Sustainable Agriculture
Mainstream agriculture is unsustainable. The average food item in the U.S. travels 1500 to 2100 miles from farm to table. Between production and transportation, it takes around four calories to produce one calorie of food in the current system of industrial agriculture. This phenomenon is possible only with the use of cheap fossil fuels, which are quickly running out. The yearly use of millions of tons of agrochemicals pollutes drinking water and causes cancer. With the rise of corporate agribusiness, farm communities are disappearing along with the topsoil, and the quality of our food continues to decline. The industrial approach to agriculture has only taken root in the last three or four generations, yet its principles run counter to millennia of successful farming.
Sustainable agriculture addresses these problems by developing local markets, growing food without agrochemicals, employing workers at living wages, working toward a closed cycle of imports and exports, and by putting an emphasis on quality over quantity. Some of the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture include the use of compost or manures for fertilizer; crop rotation to reduce pest problems; the growing of cover crops to protect the soil and build organic matter; and the refusal of genetically modified organisms.
You can support sustainable agriculture by growing your own organic garden, purchasing local and/or organic foods, buying produce only when in season, or by becoming a member of a Community Supported Agriculture Farm.
Composting
Tips for Making Homemade Compost [PDF 1.4MB]
By Ralph T. Lampman
Vermiculture: Composting with Worms (2003) [PDF 70.5KB]
Herb Gardening
Go Away Cramps [PDF 72.6KB]
Mushroom Cultivation
Gourmet and Medicinal Mushroom Cultivation For The Novice Grower
by Kristina Prosser (Fall 2004)
Native Plants
Native Plant Landscaping in Coastal Humboldt County (2003) [PDF 49.4KB]
Garden of Native Plants at CCAT
By Stacie Bartram
Organic Gardening
Gardening For the Earth [PDF 3.8MB]
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