SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE
and
ECOLOGICALLY GROWN
at
LEWIS CREEK FARM
"The real definition
of sustainable agriculture is simple:
Profitable farms that protect natural
resources and are valued by their communities."
Vern
Grubinger
Director of the University of Vermont
Center for Sustainable
Agriculture
Lewis Creek Farm is a leader in sustainable
agriculture.
Since1981 we have been developing and practicing methods of sustainable
farming.
|
 Plowing down a green manure crop
of Rye & Hairy Vetch
to improve soil fertility.
|
Due to our widespread use of preventative measures,
our need for pesticides is low, and many of our crops are grown without any sprays.
Of the pesticides we do use, most are approved for organic production.
While
we are very adamant about minimizing sprays, we’re also very serious about keeping
prices reasonable and competitive. Though we do not claim that any of our produce
is organic, it is worth noting on the Produce
List that most crops are either unsprayed or only have organic sprays.
The
Vermont Vegetable and Berry Growers' Association has deveolped standards for the
use of the term: Vermont Ecologically Grown.
"Vermont Ecologically
Grown combines the most ecologically responsible and economically reliable crop management
techniques from both the organic and non organic systems of agriculture."
For
details about the Vermont Ecologically Grown standards themselves, click
here.
For details about specific crop treatments at Lewis Creek Farm,
click here.
Here
are some of the ecological and sustainable practices that we use:
Crops Diversity
Crop Rotation
Cover Crops & Green Manures
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Tractor and Hand
Cultivation
Community Support
Details on Sustainable Practices
Crops
Diversity
We grow a wide variety of crops. This
protects us from the financial risk of the failure of any one crop, and gives us
the means to disrupt disease and insect cycles.
Crop
Rotation
We have a detailed long-term plan for moving
our crops from field to field. This practice does a great deal to outwit insects
and diseases.
Cover Crops & Green
Manures
Cover crops are crops that are grown expressly
to occupy the land during gaps in the cash crop cycle. They hold the soil and nutrients
where they stored for future use. The use of cover crops does a great deal to prevent
soil erosion and water polution.
Green manures are crops that are grown with
the intent of returning them to the soil to feed subsequent crops. Green manures
add nutrients to the soil, particularly nitrogen and organic matter.
Integrated
Pest Management (IPM)
IPM seeks to both minimize
the use of chemical pesticides and maximize crop return.
All crops can stand
some degree of insect or disease damage. We don't need or want a sterile crop environment.
Often beneficial organisms will help control destructive organisms if we don't destroy
them first with broad spectrum pesticides.
IPM employs scouting, thresholds and
management of beneficials.
Scouting is the process of carefully inspecting
a crop for insects and diseases, both destructive and beneficial, and actually counting
them. It is a census of insects and diseases.
Threshholds are predetermined
levels of insect aand disease populations below which it is not necessary to control
them: i.e., use a pesticide.
Management of Beneficials is the recognition
that there are natural systems in place that usually result in an equilibrium in
an environment. Insects which are harmless to our crops may well control the insects
which are harmful to our crops if we do nothing to upset the equilibrium.
IPM does not pretend to completely eliminate the use of all pesticides, but rather
to both minimize their use while maximizing crop return.
Tractor
and Hand Cultivation
In all our crops, except part
of the carrots, we use no herbicides. By precise timing of tractor and hand cultivation
we can contol the weeds without herbicides and at minimal additional cost. We use
an herbicide on the carrots because: a) carrots grow slowly and the weeds grow fast;
b) carrots cannot tolerate any weed competition; and c) unlike many other crops,
weed control in carrots must by hand weeding which often costs 10-50 times as much
as an herbicide.
Community Support
We are committed to supplying a wide variety of local grown
foods to our community. In addition to all the vegetables we grow, we have recently
started offering our own lamb and eggs, honey produced on the farm, and a neighbor's
maple syrup. We hire local help whenever we can get it, and supplement it with seasonal
workers from Jamaica.
Lewis
Creek Farm Home Page
Job
Openings
Hank Bissell
LEWIS CREEK FARM
PO. BOX 123
STARKSBORO VERMONT 05487
Telephone: (802) 453-4591
E-mail;
lcfarm@gmavt.net