Growing Food and Biodiversity

Food production and biological conservation may often appear to be at odds, but both share poignant similarities. Farming today faces its own diversity crisis—mirroring precipitous declines in biological diversity, fewer and fewer crops account for an ever-growing proportion of our diet. Thanks to this growing understanding of the inseparable link between wild species and farming, the market for ecologically-responsible food production has never been higher. This new facet of agriculture is well illustrated by the rise of certification schemes such as the organic label that indicates whether producers adhere to defined production standards, thereby allowing consumers to differentiate between products on the basis of their environmental and social effects. What is critical to note, however, is that these certifications are not necessarily accurate indicators of a farm’s ecological health or associated with high biodiversity.

Photos: Nick Lapham, The Farm at Sunnyside

Biological conservation as part of food production

The Farm at Sunnyside is approaching the issue of biodiversity conservation on farmland in a more quantitative way: by staffing a biologist as the farm’s full-time “conservation manager.” We are exploring a model of agriculture in which biological conservation is an explicit part of our food production system; where wild nature is not incidental to, but an actively managed component of our farming strategy. Located 70 miles west of Washington D.C. in northern Virginia, The Farm at Sunnyside has been operating its conservation program since 2010. Our conservation manager works alongside farm staff to guide conservation initiatives including monitoring environmental health, enhancing habitat for native species and promoting beneficial interactions between agricultural and wild areas of the property.

Of course, staffing a full-time biologist is not appropriate for every farm, but embedding conservation expertise at any level can deliver significant benefits to a farm and its resident wildlife. Other farms may seek to incorporate conservation knowledge in different fashions, such as advertising for seasonal farmhand positions at local universities to attract conservation students to apply their skills to real world problems. Groups of farmers could collectively hire a regional conservation professional to help promote biodiversity on their land. Some farms preferentially hire seasonal workers that can trade valuable skills with the farm operators in exchange for the opportunity to learn about food production. We should encourage conservation professionals to step into these niches, to work with farmers to help them develop meaningful conservation programs for their land, and in turn educate themselves about the agricultural practices that pose one of the largest global threats to biodiversity.

Using metrics to track management success…

We measure the success of our farm’s conservation efforts in many ways. From a conservation biology standpoint, the key is to develop metrics that allow for sustained, quantitative measurements of a farm’s success in managing for high-value wildlife habitat. Detecting the presence of breeding populations of key indicator species, ideally with sufficient resolution to assess their population trends, is the approach our farm is currently taking. We are looking to target species from each major habitat type—northern bobwhite quail for our native grass and flower meadows, wetland birds and amphibians for our irrigation pond habitats, aquatic macro-invertebrates from our streams and springs, and so on.

…and it’s working!

Our population of northern bobwhite quail is a prime example of how we gauge the success of our practices. Before beginning our habitat enhancement efforts we saw no evidence that this meadow dependent bird was breeding on the property, or even more than a transient visitor. The year after establishing our first native grass and flower meadows, the quail became permanent fixtures of the farm and we have observed their population expand linearly in association with the acreage of meadow available. These meadows also support a huge diversity of insect pollinators and crop pest predators that contribute significantly to our agricultural operation. Importantly, we include some of our agricultural areas in this assessment as they too can provide vital habitat with careful management. For example, our orchards sustain breeding populations of both American woodcock and eastern whip-poor-will, two birds believed to be in decline throughout their range. Northern bobwhite quail are also routinely observed singing and foraging in our vegetable fields. Features that support wildlife can synergistically benefit agricultural production. In late spring and summer, juvenile American toads born in irrigation ponds migrate upland to vegetable fields. The toads spend several weeks in the straw mulch used between vegetable rows for weed suppression hunting small invertebrates, many of which may be crop pests.

Farmers today have much to gain by more effectively incorporating conservation expertise in their businesses. Helping them both understand why and figure out what practical and cost-effective measures they can take should be a high priority for conservation biologists. An important first step is to increase communication between these two audiences that so rarely talk to each other.