Member-only story
For U.S. Farmers, Sustainability Is the Future of Profitability
How new technologies are helping organic farms increase their margins—and propelling sustainability into the mainstream
In farm country, “climate change” can be a dirty word.
Whether you’re standing in a chilly shop in Nebraska, sweltering in a Virginia bean field, or walking a California vineyard, mentioning greenhouse gases or rapidly changing global weather patterns is a good way to get a farmer to clam up. Maybe they’ll shout you down, or show you the door.
But whether farmers are willing to discuss it or not, climate change is happening. Though they haven’t been embraced by all farmers, efforts to adapt agriculture to a hotter, drier, less predictable world are already underway.
This climate divide is (by far) not the only split in agriculture. There’s organic versus conventional. Small versus large. Selling produce at the elevator versus at the farmers market. Federal subsidies or none. Few crops versus many. Till versus no-till.
Farmers I’ve met find themselves split on many issues. Many more fall on both sides, depending on who they’re talking to or how much they’re itching for a good debate.
