Sustainable Farmers Have a New Friend: NRCS

On May 4, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Dave White visited Georgia and toured several agricultural landmarks, including Whippoorwill Hollow Farm, in Walnut Grove.

 

As chief, White leads 12,000 employees and manages a budget in excess of $4 billion. That he’s taking the time to come to Georgia is a testament to the strength of state’s No. 1 industry – agriculture.

 

 
That he toured one of Georgia’s most committed organic farms – Whippoorwill Hollow Farm – demonstrates the agency’s growing realization of the importance of organic farming.

 

The NRCS invited Georgia Organics and organic farmers to attend White’s visit to Whippoorwill Hollow for the purpose of gathering input from Georgia’s organic community, which is another sign that the agency is ramping up its interest in organic farming.

 

NRCS agents and Georgia organic farmers are collaborating at a higher level, and the agency stands to become one of the community’s most valued partners.

 

The farm White visited is a shining example of the impact NRCS can make. Whippoorwill Hollow, operated by Andy Byrd, is a model of sustainable agriculture. Byrd produces pretty much every edible plant that can be grown in Georgia: six different heirloom tomato varieties, every type of vegetable or green imaginable, herbs, flowers, rabbits, and a unique collection of poultry, chickens, turkeys, and pheasants.

 

Thanks to a $42,000 grant from the NRCS, Whippoorwill Farms has a well, 200 or so feet underground, that pumps 12 gallons minutes.

 

NRCS agents “have been real good about coming out and seeing our needs for water and irrigation, which is what most farmers need,” says Byrd. “If you don’t have water you don’t have hardly anything.”

 

Byrd and his wife, Hilda, first began working with the NRCS two-and-a-half years ago. Hilda Byrd passed last year, and the sustainable food and farms community is still reeling from the loss. Earlier this year, Andy and Hilda Byrd were awarded the 2010 Georgia for helping to build and grow two important farmers markets in the Atlanta area and serving as mentors for many years in Georgia Organics' farmer-to-farmer mentoring program.

 

Whippoorwill Hollow and Andy Byrd are going strong, in part thanks to NRCS. “With the well, we’ve improved our water conversation now that we have our own source, and it makes it [operating the farm] a lot more economical,” he says. “And NRCS has come a long way since I’ve been working with them.”

 

“For a long time they were just thinking about big farm operations. I think that NRCS for a long time didn’t know what to do with them [organic farmers] and they are now waking up to us,” he says.
“Finally, they’re really come around to organic and smaller farms,” Byrd says.

 

NRCS’s steady migration towards sustainable agriculture is a natural fit for an agency whose first leader, Hugh Hammond Bennett, “If we take care of the land, it will take care of us.”

 

In fact, 2010 marks the 75th anniversary of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the beginning of the federal commitment to conserving natural resources on private lands. Originally established by Congress in 1935 as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), NRCS has expanded to become a conservation leader for all natural resources, ensuring private lands are conserved, restored, and more resilient to environmental challenges, like climate change.

 

On March 24, 2010, Georgia Organics organized a field day trip for 12 NRCS supervisors to Woodland Gardens and the UGA Horticulture Farm in Winterville. Woodland Garden NRCS tour.

 

Woodland Gardens is another of the state’s most committed certified organic market garden. Farm Manager Celia Barss (in photo to the right, with NRCS agents) grows a notable variety of vegetables, micro greens, herbs, fruit, and flowers year-round on six acres using greenhouses to extend the growing season.

 

NRCS agents learned about organic and hoop house production, so that they could better assist other organic growers, or those transitioning to organic production.

 

Bryan Barrett, Area Resource Conservationist, is a key point person for Georgia Organics in the NRCS Area Office in Athens.

 

Barrett explains that the NRCS’ primary job is to work directly with farmers and local soil and water conservation districts to come up with effective on-site conservation systems.

 

This approach leads to a win-win for all. “It’s important to understand that we strive to address the natural resource concerns of the land and not to just improve the production of the operation,” Barrett says. “However, in most cases, by addressing the natural resource concerns first and foremost, what producers will find is an increase in production by the maintenance and enhancement of the environment."

 

In some ways, the services that NRCS offers is one of the best kept secrets in the state. The types of enhancements that NRCS funds are some of the more expensive projects that farmers face.

 

NRCS has an impressive array of programs to assist in the financial burdens of implementing conservation practices and systems on the farm. They accept applications for landowners and operators on a continuous basis throughout the year and are only limited only by the amount and timing of the funding that we receive from Congress each year.

 

 
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) program is one of NRCS’ most popular and effective streams of funding. And within EQIP, there’s an even more targeted funding stream for farmers pursuing sustainable agriculture. called the Organic Initiative.

 

With the Organic Initiative, an allocation of EQIP money is utilized to address the operations that are either certified organic or transitioning to becoming Certified Organic. To be eligible to participate in the Initiative, an individual must be currently Certified Organic or in the process of becoming Certified Organic by a nationally recognized certifying agent.

 

“The money is there,” says Andy Byrd. “If sustainable farmers don’t use it and we don’t show them that we have a need, then they’ll go someplace else. But if we show that organic farming is the way they need to, they’ll make the funding available for us.”

“I think they will make things happen,” Byrd says. “I think they are going to be a key player, and overtime they will be able to increase organic farm land and the amount of organic farmers that we have.”

FACT :  

  • The NRCS EQIP program allocated $1 million in Georgia last year.
  • $655,000 went to 22 growers who were already certified organic for the purpose of expanding their organic acreage.
  • $440,00 with to 31 conventional growers who will overtime transition some of their acreage to certified organic.
    In all, the EQIP funding will lead to an additional, 1,360 organic acres in Georgia, increasing the state’s total organic acreage by 44 percent.

FOR MORE INFO: 
Find NRCS information and program details, and sign up information.

 

Find your NRCS agent.