Nature Preserve - The George Jones Farm as a Habitat

Enlarging Our Understanding of Food Systems

As we envision a sustainable food system for the 21st Century, it is important to enlarge our understanding of food systems.  The farms of the future will be places that provide food for humans as well as for other wild plants and animals.

Dana and Laura Jackson, in their book Farm as Natural Habitat, describe most of the mid-west as an “ecological sacrifice zone” where commodity grain production has nullified ecosystems and generated pollution that has created a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Jones Farm presents a model for transitioning from a commodity grain system to an integrated sustainably managed farm. In addition to restoring topsoil, 22 acres of prairie meadows and wetlands have been restored on the farm.

We see the farm as enhancing the wild food system and have been graced by many new visitations over the past few years, including increased bats, tree swallows, frogs, and about 60 other species of migratory birds. It is rewarding to harvest food in the fields and watch a Great Blue Heron glide overhead on the way to a tasty repast in one of the farm’s wetlands.