There is an essential link between environmentally-friendly farming systems and profitability. It’s important for farmers, landowners, community leaders, concerned citizens and the business community to see that diversified farming systems can profit farmers and communities and play a key role in creating a healthy ecosystem. This initiative will create and support opportunities for all the stakeholders to work together to find innovative and viable ways to meet current and growing demands for products from grass-based livestock, trees, diversified crop rotations and perennial biomass.
Farms that include perennials in their cropping systems and livestock operations produce many benefits – or “profits” – for the farmers, for communities and for the land.
Because perennial plants, especially native grasses and legumes, have such extensive root systems, they improve water infiltration, prevent soil erosion, and sequester carbon.
Keeping water and soil on the land also means keeping nutrients where they belong – in the soil and out of our lakes, rivers and streams.
A Multi-beneficial Ag System
The Land Stewardship Project and the Chippewa River Watershed Project have teamed up to test a new strategy for building a multi-beneficial ag system.
The Chippewa 10% Project intends to help find viable ways for farmers to make money and do their part to improve land and water resources by combining three key ingredients:
- Getting perennials on an additional 10% of farmed land in the watershed.
- Producing high quality food and biomass fuels from perennials.
- Bolstering the entrepreneurial efforts and infrastructure needed to get that food and fuel into local and regional markets.
By helping farmers profit from perennials, our communities and our land and water resources can profit as well.