{"id":164,"date":"2014-09-19T15:15:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T14:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cabophoto.com\/blog\/?p=164"},"modified":"2018-11-05T06:48:39","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T05:48:39","slug":"sustainable-farming-in-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cabophoto.com\/blog\/sustainable-farming-in-montana\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable farming in Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A few days ago I wrote about large-scale farming in northern Montana, a highly automated operation that is reminiscent of industrial manufacturing processes. Hi-tech machinery, complex chemistry and advanced breeds of grain are necessary ingredients of this kind of agribusiness. What you can see there is the result of a long process of optimization for one specific goal, the yield per acre.<\/p>\n

Yet productivity and efficiency are only a part of the equation. Our dietary requirements go far beyond having \u201cenough\u201d to eat. We are looking for healthy foods, free of potentially dangerous chemicals, that taste good and can be grown in a way that leaves the land intact. Enter the world of\u00a0sustainable agriculture<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Deluge Farm is situated on Camas Prairie in western Montana.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201cSustainable\u201d is not a single, precisely defined way of farming. The word describes the common aspect of a multitude of approaches, something that has been defined as \u201ceconomically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Traveling throughout Montana I was lucky to meet the operators of a farm that tries to accomplish just that. Victoria Werner and her partner Elan Love run\u00a0Deluge Farm<\/a>, a small outfit on Camas Prairie that sticks to the principles of organic farming. At only twenty acres it is diminishingly small compared to the industrial-size farms on the Hi-Line that I wrote about in the previous post. Only a little over an acre is used for growing vegetables, the rest is reserved for raising sheep, chickens and turkey.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Manual labor and high-tech computers on the farm.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

When they moved from Ohio, where they had studied at Oberlin College, to Montana, Victoria and Elan brought lots of enthusiasm \u2013 and very little experience in organic farming. They asked local farmers about the conditions of the soil and about irrigation. They bought books and searched the Internet for information and tips. Keeping cost down (their only help is a few students who spend the summer on the farm in return for room and board) and living frugally, they now manage to get by on the farm\u2019s revenue after a few hard years.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>