While sometimes sustainable farming means organic farming, there are many ways of farming sustainably. Sustainability means doing something that doesn’t cause long term harm to the environment, and allows for long term replication of that action.
Ways that we and our family use sustainable practices without hurting ourselves economically:
1)We practice no-till farming where applicable. This allows for better organic content reduction and improves soil health, while also preventing harmful runoffs and erosion.
2) We source food for our animals locally, and sell locally. Unsustainable infrastructure development is a contributor to the long term harm of our country, and farming and shopping in our local communities in Iowa allows for us to keep our community vibrant while employing economically sound reasoning.
3) We like to keep up with what the Practical Farmers of Iowa are doing. They are some reasonable, level-headed folks implementing practices that will help save our farm land over time.
4) We feed extra pumpkins to our pigs. And they love it!
5) We use solar panels from Moxie Solar at the clinic where we store our pork. Solar is one key step into a transition to a renewable, locally-sourced energy economy.
Sustainability is often a buzz word for hippies and people not grounded in reality. The sustainability we champion is one of making smart choices to improve natural resiliency. We also believe eating lots of bacon is the most sustainable choice you can make, as it makes everyone happier and likely has prevented a war or two.