Non-Profit: Making the Switch from Corporation to Organization

As we announced last week, Connecting City to Farm is becoming a non-profit organization.  Our mission is to promote healthy food choices for all budgets by highlighting the nutritional value and sustainability of non-organic agriculture.  

friends in a non-organic rice field

What Jim has to say

There’s a lot to be said in the organic conversation and I invite you to join in the interactions we’ll be having here over the next few posts.  But first, I’d like for you to hear Jim Whitaker of Whitaker Farms speak about the limitations the organic regulations make on the organic farmer and the benefits non-organic famers provide to the world. 

A Project with a Purpose

In the Beginning  

When this journey began, I wasn’t exactly sure where it was going.  I knew I wanted to bring awareness to what agriculture professionals are doing for our growing population and the earth, but I didn’t know where it would lead.   Now I'm convinced this project calls for a purpose.  There is so much good that can come to families from telling these stories.

Bridging the Gap

There is an obvious connection between urban life and farm life.  I see how each side views the other with both intrigue and misunderstanding.  Having grown up in a culture that I’ve chosen to remain engaged in and having lived my adult life in the other one, I wanted to bridge the gap between the two worlds that I love.  

The Two Percent

I have loads of respect for the way conventional farmers take risks and develop new ways of growing food for the world.  It is certainly not a calling for everyone, but we all receive the benefits of those two percent of Americans who take on the challenge and thrive in their giftedness so we can continue to have plates full of healthy food.  

At Our Fingertips

Urban life is full of opportunities for creativity and collaboration.  Many resources that work together to develop technical, medical and financial advancements are at the fingertips of those living in metropolitan areas.  The world moves forward at lightning speed because of the efforts urbanites make to improve our everyday lives.  

The Mission

As I've been sharing stories and experiences with you, this mission has become clear:

Announcement!

Our mission will focus on three main areas:  family health issues, world hunger and environmental sustainability.  I will develop these areas in the next few posts.  To do the most good, Connecting City to Farm has decided to pursue 501c3 (non-profit) status. This will create opportunities to expand our message and our audience. 

We wait expectantly to see what's ahead!

Cover Crops

"Radishes?  Are we growing radishes now?" I finally asked my family this question.  I had been hearing about cover crops through the winter and was very curious about why my family was talking about radishes.  I didn't think they had started a new endeavor on our land, but I wasn't sure how radishes fit with our farming operation.  

Jim holding a radish from Whitaker Farms' cover crop

Meet Sam Whitaker

You've met Jim Whitaker on some of our videos.  Now I'd like to introduce you to his brother, Sam.  

planting cotton

Row Crops

Jim manages the rice acreage of Whitaker farms while Sam operates the growing and harvesting of the row crops.  Row crops such as corn, cotton and soybeans grow in different types of soil than rice and are planted on raised beds in rows from one end of the field to the other.  

Trying Something New This Year

One of the many strategies Whitaker Farms uses to protect the environment is No Till farming.  While rice fields are flooded during the winter, Sam is trying a new strategy of no till farming for his cotton crop.  He planted a cover crop that grew through the winter in the field where he will have cotton this summer.  

Watch this video clip to hear Sam explain one of the many benefits he's already seen in his first year of trying this unique solution to protecting his soil.  

Farming from the Air

Because the morning hours are usually less windy, I would often hear airplanes buzzing over our house while getting ready for school as a little girl. 

friends learning about ag airplanes at the rural airport

Early to Rise

I remember thinking, “Oh… that pilot must have gotten up really early to be in his plane and flying before I even leave the house.”  It’s true.  Like many other dedicated business owners, agriculture professionals usually rise long before the sun.  

observing our rice harvest from a plane

Farming from the Air

Driving tractors over fields during the growing season is sometimes impractical or impossible, so farmers often hire an ag airplane service to spread fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide or even seed.  Wind makes flying difficult, and it also causes the product to be spread unevenly across the field.  Current technology has improved the pilot’s ability to precisely control where the product lands on the crop. 

me in 6th grade

Flagging

When I was in elementary school, my oldest brother, who was farming with my dad at the time, would occasionally ask me to flag for him.  I LOVED flagging.  Even though I was young, this was a real job on the farm that I could do-- or at least try to do.  Two people stood on opposite ends of a field holding a big orange flag.  As the airplane passed overhead, each person would wave his flag for the pilot to see.  Once the pilot had flown over, each flagger would walk the same distance across the field and get ready to wave his flag again.  While the flaggers were taking their steps, the airplane would turn around and come back for another pass. 

