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Sustainable Vegetable Production Systems
Last week I attended the "Integrated Sustainable Vegetable Production
Systems" symposium at USDA's Agriculture Research Station in Beltsville
MD. Being a fulltime farmer, it was great to see the USDA pulling
together many researchers, scientists, and farmers to provide imput into
the direction they should go regarding research in sustainable
agriculture. The envirnmental impact of soil erosion, pesticide use, and
plastic mulch were discussed in great detail. It looks as though there
will be a 4 year project dealing with these issues and comparing a
"Systems Approach to Assess Envirnmental Impact of Sustainable and
Conventional Vegetable Production". Recent work at Beltsville by DR.
Aref Abdul-Baki has shown that a no-till system of planting
tomatoes into a cover crop of hairy vetch/rye/crimson clover reduced the
need for nitogen, lowered insect pressure, and helped reduce early
blight while increasing yields and quality. This study will build on the
work that Dr. Abdul-Baki has done and compare the sustainable system
with a high imput system of plastic, fertilizers, and pesticides. I
personally have been waiting for researchers to "pick up the ball and
run with this", because I've been experimenting myself with a similar
sustainable no-till approach. Is there any other farmers or researchers
who have results to share regarding this type of farming?
Thanks!
--
Steve Groff
Cedar Meadow Farm
Holtwood PA
http://www2.epix.net/~cmfarm/