Tag: farming

Red Skies

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There is always a feeling of uneasiness when smoke drifts into our air and hangs ominously overhead. We breath in the microscopic soot and toxic particles floating into our lungs as we labor. Why not wear a mask? The breathing is even more difficult, and when I’m doing heavy cardio, shoveling the manure out of the barns, it’s impossible to get enough air in with face coverings and last for more than a few hours. At the end of August, 2025, I awoke coughing in the early hours of the morning, my windows were open, and the smoke had come in from the south, where a forest fire was burning on The Peninsula. ICE agents took two of our brave firefighters out of the field while they were on site working to extinguish the flames. The fire keeps burning and I keep breathing toxic air. It’s not that bad, only moderate air quality, and I don’t have per-existing health conditions that would stifle my general function. On some days, my throat gets a little sore, but I’m more concerned with the long term effects of living in these conditions. I watch the animals and ask myself how their lungs feel, how the wild birds are coping. I see how much land is burning and start to wonder if people understand what is happening, on what scale, and for how much longer this will go on.

The full moon rose with the stains of blood red light, shining down on all our mistakes, giving a reflection, a warning of our actions, how far too far might be. I think by 2050 we will have learned, again, that we are small animals running around in a very complex world we little understand. Our god head ideas of order out of this chaos can only carry us so far, then there’s this physical plain we’re all living on together, and how that living world we’re woven into, it unraveling. Our actions change the rules of survival to match our warped truth, that we have some kind of dominion over all things. Radical right leaning conservative christian rhetoric is embracing the rapture, and will have a reckoning, but it’s not going to be Jesus on a white horse. That white horse is death, pale and looming, with a glowing red eye, arching across the sky. A little too gothic horror for you dear readers? I’ve let the mood run away with me? Perhaps, but cataclysmic change is fast approaching, might I suggest a recent song I’ve been humming? Johnny Flynn’s Wild Hunt carries a rhythm of merriment through the unknown, and the lyrics by Robert Macfarlane pitch and roll listeners through the hedges and obstacles of life in old time cycles of birth and death that all life shares in this world.

That seems to be the feeling of our current times. With continued destruction of what’s left of nature, habitat, wilds, whatever you want to call space where people cannot or have not yet developed, we are rushing over the cliff like lemmings. Wait, that’s a wrapped Disney view. We’re parading over the cliff in joyous melodies not unlike the song I mentioned above. The hounds are loose upon the world, hounds of war? How can a few acres of forest farm in Western Washington come to reflect on these global issues and wax philosophically while the world burns? No, I’m not playing a fiddle and dancing because things are on fire. I’m dancing because that’s how I choose to make my way through this life, when I can. Dancing and laughing, for tomorrow we die. With intention, each day a place with meaning, not a chore to be gone through and discarded like a plastic cup. But is that not what we strive for today with our conveniences?

When I work under a red sun, the light casting orange light through the windows and onto the floor, more bustling in the hedgerow, is all this a distraction from what really matters? What does really matter? Family? Friends? Nature? The nature of things? I’m picking abundant harvest, drinking clean well water, and have fresh air- most of the time. The rains are returning, life keeps going on, and my place in it does not change for another day. There is much to be thankful for, and grateful in, that in this western state, there is bodily anatomy, a belief in science, and a boat load of technology. About that last one… Home of Microsoft, host to Alphabet, both companies that happily do business with autocrats and authoritarians with the same gusto while aiding genocide. These companies are making spyware and algorithm to measure all citizens worth and risk for long term profits. How can we make you a debt slave addicted consumer? How can we own you? It’s in the fine print. But seriously, your phones are now tracking collars we’re all wearing for commercial enslavement. We are bought and paid for with every online order or streaming service.

The land of EEC Forest Stewardship may not be under direct attack, but right now, tens of thousands of other land stewards in this country are being forced out of farming after being led down the path of subsidies and fixed commodity pricing. Family farms are about to be no more. Most are gone as it is, but the few left, still bought in to buyouts- not handouts. This after the main sources of agricultural workforce was deported by ICE and no, there is not anyone else showing up to pick the crops folks, so food is rotting in the fields. Farmers are begging for cold hard cash to get through this year to offset tariff troubles. Pay attention now please, this is crucial to taking off the blindfold, our industrial agriculture is failing. The romantic notion of small family farms is gone. You can make investment in small farm land on the chopping block with Vice President JD Vance’s company AcreTrader right now. Oh wait, he is selling opportunities to foreign investors, not Americans- so it’s foreigners grabbing the land, like back in the late 1400s on here in The Americas. This is real folks, the fleecing of America is rampant under the current administration, and it’s on a level the general public is not quite catching up to yet- if ever.

