there there's better light. This greenhouse everything do with tomatoes. Sure that's my that's my thing my house my greenhouse is specifically so I can have an early to my own. They're not they're not and you know I don't want to make them sound like they're greenhouse tomatoes they're not there. There that's more or less like I think structure will say that to protect them at night. But as soon as danger fosters gone and temperatures at night level off and which this year is happening like it normally does but as soon as that happens that plastic comes off and there there are field tomato.

How do you how do you get in here. Well there's a door on the other hand I want to go ahead. It's time with the sun shining the way it is it's time to open this guy. So you actually oh boy I can feel the heat coming right out of there. Greenhouses have proven to be a substantial investment for Doug tomatoes need a three year root ation to avoid becoming diseased. So I needed a rotation and I deal with the greenhouse with the Make a portable so that I can move it over a year and I have my stuff right so I can start in fresh ground with a mess. Well I ran into a problem with a greenhouse not staying down I mean the winds come up then twice and it just picked it up and tore the heck out of my plastic and bent hoops and stuff so I decided to make a problem that the only catch there is I have to have two more just like this structure in order to get my 3 year old Haitian and the payoff is in beautiful disease free fruit that eager customers line up to buy. But having attractive healthy produce like this takes more than greenhouses and hard work.

Right. What. Are you. Like. That we find when you get a fire. You. Real. As your own and you. Have to go out. In the winter to make a living. For dog and Judy part of sustainability is being able to live solely on their farms income and they've incorporated many organic gardening techniques but use conventional techniques if their crop and their livelihood is threatened. Take flea beetles. If I wasn't controlling them they would still be in here making those holes and that plant with me so on a slightly nobody with one ear. But like Terry whole sample and Tom Anderson Doug finds that cover crops are a natural addition to his vegetable operation. This is right you've got growing alongside here. Yeah that's what I call a coffin aware of time now soil there. Yeah. You know winter

it's almost fully mature now. Doug tries to practice the best of both conventional and sustainable techniques. For example he doesn't apply fertilizer directly to his vegetable crops but he does apply it to the rye he grows as a cover girl. The nitrogen is picked up by the Rye and incorporated into the soil when he plows it under in the spring. As green manure there's an extraordinary desire to build soil. I like to improve soil. I don't know it's kind of a strange thing. Some people have your hobbies I guess and for me my hobby is manure sort of manure is your hobby. Yeah. How so. I have spent my winters for the last 15 years hauling tons and tons and tons and tons and they were all I can get my hands on to enriching my fields and I've gotten to where you know I know

all the different kinds of manure is and I have my favorites. And my last favorites and you know as just. As I think I've said before that sometimes I think I farm and raise vegetables just so I can. Shovel manure. You're almost hired. I didn't know I was applying for a job. Steve Smith is also serving up a large spoonful of manure good for the last drop I say I don't know when I pick her up from Brownies with a load of manure on the back of the truck. She's not all that getting it right. She said it could be both kids. They're good sports except they're violent. Steve is one of those sustainable farmers who has gone all the way to totally organic. Who is going back to the earth. It's sort of like his equipment in this truck as you'll see it's

not the most ecological truck going to blow some of those little oil fossil burner. Oh. Yeah. Well I think the sound that they're. Going to use this on top of the grout after I've said plant you know. Yeah. As a mulch almost because it will supply it will suppress the weeds especially early you know when stuff small. And then once it's big you know once it's got big leaves it's OK. You know the waves are shaded out anyway because some things don't like to grow in the new or you know potato with their roots in it let's say like peppers I never put this and fill it in or I'm going to plant

peppers but I will use it as a mulch being a totally organic farmer means the only inputs he uses are naturally occurring or environmentally safe and proven non toxic to all living things. Listen that's because if you know when we're seeing you. Know you can count me and we can help you and this is this is actually something that I am trying to get away from buying anything out of a bag. But when you start as a condition of deprivation and I feel that all soil around here is in that condition where it's been farmed for many years and not all the nutrients that were originally there have been replaced. So I feel like this is a good thing to add to the soil for a few years it's quite expensive this bag was probably around $25 for 55 pounds using it for just I mean I'm using it on crops that are. High value crops that are in the soil for the whole season like peppers which

