By Casey Knapp, fifth generation farmer and member of Generation Organic
Organic farming improves the soil and the environment, lets animals grow in harmony with nature, and provides consumers with healthy, wholesome food. But what really makes me believe in organic agriculture is that the premium goes to the American family farm. However, no business will stay afloat if it isn’t profitable. The reason organic agriculture has survived for over 25 years in the marketplace is because people recognize the importance of knowing where their food comes from and who grows their food. I am an optimistic member of Generation Organic, Organic Valley’s initiative to usher in the next generation of young organic farmers. I see organic farming playing an important role in years to come as the planet evolves to cope with challenges of the future.
Casey hams it up with fellow Gen-Os Johan Doornenbal and Elainna Coehlo at Chico State University.
As a science major, I am attracted to numbers and facts. When we stopped at The Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA for the Gen-O bus tour, I wanted to hear the data, the sound science that would say we were headed in the right direction to solve our energy and food needs for the future. I found this affirmation in Amory Lovins from the Rocky Mountain Institute. In his presentation, Reinventing Fire, Lovins talked about how businesses looking for a competitive edge will push the marketplace to adopt renewable and clean energy sources simply because it makes economic sense. Lovins’ fully realistic dream is to shift the U.S. use of fossil fuels to renewable and clean energy by 2050, and to make it happen by businesses leading the way without policy incentives or consumer demand.
More from the Generation Organic Tour:
Meet Gen-O: The Future of Organic Food
These Organic Faces: The Future of Food
Through changes in transportation, electricity generation, industry use of energy, and building energy use, Lovins sees technology replacing 19th and 20th century economic paradigms, transforming the world’s energy supply to clean and renewable sources. Lovins predicts conservatively a future that will generate 0% of its energy from coal, petroleum, and nuclear. The numbers and claims that Lovins proposed were broad strokes. Admittedly, I would have liked to see more details, but the 90-minute presentation was convincing nonetheless. With success stories like the refurbishment of the Empire State Building to a more green state and paying off the cost of the improvements in just three years, I felt that his view of the future was entirely possible.
Musician Jason Mraz, pictured, right, shakes Casey's hand at Farm Aid. Photo courtesy of Organic Valley.
The marketplace will eventually determine the best way to run the world economy. Through the Lovins presentation and my experience as an organic farmer, I see that businesses that operate in harmony with nature are not only requisite to a healthy planet, but also the most profitable economic options going forward. I have nothing but excitement and concrete optimism for the future.
Casey Knapp is a fifth-generation dairy farmer at the 600-acre
Cobblestone Valley Farm in Preble, N.Y. In addition to milk for Organic
Valley, his family’s farm produces 10 acres of organic strawberries, pastured poultry, beef, pork and free-range eggs, plus 3,000 yards of compost. Knapp is a also a senior in agricultural science at Cornell University.
Nothing much to say.
Diane
Your words are great and I love where your thinking is at, but what about the issue of farming animals for human consumption being environmentally unsound. The amount of land needed for grazing and crop supplementation could be put to better use and feed more mouths. Eating animals may be ok (depending on your ethical perspective) if both population and meat consumption were reduced, but until then… can’t you grow f&v?
The small additional cost of Organic produce is offset by the vast health bonus of non-refined foods and the related health problems associated with processed foods in general.