I’ll argue that we’ve been on a narrow path of madness for a while, and our self-made leadership now reflects the carelessness with which this country has been operating for a long while. We’re just finally seeing the full spectrum of stupidity cultivated through years of not caring or knowing. Ignorance is no excuse, and there will be no silver bullet to reconcile this monstrosity of a misstep. Red moons and orange day glow are just a friendly reminder that we’re on this ride together, and there is no getting out at the next stop- we left the last stop and are heading full steam ahead, into what? I’ve got a barn full of hay for the winter, and sheep eating a final growth of grass that flushed after an inch of rain. Mucking is half way done as I race to pick fruit, haul manure, and prepare for a new LGD puppy who arrives next week. The chores and duties never stop, but that’s what I love about this work and lifestyle. There is also a lot of dedication and personal discipline, which I could always use a bit more of. Sanity stays where a heart rests in a warm and happy home. This home is happy, as much laughter as can be in a burning world. It’s been happening like this since the world began turning, or so some other singer poet wrote. He also claims we didn’t start it, but we did.

Each of us is a light in the darkness, with a chance to shine and share gifts we alone posses. Often, because of our isolation at the behest of individual consumer marketing strategies to sell more, we feel lonely. Our very nature is community. When we band together and find common ground, we achieve great things. This can look like bureaucracy, but that’s how complex systems are best managed. I think it’s why people have so much trouble comprehending the natural world. It’s not just what we see with our eyes, or even the microscope, it’s billions of years of evolution, and if we are part of that product, imagine what the other species posses? As a whole, this planet is phenomenal, and very rare, as we know more and more about each day we look up (usually through highly engineered telescopes for best picture) and we’re still only on the doorstep of the universe, which is most likely ever expanding. This is the closest to that god head so many cling onto for some kind of comprehension and connection to something greater, but it’s not needed when you accept yourself in something that is truly great on it’s own, in this moment, for the brief time we have to enjoy and comprehend some part of it, can’t that be enough?

But I’ve run away with this writing again, and passed far beyond the boundaries of the little acreage this blog represents, and one woman, trying to keep her place with original instructions that linger a few pages back in our evolutionary development as a species. We were living by the grace of the land, following complex celestial calendars that did have continually predictable outcome, through extremes came and went. Seasons compelled boom and bust cycles of the planet, and over time, with the belief that we were made in some higher image, floating above all this terrestrial mishap, would guide us toward dominion through pacification of desirable traits from nature. Cows that give endless milk, birds that lay golden protein dense miracles on demand, and the grains of genetic modification to match. We turned naturally selected into industrial production and powered mega development and technological advancement of incredible ability- from our own limited perspective.

My daily ritual of feeding raw grains and mineral mixes to chickens for their eggs, the alfalfa for pregnant ewes, whose lams feed local families, that work, for basic needs (food), grown as cleanly and ethically, environmentally and restorative for future generations to enjoy, that is my original instructions. When I am practicing this craft, art-form, skill set, employment, best life, I am not lonely, though I am alone a lot of the time, and I know that without the two listed inputs from above- grains and tons of dried legumes, the domestic stock would drop to numbers small enough that the land could host them year round, but only feed me. I buy the inputs to scale my production up so others can buy what I need in cash to pay my bills and taxes to keep the land. I use the whole property as a canvas for restoration and productivity. Temperate Rainforest is the original make of this landscape, so I am working to slowly send it back in that direction, with a few minor shifts in plantings in an attempt to adapt to the climate crisis we created by living beyond the capacity of our lands. Look at most collapsed civilizations for this key oversight.

