The Land of Milk and Honey?

Pesticides paid for by taxpayers

High Tunnel Extension paid for by 2023’s profits. Very excited to get growing in here! Also big ups to Milo for being instrumental in its construction.

Farm News

We are plugging away and accomplishing our seasonal goals. This year has felt especially difficult to get the season rolling but we are making progress on momentous improvements to the farm business. Hopefully we will be skinning this high tunnel this week increasing our covered growing space by 34%! Hello early summer crops??

I have been honored to speak at multiple events this winter and will be doing another quick talk discussing cover crops on Tuesday, March 5th. The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, AgWell, the NRCS, and Pawnee Butte Seed are teaming up to throw a pizza party at Stogy Brewery from 4:30pm-7pm. I will be there to talk about the cover cropping experiments, successes, and failures we have implemented since 2019. I look forward to seeing you there!

Also, we have 3 winners of Folks Farm hats! Thanks to everyone who purchased a CSA share last week, you make our boat float. We would love help spreading the word of CSA farming. You can help by either leaving our farm a google review or sharing this writing. Every little bit helps!

Farm Rant

When a farm’s ecosystem thrives, so do its crops. The story of milk and honey depicts a balanced, well-adjusted farm producing two of the most delicious foods. It is the pastoral abundance we dream of portrayed in corporate marketing across farm products. This saying comes from a mythology of the perfect farm since bees are notoriously difficult and dairy cows require lots of nutrition. 

In my own farming practices, much of my focus is providing our soil and insect life everything it needs to produce bounty without the use of chemical inputs in a way to create potential for continued flourishing. We do this through cover crops, applying compost, and interplanting with pollinators in mind.

These practices have nearly removed my need for organic pesticides. By attracting predatory insects and leaving nesting sites we create the conditions for them to thrive. Limiting our spray allows pests to grow to high enough populations to provide food for the wasps, praying mantis, and other predators. 

To further help with diversity and pollinator production, we have teamed up with Bee Squared Apiaries, since 2022 ,to produce honey from 6 hives on the farm. Bee Squared tends bees throughout Northern Colorado and we have had good success in years past. This winter, however, they reported that ALL of the bee hives within Fort Collins have perished, 8 in total. Some loss is to be expected but all? Something is amiss in the land of milk and honey. 

Without rigorous scientific research we do not know the exact cause, however there is a clear difference between the numerous hives around the county and those in Fort Collins. Our city spent thousands of dollars spraying broad spectrum insecticides, namely Permethrin, to keep mosquito populations down for fear of spreading West Nile. We believe this spraying affected the bees foraging on our farm and in the surrounding neighborhood, causing their complete demise. 

West Nile is a rough disease that can be serious. On average, 1 in 5 people who are bit by an infected mosquito develop symptoms, another 1 in 50 develop serious symptoms, and of those 1 in 10 perish. It is the most common mosquito spread disease in the US (CDC). The City of Fort Collins sprays these chemicals to attempt to lower mosquito numbers and thus West Nile virus. 

The question remains, is it worth it? Clearly mosquitos or the disease have not been eradicated and yet, the spraying is likely causing serious environmental degradation. The loss of honey bees is directly affecting the bottomline of a local business, and the loss of other insect life on our farm negates years of effort put into insect population restoration. The chemicals are entering our water, covering our gardens, and exposing all of us to their effects. 

The EPA has regarded the chemicals as non-toxic to humans, however this is the same EPA that was recently found guilty for fast tracking the reintroduction of dicamba, a powerful herbicide. My trust in these institutions continually wanes as more information is uncovered about revolving door politics and corporate lobbying power skewing well intentioned people.

This issue affects us all. Our tax dollars are being actively used to poison the town we live within. Whether or not this caused our bees to die is up for debate, however it is known these pesticides kill bees and many other insects. Is it worth it? The bees are the canaries in the coal mine. With continuous exposure how will this affect us all?