Mastodawn

#Agroforestry may be just what #Maine needs for agricultural growth

By Marina Schauffler
Published on: January 24, 2021

Excerpt: "Agroforestry, an age-old concept, could provide a path to Maine’s future. Part of the #RegenerativeAgriculture movement, it involves an integrated approach to cultivating #trees with #crops and – sometimes – #livestock. These diversified farm systems nourish #SoilHealth and #wildlife while offering more resilience in a warming world — locking up atmospheric carbon, absorbing floodwaters, and sheltering crops and animals from high winds and #ExtremeHeat.

" 'Diversity is really key to sustainability for small farms and the ecology of farms,' said vegetable farmer Max Boudreau of Winslow Farm in Falmouth. He sees many landowners and #homesteaders 'putting these principles into practice,' but said agroforestry is still 'a foreign concept' in farm service agencies.

"Being interdisciplinary, agroforestry challenges the siloed world of natural resource management. It is routinely ignored in college curricula and by technical service providers, said Meghan Giroux, an agroforestry researcher, technical service provider and practitioner in Vermont. Her nonprofit, #InterlaceCommons, seeks to fill that void by training farmers – including Boudreau – how to implement and maintain agroforestry practices.

"Boudreau was one of the 20 farmers selected among 92 applicants from around the Northeast for a free, agroforestry 'field consultancy' this year. Farmers are eager to learn about agroforestry’s potential to diversify income, and there’s growing consumer demand for its products – from nuts and uncommon fruits (like #honeyberry and #PawPaw) to #mushrooms and #MedicinalHerbs.

"Yet policymakers routinely tell Giroux there’s 'no interest in agroforestry,' she says. 'There’s no institutional will to move these practices forward primarily because people don’t understand them.'

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has supported agroforestry since the 1990 Farm Bill and does exceptional research, Giroux feels, but “a knowledge-exchange issue” prevents guidance from reaching most landowners. A network of trained farmers could help support and train peers – a process that happens informally, Boudreau says, in the permaculture community, a related landscape design approach modeled after natural systems.

"Research has already demonstrated that #NoTill agriculture improves crop yields, reduces costs and improves soil health. Even more economic and environmental benefits could flow from cultivating crops in a layered, integrated mix of annuals and perennials more reminiscent of natural plant communities."

Full article:
https://themainemonitor.org/sea-change-agroforestry-may-be-just-what-maine-needs-for-agricultural-growth/

#SolarPunkSunday #NoMonoculture #Polyculture #AgroEcology #FoodForests

Agroforestry may be just what Maine needs for agricultural growth

A state that grows trees "really well," Maine could benefit from the expansion of agroforestry — which has ecological and economic promise.

The Maine Monitor

novaTopFlex Mar 13

Hype for the Future 133K: Morgan County, West Virginia

Introduction Morgan County serves as the westernmost of the three counties forming the Eastern Panhandle within the State of West Virginia and uses the community of Berkeley Springs, formerly known as Bath, as the county seat. Today, the nearby community of Paw Paw to the southwest is also of relatively similar importance throughout the region. Notable Amenities The Town of Berkeley Springs is currently renowned for the natural springs associated with the area, having been historically […]

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/03/13/hype-for-the-future-133k-morgan-county-west-virginia/

Hype for the Future 133K: Morgan County, West Virginia

novaTopFlex

DoomsdaysCW Dec 21

#NewZealand / #Aotearoa - The transformative power of urban #FoodForests

1 April 2025

"#IndustrialFarms depend on #FossilFuels – making them significant contributors to climate change, says University of #Auckland professional teaching fellow Daniel Kelly.

"He is researching ways to produce food without fuelling climate change, while helping grow a food forest at #PapatūānukuKōkiriMarae in #Mangere.

" 'Growing food has given me faith that humans can be a positive force for #ecological #restoration.

" 'There’s this narrative that being human means being an ecosystem destroyer, but that’s only a story about one type of human.

" 'Perhaps the biggest challenge facing us as a society is learning how to become another type of human, who cares for and enriches their place,' says Kelly, who teaches psychology and sustainability and is involved with the University’s Centre for #Climate, #Biodiversity and Society – #NgāAraWhetū.

"Kelly stumbled across gardening while flatting in his early twenties and became focussed on climate change while completing an environmental law degree.

"Now 36, he’s trying to refine the art of growing food while sequestering carbon – and tackling social inequities in the process.

"Five years ago, Kelly learned about #syntropic #agroforestry at a workshop at PermaDynamics in Northland. It’s a new technique for growing trees and food that is inspired by pre-modern farming in Europe and contemporary #Indigenous practices in #Brazil.

"#SyntropicAgroforestry is aligned with #agroecology, a political movement that aims to hand control of land and food production back into the hands of ordinary people.

Agroecology aims to address hunger, #FoodInsecurity and ultimately #Social Inequality.

"In #Aotearoa, food inequality disproportionately affects urban #Māori and Pacific people, who more often live in areas with poorer access to healthy food and are less likely to be able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables, says Kelly.

" 'That can be traced back to #colonisation and the large-scale dispossession of Māori land to support the establishment of European farms from the 1860s onwards.'

"In 2020, Kelly started experimenting with growing a syntropic food forest at Papatūānuku Kōkiri marae in Mangere.

"That food forest has become part of his PhD thesis on #FoodSystemChange - and from bare clay five years ago, it has grown 12-metre tall trees, berries, bananas, peaches, figs, #pawpaw, peppers, and many other crops.

"The bounty is distributed by Papatūānuku marae as part of its efforts to support people facing hunger in the community."

#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSovereignty #Decolonization #FoodSecurity