We’re continuing to repeat this historically proven misstep in our survival, and when you keep repeating the same thing again and again, you have insanity folks. The human species keeps tripping over itself for immortality, and that’s not part of the finite planetary cycles in store for a harmonious life and death that offers such beauty in being. Am I going too far outside the limited subject of agriculture? Farming, the civilization buy in for food production and land ties for human survival are being subjugated by corporate greed and slavery, in that people no longer have place, we’re all renters and nobody owns, just corporate conglomerates that overcharge for continued interest in dividends for their circle of investors (only 10% of the country). The stock market sits below like dangling marionettes, where investment opportunities trickle down into 401Ks and the petty games of individual trading by people who think they are independently controlling their money, but black rock and the banks they leverage, really call the shots when it comes to global wealth opportunities.

These wealth agriculturalists are predominantly white men, and so it is that perspective the rest of us live under in our day to day lives. Often called The Colonial Gaze, this is the lens we’re all circling, but many are seeking to turn away from this gaze, to see outward from themselves, instead of inward at a stagnant same. I think it’s a balance of self, in the center, and looking outward, past the close circle of immediate relationship- family and friends, to well beyond into a much greater circle that becomes vast and incomprehensible. Now, many of us will not venture further past the inner spokes of our understanding because of things outside ourselves we cannot control. The less able you are to venture out of your center, the more limited in scope your comprehension. Or is that so? Those who can reach beyond a central ring of limited ability and understanding, can explore and learn, meeting newness and differences with curiosity, rather than fear at not knowing. I will insert here that trusting on faith works in both directions, you can have faith that the unknown is possibly just that which we have not yet learned, or that we prefer a limit, a wall we cannot go beyond and so, we have to worship an invisible white male gaze concept of subjugation? Wait, how is this helping me get my food? How does this directly impact a small forest restoration dream or your retirement?

AI is teaching us how little we know, but with a white male gaze. That gaze looks over this landscape and tells me, on a small slip of paper that comes in the mail each year, what my soil is worth, and what my structures are worth, then puts it together within a tax system that should be DOGEed (by the way, a super white male gaze). I have to come up with the cash each year, and like so many- most adults in this country, at least, pay the government what I owe to be a citizen and enjoy the ease of interstate travel, global military dominion through war, which drives the military industrial complex we still buy into. I also get some great libraries, subsidies to help support the overall movement of goods and services I’ll never be able to fully comprehend, but I do know much of it is being stripped right now, and that I’m now also funding domestic terrorism in the form of those ICE agents and National Guard holding American cities under military occupation. American freedom, like our ecology, is crashing.

I grow food without chemicals and restore the lambasted environment that was left by generations before me who wanted to make a living cutting trees and making a little homestead for themselves. They did not think about who might have been there before them, why the trees had been left to grow for so long, and that having to remove that stand to make way for more people might not be in the best interests of humanity as a whole. The industrial processes that are used today, even on USDA organic farms, still treats the environment in a way that make me, my stock, and those families I feed less safe over time. Well, we’re reaching that time, and red moons, orange suns, and extreme weather will continue to remind us that there is a higher power, her name is Mother Nature.

Farming Sense

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We the people have taken so much from this earth, digging beyond our own capacity for profit. That skimming of cream off the top has ended, and now, with desperation looming, there is a fork in the road. Choices are not easy, and making sacrifices can be scary. The 97F temperature in early June, 2025, has normalized in our minds; though about a decade ago, that temperature would have raised a few eyebrows. A wrongful death suit here in Washington State, is going national, sending new aid to the human fight against corporations. Humanizing our climate plight remains crucial, as pointed out by a legal expert at the end of the referenced article above-

“The advantage of this lawsuit is that it puts an individual human face on the massive harmful consequences of collective climate inaction,” Kysar said in an email to NPR. “Not only that, the complaint tells a story of industry betrayal of public trust through the eyes of a particular person.”

We can’t all go join a lawsuit, but we can all think of other ways to invest in helping to fight ecological abuse in our own back yards. So many of our lives are now driven by profit. We some how get trapped in “just getting by” mentality, and to be clear, scraping pennies and budgeting every expenditure to get buy, still debiting on credit-cards, is another norm for most today.

I’d like to target this article to a specific group of us; if you own a car, have home internet, and most of your neighbors are white, you live in some real privilege. Take the money out of it for a moment and reflect. White collar work usually includes healthcare, families get tax exemptions and child credits, single people of similar economic status subsidize that in their taxes. Are you reading this and getting defensive? I sure am. My privilege is paying for others? Yes, and it should be, but unfortunately, even more of my work and income, and yours, goes to tax breaks for a top group of billionaire investors who will never know or care about you or me.

