Climate smart farming
Winter wheat is a popular cover crop throughout the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Harborview farms & climate smart farming
At Harborview Farms, we are proud to practice climate smart farming. Our farms keep living plants on our fields as much as possible by using cover crops and no-till techniques—promoting healthier soils, better biodiversity, cleaner water and less erosion wherever we farm. Climate smart farming can also protect soils as our climate intensifies with drier, hotter summers, and cooler, wetter winters.
What is climate smart farming?
Climate Smart farming follows in the footsteps of Mother Nature, using living plants in the form of cover crops to absorb sunlight as many days out of the year as possible. When we’re not producing food, growing cover crops can maximize soil health and build organic matter into our soil— promoting soil health and crop yield while putting carbon into the soil through photosynthesis.
USING COVER CROPS TO REDUCE CARBON
We all know greenhouse gases like carbon contribute to a warming planet. But did you know that cover crops are one part of the solution to reduce carbon emissions?
Planting cover crops on fields in normally fallow seasons means that for more months out of the year, there are plants actively using photosynthesis to take CO2 from the atmosphere put it into the soil.
Cover crops are also an alternative to turning over or tilling fields, which helps to retain the carbon in the soil. When soil is plowed under, carbon, in the form of organic material such as plant roots and microorganisms, rises to the soil’s surface. This temporarily provides nutrients for crops. But as the soil carbon is exposed to oxygen in the atmosphere, it transforms into carbon dioxide, contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet.
Off-season cover crops and no-till practices are also good for the environment. A diverse cover crop mix like rye, radishes and hairy vetch benefit birds and pollinating insects. And cover crops naturally absorb rainfall, reducing runoff while their root systems hold sediment that might otherwise wash into our waterways.
How can I identify a climate smart farm?
Cover crops: If a farm field is green during the winter, or blooming in spring when most other fields have been freshly plowed, that farmer is probably using cover crops in between growing seasons (from fall to spring).
No-till: Traditionally farmers plowed or turned their fields over to prepare for planting. No-till techniques allow farmers to grow crops without disturbing the soil. A no-till field, for example, might have soybeans planted between corn stalks from a previous growing season.
Learn more about climate start farming at harborview farms
“Climate Smart Farming: Save the Earth, and Make Money?” Aimee Picchi, Moneywatch CBS, May 17 2019.
“Trey Hill of Harborview Farms.” Christophe Jospe and Ross Kenyon for Nori Carbon, February 5, 2019.