With the advent of the new urban farming movement, it seems clear that we are slowly rediscovering the best organic farming methods that have been mostly lost or forgotten since before the introduction of petroleum based fertilizers and chemical herbicides/insecticides. It makes sense to learn from the common farming knowledge of our grandparent’s generations. Those methods, from the early part of the 20th century, represent the most advanced organic farming practices that can inform our starting point for small scale farming from here forward. It only took about 2 generations to lose most of the farming knowledge that probably seemed like common sense back in nineteen aught seven. We are now poised to build a new generation of farmers who once again pick up the methods that were the culmination of farming knowledge since the beginning of time.
In the January 1907 issue of The Farm Journal, an article details the value of farm products showing “the enormous increase in the value of farm products is not so much the result of higher prices, as of increased yields.” So, in 1907 this publication attributes the increased yields to “the American farmer giving closer attention to tillage and less to the acquisition of additional lands.” The author uses the larger analysis of the article to conclude that, “It is intensive farming that is destined to lift the farmers of this country into prosperity.”
The wisdom of farmers at the height of organic farming practices at that time (there was no other kind of farming then) rings true to me today. Getting back to basics by caring for the soil around us and making use of smaller and smaller spaces to grow our food just makes sense. Intensive farming methods represent the height of an old technology that will again play a significant role in feeding our country.
