Teresa Morris shares the good news about Farming Blueprint
Teresa Morris has had an extensive career in the natural resources and earth science fields of study. She is currently pursuing her Ph D in Higher Education for Curriculum Development in Sustainable Agriculture and will be teaching Soil Science at Washington University in 2015.
AH: Please tell us about the Farming Blueprint webbased tool
AH: You have said that soil is “not always portrayed with connections between the causes and sustainable solutions” will you please explain this?TM:Unlike other land mapping programs, calculation graphs show expected sustainability results tied to economic outcomes based on the plotted farm design. Farmbp.com helps users understand the connection between sustainable agriculture, earth sciences, and sustainable living. Using maps, drawing tools, graphs, and calculations, the user can see the relationship between sustainable farming methods and the economic value of those methods. The webbased tool takes into account both direct and indirect soil building practices. This tool is a sustainable step towards sustainable living.
When the user draws on the map to design an agricultural or environmental system, basic calculations will generate regarding projected costs, yields, and income. Other calculations involve percent organic matter to the economic value of soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, carbon, and sulfur. The user can begin to understand the sustainable soil EconomicsTM of farming methods such as cover crops, field borders, intercropping, pollinator cropping, etc. by seeing the soil economics of those methods. Along with calculations, there will be a sustainability graph showing increase or decrease of soil organic matter, water holding capacity, and carbon sequestration. Finally, as the user designs the system, a Sustainability Chart will display the percentage of sustainability the agricultural system is achieving.
Farming Blueprint will include a feature to include the community. The Blueprint Calendar will display which farmers have produce or meats available for purchase during any given week. Those who want to support the local farmer can visit the Blueprint Calendar to locate what restaurants are buying locally, and frequent those restaurants or they can buy directly from the farmer. Farming Blueprints’ webbased tool supports the student, the farmer, and the community.
AH: What are some of the more pressing challenges that you are contending with around this project?TM:What I mean by this statement is we tend to want to address soil situations with a quick fix. If it’s an erosion problem, we build a pond or a concert structure. If it’s a nutrient problem, we put synthetic fertilizers on the surface. Just like modern medicine, we tend to look at soil issues as isolated “problems” instead of looking at the soil environment as a whole.
We need to address these and other soil issues with a long term solution in mind. Soil erosion can be addresses with diversified plantings with a diversified root system that not only stabilized the soil but enhance the nutrient cycling and physical properties of soil so as to provide the nutrients that are in the soil with the properties to become available to the plant. So by addressing erosion in a sustainable manner, we also address additional soil issues such as nutrient deficiencies.
TM:It’s been said to me that this project is ambitious. I take that as a compliment but what I’ve found is that although people like the idea and finds it interesting, they are hesitant to believe in the realistic idea of its development. Currently, we are in discussion with potential partners to bring this idea past the design phase and into the development stage.
Our webbased tool is the future of education in sustainable soil economicsTM in that we look at soils and how to conserve them from a health and economics perspective. Putting an economic value on the indirect revenue building practices such as field borders or cover crops, as well as direct revenue farming practices (produce & meats), encourages the farmer to design a system for farming that focusing on conserving the soil. Focusing on soil health allows for a system to function economically as well as sustainably.
AH:Congratulations on launching your website! Who do you anticipate to be your users?
AH:How will Farming Blueprint help and how is it different than other land mapping programs?TM:Everyone! Our website is our way of introducing the concepts we believe in regarding soil health. We invite users who are interested in the education aspect of soil health as it relates to plant, animal, and our health and can visualize our webbased tool as a platform of learning for in the class room as well as online classes.
We’re also looking forward to working with farmers who want to make a change in their systems but may need that first step in doing so and we want to help the beginning farmers who want to approach their land management from a sustainable soil economicsTM perspective. A system that is from the soil up is economically sustainable.
Finally, we encourage the community members who want to learn which farmers are producing agriculture products in a sustainable manner and from our Blueprint Calendar, can purchase the products so in that way our communities support our farmers.
TM:We’ve looked at several mapping programs. Many if not all of them focus on the production aspect alone as in the cash crop or the meat production. They focus on direct dollars with direct production. They also focus on synthetic nutrient implementation. The pest management is a program of scheduled spraying of products.
Our approach is to teach the user how to view their land as a system of economics by addressing the sustainable practices (pollinator cropping, intercropping, pest management planting, erosion control plantings, etc. ) first in order to put in place the soil building practices and then design the direct revenue building practices.
By approaching land management and farming in this way, our perspective shifts from a controlling of the environment, which is costly, to seeing the economic potential of the land from sustainable management. By learning the concepts in this way, of food production, the user can research in detail all aspects that interest them and learn how to sustain their land and their money.
AH:Farming Blueprint was accepted into the AASHE conference in Portland Oregon, tell us about that please.
TM:We are thrilled to be accepted into the AASHE conference! AASHE stands for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. We will present our webbased tool as an element for education in sustainable agriculture and conservation of soils. We want to promote our philosophy of Sustainable Soil EconomicsTM. Teresa Morris has been working on a curriculum design that she wants to provide to universities with the webbased tool as a package for learning.
Her focus of education is from the conceptual learning model which means the user learns from a 3 dimensional perspective. Traditionally, much of education is from a fact and skill base. However, Farming Blueprint’s webbased tool allows the user to add in a third dimension of the concepts associated with the facts and skills. We want to promote our webbased tool at the AASHE conference as a conceptual component of learning sustainability. Learning from a conceptual model, encourages the student to seek a deeper meaning in regards to the self, relationship to community, and other cultures. Many times when people want to make a change in their lives, they get caught in finding the first step – Farming Blueprint wants to be the “step” towards true sustainability as it relates to agriculture, community, and culture.
To learn more visit: www.farmbp.com
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To be continued…..
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