January 2008: Just after a meeting of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition at Asilomar on the gorgeous mid-California Coast, I set out to explore one of our nation’s breadbaskets—or better yet—cool-season vegetable baskets. Having seen whales, sea otters, tidal pools, and wintering monarchs coating the trees of their winter refuge over the last few days, it was time to move slightly inland to look at the agricultural landscape through the lens of sustainability that our meeting had been all about.
Some diversified organic farms for sure, but so many huge bare desolate fields awaiting planting, less-than-welcoming biosecurity signs and gates, and landscapes covered with plastic far into the distance. This area is clearly great for raising cool-season veggies, and also a rich and varied habitat for wildlife—aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic—but stark monocultures of seemingly unfriendly food production dominated so much of the land. Rather disappointed, I sought out some semi-wild gems such as Elkhorn Slough Reserve to catch a glimpse of some of what had been the look of this landscape, and was determined to find some of the “wild farms” I had heard about.
Wild Farm Alliance: Wandering along farm roads, I finally started seeing strips of different crops, then hedgerows, and then what I believe was an owl box of the sort that the Wild Farm Alliance was promoting. I had been following the work of the Alliance for some time and was enamored with their clear purpose, tireless energy, and the concise elegance of their definition: “It is farming in a way that supports and benefits from wild nature.” Raising awareness of the role of beneficial birds in pest control, of the benefits of diversified crops, diverse pollinators, field margins, and hedgerows, of the need to incorporate nature more fully into organic farming standards, and of counterproductive and extreme industry efforts to “remove” nature from farming for the sake of food safety have been some of their many contributions. The WFA website brims with solid scientific studies, policy recommendations, and how-to guides for farmers and landowners.
Wild farming is farming in a way that supports and benefits from wild nature. (WFA)
What about organic, regenerative, sustainable, and alternative agriculture? These are all fine descriptors of the ways we are trying to make agriculture better—and all, including “wild” can be misunderstood, criticized, and co-opted. Yet, we can accept all of them as conversation-starters—all have something to add to our search for improvement. We like including “wild” as a way to focus clearly on the natural biological processes that our agriculture must both depend upon and protect.
Wild Farming, Ranching, and Gardening is what we like to call this effort since ranching is so important in the Intermountain West, and since gardeners are key partners in this effort as innovators, experimenters, customers, community supporters, and voters. Including all three modes of food production fits our belief that the whole landscape—the extended foodshed which we see as including surrounding ecosystems—needs to be our focus. Pockets of healthy food production are wonderful beginnings but not sufficient to ensure the ecological integrity of the landscape, viable food production into the future, and ultimately, our planet’s future. Depending on and protecting wild natural processes in our soils, in fertility and wildlife and pest management, and doing this throughout our regional foodsheds is what this is all about. Doing so will require greater respect and greater humility in the face of nature, will be addressing both the climate and biodiversity crises, and will create tangible hope for the future—not a bad set of outcomes at all.
Aldo Leopold continually reminded us that there are no boundaries between tame and wild, except in the imperfections of our minds—Kirschenmann & Gould in Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature
Moving forward: Whatever term you use to describe our collective efforts toward greater ecological integrity in our food producing and surrounding ecosystems, keeping the “wild” in mind can be a useful filter as you consider where we are and where we want to go in our pursuit of a better world. Looking for examples of “supporting and benefiting from wild nature” in farms, ranches, and gardens around you is a good first step. Becoming familiar with the Wild Farm Alliance’s resources and community programs such as Farmland Flyways, Wildways, and Waterways should help you appreciate a bit more of what is possible. Then, looking at your regional foodshed and dreaming of what Wild Farming, Ranching, and Gardening could look like on your landscape should help you develop “informed hope” of what could be—and ultimately a better idea of our appropriate place on the land.
I’m looking forward next to exploring what Wild Farming, Ranching, and Gardening and the broader concept of Rewilding Foodsheds could look like in the Intermountain West and our own Greater San Juan Mountain Ecosystem. Feel free to contact me if you have ideas on this effort.
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