We’re so caught up in economic fairness, worried about fraud and abuse in the government. Thousands of hard working civil servants- the majority of government- just got fired and sent to the public job market, where there is a struggle to keep people employed. The Private sector lays in wait, eager to fire another round of their own workers to snatch up government employees who already work for a lower wadge than most others in their field nationally. I hope your thinking wheels are spinning now, seeing the future of wadges in this country plummet. This is the plan, subjugate through economic kidnapping. We’re all being held hostage and forced to participate. Yay! For us, there is still voice and action that could be heard- through protesting, writing representatives, and voting in local elections- or better yet- running! Who has that time and wants to be a civil servant? SERVANT? So much gratitude to those who do!

We are slowly turning into an autocracy too America. Elections are bought and sold, votes in congress too, thanks to Citizens United, and with the current administration, what’s left of the public sector will be privatized and we’ll be living as feudal corporate vassals- thanks Netflix and Amazon Prime- for those of you already fully institutionalized in this addictive consumer convenience. My shit smells too- I love watching movies and most of them are on streaming services, including AppleTV. I’m also watching the protests in L.A. right now. ICE agents and Federal Marshalls (fascist goons) began beating and chemically hazing the crowds, which feels a little too much like Germany in the 1930s. America was into Hitler for a little while. We really don’t have the best track record in supporting global Democracy, specifically in the Central and South American countries where so many immigrants to The USA come from today.

In L.A., the protestors struggled to stop the illegal seizure of their friends, neighbors, and co-workers off the streets and out of businesses in broad daylight on a Friday afternoon. By Saturday, our POTUS called for National Guard to go into California. False flag for sure, and excuse me if I get a little ticked at the thought of this happening in my town tomorrow, or the next, day, or the next. We are all culpable in the end for pretending we do not see, and the economic toll will come, if not an actual raid on your place of work, school, church, or neighborhood grocery store. How do we push back without being wrongly detained? Who are the people really making these raids? In Oklahoma, a mother speaks out. The terror is real for so many, and fear is spreading. I’m not asking you to go get arrested in L.A., but there are small steps of resistance to take today.

Toiling soil, tending stock, cultivating rich diversity to restore forests, healing rainforest abundance, regenerate and regain partnership with the earth- can that be enough? I don’t think so any more. Not with the suffering and abuse now escalating- I already failed neighbors in Oklahoma by leaving. That State needs liberal healing as much as ecological, but that fight looked too daunting, and the conservative lasso had strangled any hope for the feminist heart I bare. I failed my homelands. The red clay and sandstone canyons remain a love song in my soul, the main part of literal matter that grew my body to what it stands as today- that chemical structure carries the signature of ancient shallow seas imbued in sedimentary sentimentalism, or terra crafted memories etched on this body. (see Developmental chondrocyte heterogeneity)

Making a living while remaining in Oklahoma was not in the cards for this privileged life, I could get out of town, another marker for those of us feeling squeezed financially in these current events. How many times have you moved by choice? How many times was it not your choice? Discuss. Severing our connection to place links us all to that great new term Solastalgia. It’s part of the underlying stress humans carry now, and pulls us into a never ending cycle of hard times in this Anthropocene. Remember, positive mindset is the ultimate survival key, so turn towards abundance and seek in as locally as you can. Root down and invest, trust, plan- make your own community great for yourself, that puts the power in the people, rather than corporate dependency, which we’re all deeply embedded in through social conditioning.

When I worked in a Vermont Coop a few decades ago, people always commented on how much more expensive the organic produce was compared to the conventional, and that’s still a thing today. Why? Cost of living continues to rise for us all, but food prices have only just begun to creep up, sending many into a slight panic. We’ve been paying too little for too long, because of industrial agriculture, and it’s never been fair to farmers. Yet as a small farmer, when I ask for the actual price my food costs to produce here in King County, some people bulk. Why would they pay me when they can pay Costco or Walmart for a real deal? I don’t know, maybe as a way to support the true cost of food and buy from people you know who practice the regenerative farming that could bring back ecological balance to our world? Worthy? That’s up to you, and your wallet, and your choice to invest in what matters most, which is sadly, a price point. Welcome to Plutocracy– where we are ruled by the rich.

