Regenerative farming

COLD SPRINGS, ONTARIO - One of the principles of ecology – the study of the relationships between living organisms – is that everything is connected. At Evermeadow Farm, Josh Noiseux and Janita Wiersma are applying that principle to food production as they work on making a living from a small farm while improving the quality of its soils.
 
Their approach is known as regenerative farming, which is perhaps best understood in contrast to the more conventional modes of farming that produce the bulk of Canada’s food. Conventional farming, broadly stated, treats the soil as a growing medium fed with nutrients often brought from off the farm, typically in the form of chemical fertilizer. It’s an efficient way to produce food, but it can result in depleted soils and fewer insects, birds, and animals as farms grow in scale and eliminate wildlife habitat.
 
Regenerative farming seeks to reverse those impacts by understanding the characteristics of the lands being farmed and integrating them in a plan which not only produces food but benefits soils and biodiversity. The focus is on actively building organic matter in the soil and preventing erosion through rotational grazing, animal-based fertilization, perennial crops, and water management.
Josh and Janita started their farm in 2020. Josh had been working on a PhD in Buddhist ecological philosophy but put his studies on hold when he realized land management could be a place to put philosophy into practice. At the time he was studying the Buddhist concept of dependent arising – that everything depends upon multiple causes and conditions, and nothing exists as a singular, independent entity.  “It sounded pretty resonant to ecology,” he says. When the pandemic came, “we decided we needed to put this into action.” He and Janita were fortunate her parents owned land in the Cold Springs area they could lease “to provide a pathway to get into the driver’s seat as quickly as possible. They’re (Janita’s parents) really supportive of us, which is lucky too,” says Josh.
 
One of their first tasks on the farm, which had been previously planted in alfalfa and orchard grass, was to do baseline measurements of soil quality, forage yields and plant diversity so they could follow and understand the impacts of regenerative farming over time.
 
Rather than harvest hay as previous tenants had done, Josh and Janita introduced sheep, pigs, broiler chickens and laying hens to the property, each having a specific role in improving soil quality while providing saleable farm products.
 
“Each individual species has its own suite of characteristics,” says Josh Noiseux. “Our hens scratch up compacted soil and spread seed and fertile manure. Our sheep manage the grass, distribute nutrients, and build soil. Our pigs recycle waste nutrients and disturb the soil to prepare for re-seeding pastures, and our broiler chickens bring fertility into the farm as they move daily across the landscape.”
 
“For me the main thing is scientific ecology,” says Josh, who sees regenerative farming as a marriage of conservation and food production. “Humans are part of the landscape and humans manage the landscape. You can’t silo conservation.”
 
Evermeadow began on a small scale, farming 15 acres. Now, with three years of experience, Josh and Janita, are looking forward to 2023, when their 45-acre operation will include 75 to 80 sheep, 60 hogs, and 3,000 chickens, licenced under the Chicken Farmers of Ontario Artisanal Chicken program. They’re also installing an egg grading station so eggs produced on the farm, and by neighbourhood producers, can sell under the Evermeadow brand.  “It’s certainly cooking along,” comments Josh Noiseux. Products sold on the Evermeadow website include cuts of heritage pork, a variety of sausages, grass-fed lamb and pasture-raised chicken.
 
And in a just a few seasons Evermeadow is experiencing the on-the-ground benefits of regenerative farming. “It’s shocking to me how fast it’s working,” says Josh, noting “huge improvements in the composition of plants” on what had been a “really degraded hayfield.” They’re now seeing a greater diversity of native and naturalized flowers, more insects, and more swallows. Evermeadow is located not far from the Rice Lake plains, an area which would have been tallgrass prairie prior to European settlement. Plans for the future include restoring some of the natural features of tallgrass prairie savannah by planting native trees and grasses.
 
 
“We conceive of the farm as a habitat, not just for our domestic species, but also for any number of wild, feral, volunteer, and visitor species,” says Josh Noiseux. “We view our role as facilitators, helping to make more room for all of these creatures to co-habit in the landscape. Through our management choices, like not tilling, maintaining perennial pastures, planting trees and shrubs, and encouraging the return of native species, we make space for more life, which in turn makes space for even more life.”
 
Still, challenges remain, including one known to small farmers of all description – making a living. While Josh and Janita maintain lofty goals for regenerative farming at Evermeadow, they also know that long-term sustainability requires a healthy bottom line.
 
That bottom line includes paying fair wages to employees. “We don't do it alone, we have one full time employee and a few part-time staff,” says Josh Noiseux.  “We are a committed living wage employer, and have never used free or underpaid labour or internships as part of our staffing model. We see this as integral to our mutually beneficial participation in our local community.”
 
Currently the farm operates as a break-even proposition, with hopes of achieving profitability next year. “The key lesson we’ve learned is the extent to which small farms depend on outside income,” says Josh. At Evermeadow, strategies to achieve profitability on the farm include ramping up lamb and pork production and continuing children’s programs and adult workshops on farm ecology begun last year. Josh is also consulting for other land owners, providing them with plans that meet their ecological and financial goals.
 
A challenge specific to regenerative farming is that some of its benefits, such as improved soil quality and biodiversity, don’t lend themselves to being included on a statement of profits and losses. Josh says Evermeadow is working with a professor at Ivey Business School of the University of Western Ontario to create ways of measuring those benefits. They’re also looking at how farmers might be compensated for the improvements they make to ecology.  One example of this is ALUS (Alternative Land Use Services), a non-profit program that supports Canadian farmers who maintain and enhance ecological services on their lands.
 
“We’re not at all conventional farmers,” comments Josh Noiseux. But he doesn’t want Evermeadow’s endeavours to be seen as a critique of current agriculture practices. Instead, he’d like regenerative farming to be regarded as an approach  with benefits for all kinds of agriculture. “We’re part of the bigger farming community,” he says. “We’ve had a lot of support from the farming community.”