This episode is a bit different than some others as I talk with Florence Reed of Sustainable Harvest International and Patrick McMillan, a longtime birder, and recently retired Clemson University professor about how small family agroforestry farms can have real and significant impact on the environment and migratory birds on their wintering grounds.
Maybe the most eye opening moment of the conversation was when I asked if this type of farming was only for local use or could it be scaled to “feed the world.” Florence gently informed me that these small family farms are already feeding far more of the world than are giant monocrop forms run by huge international corporations using unsustainable techniques that require increasingly intense use of harmful pesticides and deplete the soil. My assumption that most of the world goes to the supermarket for their food, rather than the family garden was obviously my ignorance, bias and self-centered thinking in action.
Helping these family farms and farmers grow more food, a healthier mix of diet and do it in a long-term sustainable way makes so much sense to me. The added benefit that our neotropic migrants have more and healthier habitat for much of their life cycle is frosting on the cake.
Habitat is the key to bird populations. Birders know that habitat protection, improvement and restoration is a key to protecting our birds. Patrick speaks to this eloquently when he talks about the changes he helped institute in the Clemsen Botanical Gardens. Changing the focus of the area to more native plants and more wild type areas almost doubled the number of species seen there in less than a decade.
On an earlier episode Dennis Paulson talks about the loss of the shrub-steppe habitat in the Lower Columbia area within his lifetime. Grasslands in general are probably the most threatened habitat in the world. They are exactly the areas where it is most profitable to convert to agriculture, and have largely been converted. The small farmers that Florence and Patrick talk about are using remaining land that is less desirable to large commercial farming, and yet can do it effectively and sustainably to feed their family while helping the environment and the birds.
Here is a link to the Heronswood Garden in Kitsap County, WA where Patrick is now working.
I have learned and become interested in these issues in part because my daughter Jean (see episode #41) and her husband Alan have dedicated their lives to these causes, so they matter to me. Check out the organization Jean works with, Jungle Project, to learn more.
Let me know if you enjoyed this episode, if you have other topics you’d like to hear about, or have suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from.
Until next time. Good birding and Good Day!