Farm Operations - AgroEcology

Cultivating an Indigenous Agriculture

Heifer International provides support for the development of an agro-ecology program at the Jones Farm which will focus on native plant propagation as well as the harvest of crops indigenous to wetland, woodland, or meadow ecosystems.

Most of the crops grown today originated in other parts of the world. Eric Stewart, pictured above, is a permaculture design consultant for the Jones Farm. In this photo, he is planting a pawpaw sapling as a part of a larger permaculture installation at the Jones Farm. Permaculture stands for “permanent agriculture” and was developed in Australia as a way for food production systems to mimic natural ecosystems.  Natural ecosystems operate entirely on incoming solar energy and recycled nutrients. Industrial agriculture, by contrast, is heavily fossil-fuel dependent and relies on injections of chemical nutrients. Permaculture provides one approach to reducing fossil fuel dependency while organizing highly productive and biologically diverse farm systems.

In the fall of 2006, we organized a permaculture workshop in which volunteers learned about indigenous agriculture through the establishment of understory forest plantings of ginseng, black cohosh, and goldenseal. These medicinal herbs grow well in deciduous forest environments and can provide income for farmers without disturbing surrounding ecosystems.