Sustainable Farming

Seems the major elements of sustainable farming is to utilize the land and water appropriately.  Sepp Holzer has a great operation as he uses the land and plants to do the work of the farm.  The less amount of human input the more likely that the system will be successful.  A viewer can see that he is able to produce so much more food in less space simply by designing his farm in a manner that is self maintained and well planned.

Sustainable farming is ecologically sound because the farmer encourages the systems that work together and benefit each other.  For example, how the plants are placed in the farm can not only provide themselves with the necessary nutrients, but it also allows for predatory insects to control without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.  It is using the ecosystems services to support the farm without much human input.

I am unable to buy much organic food because of the cost of the staples, but I would if I could afford it so that I can support sustainable farming and promote environmentally sound practices involved with the concepts. I do not feel connected to the industrial type of farming that is used so widely, as a matter of fact I feel kinda disconnected from it because of the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

I do not live on or visit campus but I would be interested in growing my own fruits and vegetables.  When I lived in New York we grew a lot of fruits and vegetables.  Tomatoes, broccoli  strawberries, onions, corn, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, watermelon, and herbs.  We canned and froze a lot of our crops and they lasted for a long time.  We didn't use insecticides, maybe because we were mixing up the plants we never had too many problems with pests.  We didn't use fertilizer but spent a lot of time in the garden, weeding and mulching.  I would grow a garden here, in Florida, but the soil is not very conducive to gardening and I live in a much more urban site and have less land.