I can speak for my own experience here in King County Washington- I live in the most costly county in my state. Washington is the 10th most expensive state in the country to live in. I get a heck of a lot out of that, from social safety nets to one of the top public libraries in the country. King County is extremely expensive for families, but cheaper on the national average for single people like me. Still, I end up paying more in some taxes to support social systems I am not a part of directly, like schools, but hey, educate these kids, because many will stay and work here in future- I hope, so I want them well educated, it makes for a better community. We do have some very good public schools, in affluent cities and towns. The Riverview School District in my hometown gets an overall B+ rating and is #33 in the state out of 242. I’m engaging more as a mentor volunteer in one of our local middle schools and high schools. I hope to learn more and continue supporting and investing in local education. The farm donates a lamb each year to Empower Youth Network to support mentoring in our schools.

For children and community to grow and thrive, there also has to be clean water, soil, air, and food to eat. This is another way EEC Forest Stewardship is deeply invested for human betterment. If we are not restoring our ecology, we will be embracing toxic poisoning. I choose not to embrace that where I can, and it’s hard, because we use a lot of fossil fuels even when we’re not driving. Agriculture is #4 in top polluting industries, while transportation is #2. The food you buy in the store contributes to both, making it #5 on that list. There is a lot to break down here, but this leads me back to why buying local is so important, and paying for local is more expensive- Leafhopper Farm receives NO government subsidies, it stays afloat through it’s own production and my personal financial independence. I do all the work, from raising and caring to slaughter and butchering- all by hand, all with love and care for the poeple who will buy and eat this meat, investing a little more for a long term future. If I calculated my full time working on this farm into the food prices, no one could afford my meat or eggs. The crucial restoration work these animals do is not part of the price either, that bonus goes to the land, which regenerates for long term community health- that’s priceless.

Welcome “Quercus”, Our New Ewe Lamb of 2025

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There’s a late arrival to the flock this Spring. On May 30, our first year ewe Pandora surprised me earlier this month by bagging up. It was three weeks past my official Ram exposure to the ewes, but I also realize I put him back in with them on pasture later, after I thought the gals had finished cycling. Well, I really don’t read the signs well when a ewe drops into heat. Apparently Pandora was late to the party, but still ready to dance. That’s ok, I really should just leave the ram in till late winter- but I don’t like feeding him alfalfa, or letting him bully the gals off their food so he gets his own digs in the winter, but I let them all go on pasture together because there is enough food and space for them all. When the ewes are heavily pregnant, the ram is removed until after all the lambs are born and stable. Oakie is a good ram in the flock most of the time, I don’t see him bully lambs unless it’s over food- until the rut. By then, all the lambs should be sold or slaughtered, so he does not have to fight with other rams for the ewes. But that might change this year, as I am looking at overwintering one of my ram lambs, who is turning out very well.

Quercus is a ewe lamb in my favorite line- her grandmother is Lickety-Split, who was the first lamb born at Leafhopper Farm, out of Ingrid, who was the lead ewe and my favorite friendly sheep. Not all sheep are friendly with people, many prefer distance and an occasional polite hand sniff when they do get close. I don’t mind if a sheep is shy, as long as I can handle them when I need to. If a sheep is prone to panic when I come into the barn, I tend to cull them because it’s not helpful to keeping a calm herd and handleable (domestic) animals. Quercus’ Mom, Pandora, is a little shy, but not panicky. She let’s me offer a hand sniff, and will stand when I catch her collar and look her over. It’s important to look over your animals often to make sure they don’t have any hidden injuries or other ailments that take some visual checking. When I came into the pen to check Pandora’s new lamb, she stood by, sniffed my hand, and stood while I looked at her new born to make sure everything was ok. That’s a sure sign of calmness in a ewe that I appreciate, and her little lamb shows the same temperament. This is a big reason I love this line in the flock. Lickety-Split comes right to me for head scratches- even in the field, and the rest of the herd usually follows her over for social time. Some might call her a Judas Sheep, but she’s my Bellweather. She even wears a bell. Her granddaughter might be a future lead ewe herself one day.

