Water and Farms

This past Wednesday, I went to a talk at the American Museum of Natural History, called “Adventures in the Global Kitchen: Watering our Breadbasket”. The two speakers were Fred Kirschenmann from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and president of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and Peter Hoffman, chef and owner of New York City’s Savoy restaurant.

The talk was basically about how our buying decisions affect the water supply. I know that recently water has become a much bigger issue, but I never really thought about how my buying decisions affect water. For example, did you know that when you buy locally from small diversified farmers, you’re buying from people who work to make sure that soil and water from the farm doesn’t run off into waterways? Large monoculture farms don’t take soil and water runoff into consideration when farming.

Also, many small farms have land put aside as wetlands. I don’t know a lot about wetlands, but I do know that’s how our water gets filtered and cleaned – they’re essential to a healthy ecosystem. Wetlands are also great for wildlife.

In New York State, 50,000 acres of land was protected upstate in Delaware County so that the water supply for New York City would be safe and not have to be filtered. Farmers worked with the state to improve any runoff issues into the waterways and were helped by groups like Pure Catskills. (And it just so happens the Pure Catskills was one of our hosts when we toured the New York watershed area when we were on our Eat Well Guided Tour of America.)

And if you’re wondering why this matters, there are now over 200 dead zones on the planet, the largest one being in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi River connects with it. If you don’t know what a dead zone is, it’s an area of water that is literally dead – it can’t support any life because all the oxygen has been depleted so any fish, plants or life there either die or move to other waters. The one in the Gulf changes size each year, but in 2002 the dead zone there was 8000 square miles – I’ve read that it’s equivalent to the size of the state of New Jersey. And it’s created by agricultural runoff (pesticides, nitrates, animal waste, etc) that run into the waterways and come down the Mississippi into the Gulf, mainly from large industrial farms.

Another problem with water on large industrial farms is that they use huge amounts each day, not simply to feed animals, but to flush out the incredibly large amounts of waste that’s produced. Some efforts are underway to recycle the water and send it back through the factory farm units, but do you really want your pork chop to have come from a pig that had water mixed with waste being recycled back through his pen every day? How about just letting them out on pasture where they belong?

In addition, soil is a big issue. On large industrial farms, where chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used, the quality of the soil decreases each year. There are many living organisms in healthy soil that are extremely important for the plants that grow there – scientists are currently looking at the relationship between soil and the food we eat. Doesn’t it seem to make sense that our food would have more nutrients if it was grown in a healthy, nutritious soil? But the most important point about soil and water is that healthy soil, with all the beneficial bacteria and organisms in it, can hold up to twice the amount of water than depleted soil.

And not to sound like the harbinger of doom, but we’re currently using our fresh water supplies faster than the planet can replenish them. So, rather than get depressed about all this, just remember that every time you buy food from your local family farmer, you’re helping protect and save our water supply.

Now for the good news – it’s not too late! We’ve got serious issues, but there’s still time. And just remember the next time you’re at a farmers market or buying something local that you are helping preserve and conserve our water supplies. And if you’re new to our site and blog and are wondering where you can find local food, check out our Eat Well Guide, an online directory of healthy, sustainable food near you.

I think that’s enough for today – next time, I’ll talk a little bit about drinking water. If you don’t know yet, it’s time to “Take Back the Tap”. Bottled water is out; tap water is back! More on that next week….