I which is what I just used on you know just you know just gives it a little bit of everything and so on that hopefully there will be no deficiency. Organic fertilizer is available at a price but organic pest control often requires a bit of ingenuity. It's coated with a trap trap a sticky trap. It's called. It looks pretty straight. It is and it looks like there's all sorts of bugs. Well the idea was to catch a critter called a plum. Which is a weevil that attacks apples when they're young and. Punches a hole in them. That's why you use an Apple as bait. Yes I got the plastic jug here codling moth traps. There and water only. And that does it they're attracted because of the smell I think not. Why would you want to collar miles anyway. But they're the ones that make the

holes and tunnel into the apples and a lot of my fruit comes out that way. So you say to do that. It becomes applesauce. A lot of my food and I'd like to be able to you know offer it for sale to those people that would like to buy food that's not been that's sprayed with poison. To avoid using herbicides Steve mulches with a variety of materials from tree bark to leaves on cardboard. When I go into town I that's what I look for. I look for people you know for leaf bags. They don't line up they're very happy that they like to get my phone number all the time and have me come back is that my daughter was the the snow person in the school play it at Christmas. All recycle. This is definitely part of the earth heavy over here

and then the these plastic bags become insulation in my greenhouse. Clearly this is not a slick high dollar operation but it works. This is all recycled except for the fiberglass. And fiberglass I bought about 80 dollars worth and everything else was you know recycled from different barns and the plastic and you know all that. Rule that is pretty you're keeping the white cloth over it. But even warm yet give it warm and keep the wind off the wind at this time of year it does a lot of drying and keeps the moisture in and it allows the moisture to go through and it traps along and take you to pay for one of these. When the law you know paid for already with the first in the first market you know the last two weeks.

I believe I was the only one with a lettuce while Steve is making enough money at the farmer's market to support his family. He isn't exactly getting rich. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of $12000. And my expenses are maybe $4000 or more in Jever think about you know how many hours you put in for that amount of money. It's a hard thing a lot of hours. It really doesn't represent a lot of money but there's more to it than that because the value of the food that we and we know how good it is. You know what's been playing. In your household expenses here and you know it's the way we live we don't need as much money as perhaps other people do. We own our property. We don't have air conditioning. We don't have car payment. We don't need a lot of money. You know a lot of cash for much of anything else. It's a life choice of life.

You know you could try that. Your. Hottest never. Been an earth. That you're not a surprise shopper. Why is it. Then. Why are fresh safe cheap. Home roll. It's a little. Tired. And you can't buy that supermarket. There's just not enough people that are willing to try to spend maybe 10 or 15 or 20 percent more for getting older it's going to cost more since and sometimes it doesn't even. And they're still you know they're not hip to the difference the difference could mean holy greens because no chemicals were used. It might also mean crops that are takes a year and out of the ordinary. Are consumers hip to the difference. Counting on it may be a risky proposition but it could also be one way to keep

farming going to make agriculture sustainable. One of the things with the way you know I farm is that we raise our own plants and we raise specific varieties you can just get anywhere. And so our plants are extremely valuable to us they like they're irreplaceable because you can't you know like my eggplant I raised an oriental a plant has a specific variety that does well for me. I can just go out and go to the local store and buy 200 of those eggplant and this or that kind I know you know even if I had the money to replace them I could replace them and so they become because they're a part of my business and my people that I that I go for my customers they expect you know a certain thing from me. I don't want to disappoint him. Is there a limited market for some of these craft you know for vegetable crops in Illinois I don't think there are there is a limited market I think we could we could. Use food for the for the whole nation here in Illinois farmers vegetable crops go but when you talk specialty crops such as Jack O'Lantern