For now, Quercus enjoys her new life in the flock and gets a wander around the pasture, close to momma and grandmomma in the field. She’ll have a lot of catching up to do before running around with the rest of the lambs from this year. They are all growing very fast because they are all singles and getting exclusive rights to mom’s milk. It’s a first here at EEC, to have all singles, but that’s ok, everyone is healthy and happy, and we have a great sized flock. May the herd continue to show good development as this grand experiment in Katahdin Sheep continues.

The Farm Bill?

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This video caught my eye on the tube and so I took a moment to watch. There are a lot of mixed messages in the information, and some outright contradictions that the journalists who compiled this information do not pursue- maybe they will in future. I’m going to point a few things out and try to address them.

Commodity crops (soy and corn) vs.

The 1996 Farm Bill removed regulations on how much of certain crops could be grown, in favor of how much a farmer could make in the global market. This took larger, mostly corporate farms- the top 2% of farms, a lot of income. This happened because of corporate agricultural business lobbying for more government subsidies to make more profit. Let’s take a deeper look at these top percent of agricultural business, which dictates The Farm Bill.

Check out the #1 agricultural corporation in The World, Cargill– specifically it’s criticism arounf child labor, union busting, land grabs, and deforestation. These are the guys pushing palm oil over jungles and cheap child labor for investment gains. Number two in the world of agricultural big business is our old friend Monsanto– which merged with Bayer (#3).

John Deere is #4, and that’s all heavy equipment for the industrial farming- no small farm can support such massive machines, yet most of the technology that helps larger farms today is run by this company. They are in trouble with The Feds over right to repair and walked away from DEI. To name a few issues not in their Wiki page.

I would divide farming definitions of size by heavy machinery used. If you use more than a couple of tractors to do your farming, you are not a small farm. For people who use no large farm equipment (Leafhopper Farm LLC) in their practices, there is already the reward of not getting caught up in the costly nightmare of large equipment and the fossil fuels to run them. Yes, those who grow in that way are producing little in comparison, but if everyone with only a few acres practiced small scale- or were compelled to as part of the responsibility of owning farmable acreage, there would be an abundance of food in our communities, and we could move towards free food for all. I truly believe this based on my own production.

The #5 largest agricultural business is Syngenta AG– which has all the chemical fertilizers and seeds. Its stock is owned by a Chinese state owned company. People are so worried about Tick-Tock, well this company controls the majority of toxic chemicals used in food production. Do your own deep dive on these horrific affairs.

#6 is the main drive behind commodity crops in the US- Tyson Foods Inc. The meat industry is controlled by two main players and Hormel is the other one. We grow all that soy and corn for the animal feed these companies control. The video points out that The US is the top world producer of meat, and that industry gets $64 Billion in trade from it. Your local meat growers, who do not export, are not getting any say in The Farm Bill, and certainly won’t see any revenue support from it. Take it from a local sheep producer like me.

Now that you understand who the real players are, think about how much government subsidy is really going to them. As the video shows, many mid-sized farms that are still family owned, rely on the handouts through these big corporate influences running the show. Almost all farms have to get at least some of their inputs through these companies, and so they defer to those interests, because the big companies are the only ones representing themselves in congress through lobbying. There are individual farmers that still spend their precious winter months off in D.C. trying to protect family farm legacies, but that’s not where the money is. As Locust Farm’s owner said- he gets about $500 a year in federal support, and that’s not enough to cover anything.

About 9 minutes into the film, bio-fuels are briefly mentioned, and that’s another critical part of the Farm Bill web they should have looked at a little more closely- but it’s not related to their alarmist title “Why US Farms Are Struggling” if you think farming is only about food. Fuel is what runs most farming today, and that fuel is also starting to take priority over food. We can’t eat fuel, and it’s production is killing the environment which is our food, and water, and air. We are animals that can’t survive without clean environment.

At 9:30, the medium sized farm owner went into the small town economy talk, which again, this video seemed to step right over and not address. But pivoted back to human health, and it’s here I would like to make another point. The family farms that are bought into financial ties with these controlling corporate agricultural businesses can’t escape. They know that all rural business is tied into the corporate web, which they are beholden to. If they break from the norm, they have no income, and the rest of the town business goes bust. They already are bust. The medium sized farms are debt slaves. They pay any profit back into the farm for the massive inputs industrial farming demands. It’s a loose loose for farmers and the land, and it’s killing both.