cousins taking off in a small plane used for observation

Not So Precise

This was the only way the pilot would be able to keep track of where he had sprayed in the field.  Needless to say, there was plenty of room for human error, especially by a distracted little girl.  I did the best I could, and helping in a practical way made me feel very grown up.  

friends posing with the airplane as it loudly takes off

Technology Strikes Again

Modern ag planes are equipped with GPS systems that allow the farmer to plot each field’s longitude and latitude coordinates in his home office.  The system can then direct the pilot accurately as he makes passes over the field.  This allows less overlap and therefore uses less product. 

standing in front of an ag plane

Site Specific Farming

Another advantage the GPS system provides is the ability to monitor and record specific areas in a field that may need fertilizer or other attention.  This is one example of Site Specific Farming which allows the farmer to manage each area of the field as needed instead of applying unnecessary products to plants that are perfectly healthy.  The GPS technology is so precise that once the pilot is in the air, the system will follow a perscribed plan to open and close the drop hatch on the plane at just the right time to release the product only on the areas needed. 

yellow ag plane and white passenger plane

Environmentally Friendly 

This beneficial technology drastically reduces the amount of product used.  It also eliminates the accidental drifting of the product onto unwanted areas such as adjoining crops, animal habitats, and natural waterways.

a Farm Camper exploring the cockpit of an ag plane equipped with state-of-the-art technology

Technology brings enormous productivity gains to today’s farms.  Ag flying is just one area where the dynamic combination of modern technology and the farmer’s intelligence is creating terrific opportunities to balance the growing world population’s need to eat with our earth’s need to thrive.

Farm Life Terms: No Till Farming

Watch this short clip to hear Jim Whitaker explain the environmental benefits of no till farming.

new rice emerging in the midst of what's left of last year's straw

Defining Zero Grade Rice Farming

Zero grade rice farming is a win for the bottom line and the environment.  Is zero grade rice a new food label on rice that you need to avoid?  Is it a failing grade given by quality control personnel who reject below-standard rice?  It is neither of those things.  Zero grade refers to the slope of the land in the field where the rice is grown.  

cousins playing in the water of a zero grade rice field

Looking for a Better Way

My dad often refined his practices, looking for ways to decrease costs and increase yield.   He took many risks through the years to keep pressing toward this end.  Some attempts paid off and some flopped.  But if he had never tried new ways, our farming operation would not be where it is today.  One of the biggest risks he took was to convert all his rice fields to zero grade fields.

our farm full of zero grade rice fields

A New Way is Discovered

My brothers were farming with Dad in the 1990's, and since they had been raised to constantly explore improvement opportunities, their curiosity was peaked when they heard about a new way to grow rice.  Wow!  Now that sounded like it was worth pursuing.  After connecting with Isbell farms and doing some research, they realized that zero grade farming was an innovative way of controlling the specific amount of water that rice requires throughout its growing season.  Rice needs to grow in water, but….not too much water.  Most varieties need to grow in water that is kept steady at about two inches deep.

a recently planted rice field with contour levees to manage the required water levels for rice

Why Do We Change?

The traditional way to manage water in rice fields is by building levees throughout the field that wind from one side of the field to the other based on the natural slope of the field. The land within the levees is called a patty.  Each patty is level and the patty next to it is slightly lower.  When the farmer is ready to lower the water level or drain the water off the field for harvesting, several men walk through the field following the levees and lower the “spills”.  A spill is a strategic place in the levee that is opened by digging a hole through the levee and lining the hole with plastic to allow water to pass from one patty to another without letting the soil wash away.  Spills are raised or rebuilt by hand (shovel) with the original dirt when the farmer needs to keep the water within the patty during the growing season.

dirt moving equipment following GPS guided software to level one of our new fields to zero grade

