Hi Everyone,
In this update:
1. The summer that wouldn't quit
No, we’re not complaining! Like all of you, we are enjoying this long string of beautiful days. It’s been nine weeks now here at the farm with just one, fifteen-minute rain shower. It’s hard to remember that we are in the middle of a year that is still 25% above our annual rainfall for this date!
All this sunshine has resulted in a year much better than the last two, as many of you have mentioned to us. We’re happy for that, but would have willingly traded some of this unseasonable warmth and sunshine for more seasonal warmth and sunshine during the last two weeks of May and the first two weeks of June. Although we were able to make some kind of recovery, we really got off to a slow start this year with temperatures almost continuously much below normal. For plants—maybe the same can be said for people—there is an important need for a threshold of nutrition at developmental stages. Since plants get up to 80% of their nutrition from the sun, cool and cloudy weather, which if it persists early in a plant’s development, can have lasting effects. So although we are thrilled with what some have called our “second summer,” it was a little late. Next year we are just hoping for “normal” temperature and sun exposure in May and June—it would be the first in four years!
2. Jubilee and the PCC Farmland Trust—what it means
As most of you have probably heard, our farm has become a farm that is “protected” by the PCC Farmland Trust. What does that really mean?
As Wendy and I look to the future, we find ourselves asking, “What will the farm be like after we’re gone?” A great deal of our time, energy and financial resources have gone into building a farm that will not only be productive now, but will be both productive and sustainable in the future. But up until now, we have had nothing in place to insure that this farm will even remain a farm. With David taking over, it seems likely that our practices and vision will carry on. But there are other possibilities.
The only reason our valley hasn’t been industrialized is because of flooding. Flooding has been in some ways a curse for farmers here, but also a blessing; it has prevented the kind of industrial sprawl that transformed the Kent valley from a farming community into what it is now.
I am quite convinced that at some point flooding will be controlled in our valley, as it was in Kent. It may not be in my lifetime, but I expect that within David’s lifetime the urban demand for water will become so great (climate change, loss of glaciers, exhaustion of aquafers) that we will no longer be willing to watch winter rains and floodwaters flow untapped into the Puget Sound. The ways and means exist—even without a massive dam like the Howard Hanson on the Green River—to capture the water that would otherwise flood our valley, and transport it to areas of need.
When flood control comes to our valley, maybe the citizenry will be wise enough to enact land-use policies to protect farmland from conversion to non-agricultural uses. But I wouldn’t bet on it. That’s why Wendy and I have joined forces with both the PCC Farmland Trust and King County to establish covenants that have now been placed on our farm, and will be in effect in perpetuity. These covenants are recorded on the title of the farm. Together they play a crucial role in insuring that this farm will continue to exist as it does today.
The covenant with King County initiates a relationship between our farm, County government, and every citizen in King County. This is significant because it means that every person in the County is now a stakeholder in any potential transaction regarding this farm—there can be no back-room “deal” in which land is quietly transformed from agricultural use to some other use.
The PCC Farmland Trust involvement is equally if not more important. Most of you remember that just three years ago the County wrestled with the question, “what is agriculture, and what is not?” The King County Council turned to the King County Agricultural Commission which, sadly, was unwilling to make any distinction between agriculture and recreation. So at this time, the official definition of agriculture in King County includes land uses that do not fulfill the standard definition of agriculture which calls for the production of food or fiber. Equestrian uses of land designated for agriculture in our county is a prime example of this broad understanding of “agriculture.” This means that any covenants enacted by King County, vested as they would be under the current definition of agriculture, would allow land uses that Wendy and I consider to be non-agricultural.
So while the strength and value of a covenant with the County is that the entire community of residents of King County are party to the agreement, the glaring weakness is that it is built on a contrived understanding of what agriculture really is. Had we established a duly promulgated and recorded covenant with the county to preserve our land in perpetuity for agricultural purposes, tomorrow we could quit farming and sell our farm to be used as an equestrian facility. And don’t think it couldn’t happen: in the last ten years four such facilities have been created within two miles of our farm—and these lacked the infrastructure and agrarian ambiance we have here.
Another weakness of the County’s covenants is that it makes no distinction between organic and chemically-based agriculture. We are concerned that in the future our farm will not be used in ways that pollute the air and water, bringing sickness rather than health to people and other members of the biotic community.
The PCC Farmland Trust is not subject to the political pressure that exists within government. The Trust is a private foundation, has private funding and has no motive to adopt anything other than the accepted definition of agriculture as foundational for its covenants: agriculture is the production of food or fiber products. The Trust also can and does require that agricultural production be in keeping with the standards of certified organic production.
The combination of the County and PCC Farmland Trust covenants has given us what we want: The County contribution is that the agreement involves every citizen in the County. The PCC Farmland trust’s contribution is the requirement that the land be farmed in perpetuity, and that it be farmed organically. We could not have asked for more.
Wendy and I still own the farm. We can sell it if we want, to anyone who will uphold the requirement to farm organically for food or fiber. The one of us that survives the other can sell under the same terms. If that surviving spouse doesn’t sell, the farm will likely be passed on to our children. They can farm or sell, as they decide. But no matter what, the land will be farmed, farmed organically, and farmed for food or fiber.
3. The new barn goes up
It’s been a long time coming, but as all of you who come regularly to the farm know, it’s finally happening. The long wait for the pad on which we’re building the barn to quit settling finally occurred in May, and construction has began. At this point the concrete work is done, and the wood framing is being built. We hope to have the roof on by the first week in November, and the cows in the barn shortly thereafter.