For the little farms still being family run, suicide rates are high. This video does not get into this sad fact, but it must be mentioned here. Besides all the financial worries, farmers rely on the seasons and weather patterns, which are now becoming extreme. For corn and soy, this is not so scary, because the commidity crops are protected by The Farm Bill. But for the food crops that we really need in day to day living as people, there is little support or care, because salad greens and carrots are not profitable in our current federal programs and we can just import cheaper goods. How is that helping the farmer? The video does go there at 9:40, but then allows The Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas J. Vilsack, to “see things differently”. That’s it? WTF? Where is the journalism here?

At this point in the film, I was wondering what this was all about. The title is “Why US Farms Are Struggling”, yet this film is trying to talk about The Farm Bill as… good or bad? I think bad, but it’s so illusive on a real point beyond things are messed up and small farms, which grow most of the actual healthy food for us to eat, are not going to be around much longer. That is true, the way things are going environmentally. But when you go to the grocery store and reach for something that is no longer there, what then?

I’d like to close this little exploration with another video to help us see what’s happening in a close allied nation to our own. One we are working very hard to open more food imports to- England.

I’ve been following Flank Farm for a few years. I like that it’s run by a woman, trying to survive in the small farming world, and that the second generation is trying to help bring the story of family farming to a wider audience. England just passed a budget that will deeply impact family farms. What this woman farmer shared at 6:00 is what I think about all the time in farming. Our food web is vulnerable in so many ways. We can’t eat money. What will happen when food distribution is disrupted again like 2020 and COVID? For England, a small island nation, the affects are tremendous. Here in The US, we are building similar cracks in food systems by letting big money control our basic needs. The corporations are not living people, as so, they devour us as their income. Start planting your gardens now, and connect with other growers. When this system fails, backyard gardens and a few fruit trees down the street are all that will stand between our society and starvation. Get planting now and learn what’s growing on locally where you live.

Why Livestock?

EEC Forest Stewardship1 Comment

Leafhopper Farm LLC was created to use domestic animal systems of grazing and foraging to regenerate soil health and fertility. A recent movie that gives great information on why livestock are so crucial to regenerative farming practices is laid out beautifully in “Sacred Cow“. This film explains how domestic stock, when raised in harmony with their surroundings, rather than industrially in crowded pens with overflowing manure pollution. There are also topics in human misdirected diet scemes, degradation of land through industrial practices, and crucially, how we can mend the land, refocus our livestock systems in favor of animal well being, while also acknowledging the cycle of death and rebirth in our world. I’ve cropped a scene where James Rebanks, author of “Pastoral Song“, lays out the argument for rewilding hand in hand with regeneration to support people within the ecological landscape. His farm is an analogue for Leafhopper, and you’ll see some similarities. The sheep are deeply ancestral for many of us, and play a vital role in wet, cool, hilly regions of our world- the marginal land in traditional agricultural thinking.

For EEC Forest Stewardship, the animals of Leafhopper have also been bringing back nature’s neighbors- such as moles, frogs, red wing blackbirds, great blue heron, salmon, and much more. By removing chemical treatments, harsh overgrazing, and monoculture, we’re inviting the wild spaces to return within our modest acreage, which in turn, helps to weave the surrounding wild parts into a stronger framework for nature to thrive. Slowly, the land has responded with more vegetation and resiliency to drought, floods, and future fires. We’ll keep folding the animals in to improve overall productivity, diversity, and adaptation.

A new batch of chicks develop in the incubator, our geese are starting to nest, and we’re still waiting for two more first year ewes to lamb (8 lambs and counting). Dandelion and nettle harvest are on- I got my favorite hand stains this last weekend picking the delightful flowers.

Our young chocolate lily and camas bulbs are also up and running for a second year- and we sent last year’s seed harvests back to Oxbow Farm for germination of more native plants. It’s certainly the time of rebirth here at EEC. With all the new life and energy bursting forth, we give thanks for all the creative force thriving and jiving all around.

As the season continues to unfold, we look forward to new fruit blossoms, more lambs, baby chicks, and the weeds too. Blackberry is set in it’s hedges for the year, and we’ll look for the berries in August. With Spring comes tempests, and we’ve already had our first real hail. Yup, not the little grapple from recent climate change past, but full on pea sized hail now, and probably not for the last time. Enjoy this brief but spectacular footage of this first for us here at EEC Forest Stewardship.