Zero Grade Rice Farming

The “new” way my family had heard about was to grow rice in zero grade fields.  Zero grade means the field is perfectly level from one end to the other.  At the time, this expensive, precision leveling process required laser-guided dirt moving equipment to cut off high spots and fill low areas in a field to bring it to a place of being perfectly level or having a “zero grade” of sloping from one side of the field to the other.  You can think of this large area as now being flat like a table top, whereas before it had high and low spots throughout that had to be managed with levees.  A border is built around the field in which all the soil stays within the confines of this area which drastically decreases erosion.  Additionally, a drainage system is designed throughout the field which consists of a ditch bordering the field and water furrows that help the water quickly drain off the field.   

harvesting one of the zero grade fields on our land:  combines and tractors pulling grain carts with ease

Business Decision

My family was motivated by two things:  1) the decrease in labor hours that would be required since the field would not be full of levees that had to be managed by hand and 2) the increase in fuel and equipment efficiency since the harvest machinery, like combines and tractors pulling grain carts, could move through the field much more easily without having to slow down and creep over levees often.  

young rice plants peeking through soil covered in last year's straw -- no tilling

A Win for the Bottom Line and the Environment 

Little did they know the environmental gains that would be proven years after their decision to convert their entire rice acreage to zero grade fields.  This sustainable practice allows for more controlled water levels, less total water usage, little soil erosion, no till farming, and significantly decreased greenhouse gas emissions from operating farm equipment.  By continuing to perfect environmentally friendly practices like these, agriculture professionals are reaching the goal of feeding the estimated 9 billion people who will be eating food around the world in 2020.

Standing on Science: Debunking Organics

Have you recently heard “organic may not be what you think it is?”  I’ve been hearing that a lot over the last few months and this recently published article in Forbes magazine answered many questions I've had about the value of organic foods.  I'm going to follow this author's lead as he is standing on science to debunk the mysterious world of organics.  

standing in a rice field

The Author

Steven Savage was an enthusiastic supporter of the organic movement and its founding principals 30 years ago.  Simultaneously, he celebrates the changes this movement has brought and expresses his concern for unethical marketing about organic foods that has promoted a "super brand."  

standing on a pipe that's part of our water recycling system

Taking Action

Over the last 20 years, conventional farmers have heard the concerns the organic movement has highlighted, and they have taken action.  Fewer pesticides are used today.  No-till farming, which isn’t used on organic farms, allows for significantly less soil erosion on conventional farms.  Water-recycling has become common place on many conventional farms as a result of innovative engineering.  Higher yields seen by conventional farmers have resulted in using fewer acres for producing, which frees more land for natural habitats to be reclaimed.  Sustainability and soil health continue to improve because agriculture professionals have been actively listening.

standing on the top bar of a grain truck full of harvested rice

No Difference

I appreciate that, even though Steven was an early backer of the organic movement, he hasn’t been blind to the negative transformation it has taken.  He has remained clear-headed by looking objectively at scientific studies about pesticides and nutritional values and taking those findings seriously regardless of any preconceived ideas he may have had.  He states that “many consumers believe that the Organic label means the food has superior nutrition and is safer, especially in regard to pesticide residues.  This is not true. Studies have shown no appreciable difference in nutrition between crops grown either organically or conventionally.”

standing by a pond

Creating Confusion and Fear

Steven acknowledges that food labels and organic-funded marketing are creating confusion and preying on the fears of uninformed consumers.  They have attempted to create a “super brand.”  He mentions that parents, specifically, have been pressured into breaking their budget in order to “protect” their children. 

standing beside the goat pen

Relief on Parents' Faces

I have seen first-hand the relief on the faces of friends who are mothers when I tell them, using scientific evidence, that conventional farming methods are completely safe and are actually far more environmentally friendly than organic methods.  One friend even said “Oh I’m so relieved!  When you started talking about food safety, I thought you were going to give me one more thing I should feel guilty about or avoid.” 

standing in a horse barn

Scientists Around the World Agree

Referring to several scientific studies, Steven recognizes that the safety and sustainability of conventionally grown foods have been proven time and again.  Scientists around the globe have agreed, international food and health organizations have endorsed these findings, and environmentalists from numerous countries have observed these advancements. 

standing in a truck full of harvested rice

Following His Lead

Yet, the money funding the false marketing is allowing the fear and confusion to continue.  This courageous author confidently stands firm in the midst of a national conversation swirling with mis-information.  I respect his fortitude and have come to the same conclusion.  I encourage you to read Steven's article for yourself and let me know what comes to mind.