Cookie cutter conservation only works in research journals…Recently, my wife, Peggy shared a TIME® Magazine interview with me from the “Lab Girl.” In the interview, the Lab Girl said, “There are things that all scientists know are the reality in science, and the longer I am in this business it was driving me absolutely crazy not to say something. It’s not enough for me to be frustrated. It’s time to talk about it. I have learned that nothing gets readers so fired up as saying something everyone knows is true.” Well I agree, so here it …
Taking Action Toward Sustainability – Pt 2
This is one in a series of posts covering what a few progressive ag retailers are doing to address sustainability in their organizations. This week we will take a look at GROWMARK’s sustainability initiative endure which focuses on practices that endure over time to make the most prudent use of natural resources to enhance customer profitability and environmental longevity. GROWMARK As GROWMARK leaders discussed the company’s endure sustainability initiative before it launched earlier this year, they realized they could best promote …
We are Misappropriating Our Limited Resources
The arguments to increase the number of publicly funded conservation employees has admittedly run its course. Therefore, the need to update technology in soil and water conservation is blatantly obvious. We know we all need to accomplish more with less. Let’s end the pretext for our lack of progress, and get on with improving technology. Before you respond and tell me why this is impossible, let me provide a response to the Top 5 arguments I hear for not improving technology. #1: Soil and water conservation budgets are limited. Resources are …
Have you ever entered Yellowstone National Park through the East Gate?
My first trip to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) was in 1965. Since then, I have returned on numerous occasions, each time deliberately entering by a different route. Yellowstone has five entrances (the South, East, Northeast, North, and West). Each entrance provides me with a unique perspective of the park. It is not the entrance, itself, that is so unique. Instead, it is the route I travel to reach each entrance that provides me the altered perspective. Each time, I see new things. I feel like the same type of experience has happened …
Mandatory Regulations on Farmers
WHAM! CRASH! POW! KABOOM! I know that probably sounded like Batman and Robin, but I think what you may have heard was the court of public opinion. Just when the ag sector hoped things would quiet down in the Lake Erie Basin, farmers are actually hearing more disturbing reports of regulation. Survey results from a new Ohio poll, funded by Healthy Lakes, were released just this week showing a majority of Ohio voters are in favor mandatory regulations on farmers to protect the state's rivers, streams and lakes. According to the Healthy Lakes …
A Fireside Chat with FDR
In early September, Peggy and I had the privilege of hanging out with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; or at least we posed for a photo with their bronze likenesses. This year, our annual vacation took us to the Northeastern region of the United States. Along the way, we stopped at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York. Peggy and I spent a total of seven awestruck hours touring the library and the FDR home. We agreed it is a “must see” for everyone. Arguably, FDR had one of the most difficult and …