pumpkins and you're talking you know you're going to divide the area. So people come to your farm to buy the pumpkins it's all a marketing part of it. Yeah that's a marketing part of it and you know the funny thing is I work two and a half miles off a main highway on the middle of the country so. I always said that if we can get out here anybody can do it. Closure no big city makes me want to live sometimes. Look they don't know anybody Juanito you right when it comes to picking the strawberries there needs to be about all. Four five people in here first of all hours you know to get a complete pick. And you know obviously I can't do everything so we hire some migrant help come in migrant labor to do what Southern Illinois don't want to do anymore. Despite unemployment two to three times the national average. Still it's labor devalued by a system that favors chemicals and machines over people working the

land. If I'm not using herbicides for example and I have to hire somebody to run a rotary hour made you want my voice can run a rodeo for me. That's given him a job and put him back on a farm doing something that's more labor intensive That's absolutely right. Let's put that child back out there where he really wants to be. As far as. Cruel economy. The small farming towns I think you can directly correlate chemical use with the decline of small real came here because of what can. Tell us a little bit more acres to last people. And. You know and just to fix the real economy right now the dollars are not staying here. They're going out through the chemical dollars to the fertilizer dollars. They're just not standing counting the number of farmers has been declining since America became a country. Are you talking about changing the trend. Oh I think we can only stabilize and over the long term probably not your my lifetime we can probably put more people back on land you know more

people on the land will take better care of the land than a few people on the land. If you've got a thousand acres to go over you're not going to take as good care of it as if we just got 200 acres to go and. You know that's just a philosophy and something that I think people in the future are going to have to realize. If the icebreakers ratio that's in American agriculture and you need a lot more eyes. You know it's to take care of those acres and it's there's a lot of people that are doing mine listen to them you know they'll tell you that what they're doing is mindless and worthless labor. And if they had the opportunity perhaps they would enjoy working with the land. I think we're going to have to find ways of keeping people more on the farm. And I think sustainable agriculture is definitely one way of doing that. But don't expect this change overnight.

Some farmers will probably move very cautiously toward sustainable and I think sustainable agriculture today is at the same stage that the use of no till practice practice is worth say 15 years ago 15 years ago no tillage was was being used on a very small scale. And a lot of the neighbors and the older farmers laughed and they said that'll never work. Now we're saying no till used practically on every operation. When I found out that a lot of farmers. Time substantial practices family on the back 40 is not so much up front. I'm not willing to talk about it too much. Is there room for compromise. Not so much compromise between you and them but for a farmer who's farming traditionally all of a sudden get into sustainable way. You're part of the have to go. I guess just as far as eight years they can. I think for the planet's sake they have to go all the way.

Hopefully they will pass it on and you know the kids are learning more about that in school these days and I really think that's that's where it's at right there with the children. Yeah like be a farmer. You might be a farmer. A little. Bit. Why didn't. He try Armor needs to look at his particular situation. Or make some changes and adapt so that. His farm. Will be. In better shape for the next generation. We in America here would continue to. Farm fence road a

fence row where rape and pillage or whatever the ground to get maximum yield the big dollars out right now. In the short run. When. This land's gone we hear a long time and we need to take care of it. So that 100 years from now it will still be productive and those generations land will be able to survive on us. You know my favorite thing is to walk across the farm now. You know I've been eating all just take off and start walking and you know when you see the differences feel a difference. And if I had to go back I just went and had to go back to conventional farming on this one. On. A VHS copy of this program is available by

sending twenty nine ninety five check or money order to ws on you TV. Please include the date of broadcast day. Yes. Meet some pioneers in sustainable agriculture. They're growing healthy crops with little or no chemicals yet improving their soil. What I have is an extraordinary desire you know soil. My father you know if you go back to conventional farming.