We are so, so happy to not have to try to reinforce the loafing shed for another year of pounding by the cows—not sure it could survive that—and to finally get the herd up and out of the flood way. We were fortunate last winter to not have a major flood, which would have required running the cows out of the barn to the pad. But we won’t have to count on being “lucky” now. The new barn will provide protection for more than a 100-year flood. And even in a 500-year event, the cows carry two feet of freeboard everywhere they go (except the calves that only have one foot of freeboard).
This is the first new barn built on a farm pad in the Snoqualmie Valley and is a result of the Snoqualmie Valley Farming and Flooding Task Force that was established by King County Council (through the work of our representative to Council, Kathy Lambert) a few years ago. There had been tremendous resistance to the idea of building barns on farm pads, but I credit the Flood Group in WLRD (King County’s Water and Land Development) with the support to make this happen. Ours is the first, but I’m sure there will be more.
4. Sno-Valley Tilth’s “Farm Faire” this Saturday at Jubilee—something for everyone
This Saturday we are hosting the Sno-Valley Tilth Farm Faire and Silent Auction. Below is the blurb from our web page. Click on Sno-Valley Tilth Farm Faire and Silent Auction to follow the links in the paragraph below. Please join us for an evening of fun activities and to support the endeavors of Sno-Valley Tilth:
You are invited to our Annual SnoValley Tilth Farm Faire and Silent Auction!
September 22nd, 2012, 3-7pm
$30 adults, $15 kids
"Join us for a litany of fun farm games, a bouncy house, and face painting, enjoy an authentic pig and veggie barbeque roast with all the trimmings, sip a glass of wine or a cold beer, take a tractor-pulled wagon ride to tour the farm, try your hand at the silent country auction, and finally dance a jig with us to live bluegrass music! For more information on the menu, schedule, auction items, and music, click the tabs above. For tickets, please click 'get tickets here' tab above. Keep in mind that you can also buy tickets at the door- so bring all the friends you can rustle-up!"
5. Preparing for pumpkins
We’ve started our preparations for October, and we want to remind you all that although the farm doesn’t change any in October, the number of guests and visitors does. The impact it has on you our CSA members varies. I think that for most of our members the whole October “madness” is a plus—they enjoy it. It can be a little inconvenient at times, but being a part of a farm that opens its doors to the public one month a year is taken well by most of us.
But we know many others like the relative quiet of our normal CSA routine. To those in this group, each year we offer the following advice:
If your pick-up day is Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday, be advised that the munchkins (aka young school kids) will be here pretty regularly in large numbers each of our pick-up days from noon until 2:30. If you can pick up your produce after 3:00, you very likely won’t even know they were here.
If your pick-up day is Saturday, if you can be here at exactly ten when we open the barn doors you can get in and out before it gets busy. If you can’t make it then, you might consider changing your pick-up day to one of the other days—assuming you could come in after 3:00.
We hope this helps. Let us know if you have further questions or issues with October activities.
6. The hammer drops—today’s release about Monsanto’s Roundup Ready
Today, Wednesday September 19th, a very significant study was released. This was a peer-reviewed, long-term study of the impacts of currently acceptable levels of Monsanto’s Roundup used in conjunction with GMO crops. I’ve just had a chance to scan the report, but it looks to be an important break-through.
Here is a statement issued by Dr. Michael Antoniou, molecular biologist at Kings College in London:
"This is the most thorough research ever published into the health effects of GM food crops and the herbicide Roundup on rats. It shows an extraordinary number of tumors developing earlier and more aggressively - particularly in female animals. I am shocked by the extreme negative health impacts."
I have no doubt the Monsanto damage control folks will be working over-time on this one.
Here’s a link to the full Bloomberg report: http://www.bloomberg.com/article/2012-09-19/ab_2yKBkColU.html
7. Changes at the farm
In addition to the new barn and the covenants we’ve entered into with King County and the Farmland trust, what else is new? There are a couple of changes I’d like to mention. One has found a resolution, the other is yet to be resolved.
The first change has been one in my health. I could wish things were otherwise, but the truth is that my body is deteriorating and I just can’t do the kind and amount of work I used to. It’s been hard for me, but “the farm” has not been lacking in that Wendy has taken over many of the things I used to do. She ends up being spread a little thin at times, but is managing well and although we don’t do things exactly the same way, I see no deleterious effects of me stepping down, and some very clear improvements. Obviously Wendy can’t continue to do a lot of what I used to be able to do and all the things she used to do, so next year we will need to add another person to our full-time crew.
The other change is one neither Wendy nor I know for certain what to do about. For years we held our numbers of shares at a constant number, and stopped taking additional members when we were full. That was an enviable position to be in, but we’re not there any longer. Last year and this year have brought a decline of about 15% each year. We got through last year all right, but this year it’s been harder. Something has got to change, but we’re not quite sure what. There are a number of options we’ve considered, and probably a lot we haven’t.
Our guess is that the reason behind the decline is more than anything else, the “aging” of our CSA community. The small children of our members are getting older, and parents of older children often don’t have time for the CSA. There’s also a lot more competition, and a lot of that competition, some of it non-profit, have invested in marketing. We tend to invest in the farm, rather than marketing. In any event, the reason I mention this is that you, our members, know better than us what our strengths and weakness are. We would value any input any of you have about how we could do better and how we could present ourselves in a way that might make up for our membership shortage.
Erick and Wendy and the Crew
Jubilee Biodynamic Farm
Posted September 20, 2012