Paying Farmers in a Coin They Can Recognize

摘要

On my 13,000-acre, fourth-generation family farm in Rock Hall, Maryland, I've worked to create a balance be-tween my roots in traditional agri-culture and my personal interest in finding a more environmentally sus-tainable way to farm. My belief in the importance of getting closer to the natural ecosystem of the land is realized in my fields, which aren't tilled and have living plants all year long. When neighboring farms are full of freshly turned rows of brown earth in spring, my fields are still green with rye, barley, clover, rad-ishes, and other cover crops. Farming the way that I do re-quires a radical departure from generational knowledge-leaving behind methods and skills that have been passed down from farmer to farmer over lifetimes. On a practical level, implement-ing techniques like cover cropping also adds to a farmer's workload, extending the season long past the fall harvest into winter and even spring. And although programs run by environmental organizations and government agencies can offset the cost of implementing cover crops, if becoming more environ-mentally responsible and climate-sensitive means more work, at the same total pay, and requires a radi-cal shift in thinking, how do we get farmers to do it?