Subject: [permaculture] Conservation Farming with Helen Atthowe, Goddess of the Soil
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:02:51 -0700
Helen Atthowe, Missoula County Extension Agent (Missoula, Montana)
talks about the farming techniques she used near Stevensville,
Montana. She calls it "Conservation Farming".
Helen is well known in the Missoula area, not just as the Missoula
county extension agent, but also as one of the most popular vendors at
the Missoula farmers Market / Missoula Saturday market.
"The goal of our conservation farming is to increase farm
profitability by decreasing labor and land requirements while striving
to mimic the ecological principles that make native plant systems
sustainable. The ecological principles we hope to mimic include
reduced tillalge, increase species and genetic diversity, closed
nutrient cycles, and creation of more diverse habitat. We look at our
farm from a landscape or watershed level and hope to reconnect wild
areas, agriculture and urban areas. Conservation agriculture is both
biologically and socially a local agriculture."