Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

New American Farm Conference
Advancing the Frontier of Sustainable Agriculture
March 25-27, 2008 | Kansas City, MO
http://www.sare.org/2008conference/schedule.htm

and here's a new angle on direct marketing from
http://www.sare.org/2008conference/speakers.htm

 Karl Kupers: Karl is one of the most outspoken advocates for sustainable
farming practices, and he speaks from extensive field and business
experience. Once a traditional grain farmer, he switched to an innovative
and profitable “systems” approach on his grain farm, which included
diversifying crops, no-till and direct marketing. He began small, using a
SARE grant in 1996 to test alternative crops. He also pioneered and refined
“direct-seeding”, placing seeds into the soil with a drill, which
leaves the soil untilled. After he transitioned his entire farm to a
no-till, diversified system – and added a profitable direct marketing
business to the mix – he turned his attention to marketing full-time.
Today, Karl is marketing director of Shepherd’s Grain, a coop he helped
form. It currently has 20 Pacific Northwest no-till farmers – all Food
Alliance certified. Karl is also chairman of Western SARE’s
administrative council and a former president of the Pacific Northwest
Direct Seed Association.

“What I’m doing is a complete reversal of conventional farming. And the
profitability is only one part of the system. I’m not taking the profit
out. I have the profit because I have a whole system that makes
profitability sustainable.”
– Karl Kupers