Autre chose que du maïs et du soya

Photo: Green Lands, Blue Waters

Comme la rivière Richelieu, la rivière Mississippi souffre aussi des activités agricoles dans sa vallée. Un groupe qui porte le nom de "Green Lands, Blue Waters" réunit des environnementalistes, des scientifiques, des experts universitaires, des fermiers, des groupes de conservation et des agences gouvernementales et travaille à réduire la pollution agricole depuis plus de 10 ans.

Pour atteindre leur objectif, ils tentent d'encourager la culture de récoltes de vivaces et des cultures de couverture, ajoutant de la variété aux éternels champs de maïs-grain et de soya. On pense à la culture de tournesols, au lin vivace et aux légumineuses vivaces.

Plutôt que de mettre des terres de côté pour fins de conservation, leur objectif est plutôt de trouver des récoltes à la fois profitables pour les fermiers tout en limitant l'érosion des sols, absorbant les nutriments et améliorer la qualité de l'eau du Mississippi du Minnesota jusqu'en Louisiane.

Le site de Green Lands, Blue Waters ici: http://www.greenlandsbluewaters.org/index.html

En aprenant qu'une grosse porcherie sur gestion liquide venait à Richelieu en 2005, entourée de ses champs de maïs-grain et de soya, j'aurais toujours voulu plutôt une ferme-école bio, pour mettre notre population en contact avec les animaux et les plantes d'une ferme soutenable, et pour avoir une entreprise en amont beaucoup plus conviviale pour nos gens et notre rivière.
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"Initiative explores use of perennial crops

Long before the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that threatens the fragile ecosystem at the mouth of the Mississippi River, environmentalists, scientists and other groups have led efforts to reduce pollution upriver. One of those initiatives, Green Lands, Blue Waters, has been at work for 10 years, researching and advocating for sustainable farming practices in the Mississippi River Basin stretching from Minnesota to Louisiana. Those involved in Green Lands, Blue Waters, include experts from land-grant universities, farmers, conservation groups and governmental agencies.

"Basically, we're trying to clean up water quality through agriculture and so that includes getting more perennial crops out on the landscape," said Dr. Helene Murray, interim executive director of the St. Paul-based Green Lands, Blue Waters. Murray is also executive director of the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and has an adjunct appointment at the University of Minnesota's Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. The mission of Green Lands, Blue Waters is to transform the agricultural system of the region by developing perennial and continuous living cover crops for farmers to plant and profit from. "People are willing to try new things," Murray said. "And if they can see that it's profitable, and they have some environmental benefits out of it, they're totally for it."

The Mississippi extends more than 2,300 miles, and 33 states are in the river basin. Nearly 60 percent of the area is annual cropland. Corn, soybeans and similar crops have taken an environmental toll with sedimentation and the runoff of fertilizer and pesticides affecting the river. "We're not saying, 'Never grow corn and soybeans again,'" Murray said. "That's not realistic and it's not as profitable for farmers to do that. … We're just trying to figure out how we can make these systems function better."Planting more acres of perennial crops can help prevent soil erosion, reduce the loss of nutrients that occurs with runoff and improve water quality of the Mississippi.

"We want to keep working lands," Murray said, rather than having set-aside programs in which farm land may be idled for the purpose of conservation. "Those are effective in their own right, but we really want to look at how to make this profitable for farmers as well as providing the ecosystem services." Perennial sunflowers are an example of an alternative crop already being planted in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, but plant breeders are still in the very early stages of developing other crops such as perennial flax and perennial legumes, Murray said. The research also examines ways in which a crop like perennial legumes could be used in consumer products."

Excerpts from article written by Dawn Schuett published in the Post-Bulletin here : http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=51&a=453310

How I would have wished a school organic farm upriver instead of a pig CAFO in my town! How much kinder to the folks and to the river would have been a variety of crops and animals, instead of an intensive crowded water-based pig facility surrounded by annual monocultures of corn and soy!