The drinking water on our property is high in nitrogen. This potentially dangerous, but common,
Combine harvesting Monsanto soy in our field in Greenwich chemical must be scrubbed from our water with a reverse osmosis water filtration system. The source of the nitrogen is officially unknown yet it plays a key role in the agriculture of our area. Simply put, nitrogen makes things grow. Unfortunately, when over-applied it can also end up in drinking water especially in large agricultural landscapes with vulnerable aquifers. Our agriculture-dominated landscape is small by national standards, but it is the largest in New Jersey. Farmed fields and woodlots cover the land, and farming provides the main source of rural income. Half of the crops are Monsanto Roundup Ready corn, soy or wheat and the other half equally divided between landscape plants, vegetables and fruit — think the “garden” of the Garden State.
These farms create both economic, cultural and natural value, but what can be done to stop the flow of agricultural chemicals into our drinking water? There are two ways, both are good for wildlife.
Tomatoes grown outside Greenwich NJ about to be mechanically harvested. The regions tomatoes crop mostly go to production operations like McDonalds.First, farmers could slowly shift back to vegetables as the primary crop of the region. New Jersey farms once supplied vegetables and fruits for local canneries and agri-giants of the time — Campbell’s Soup, Heinz Ketchup and Del Monte. After the big companies left for areas with longer growing seasons, like California and Florida, vegetable and fruit acreage declined. Instead of relying on the practices common in crop and vegetable production of today (i.e., petroleum-based chemicals), we could shift back to sustainable production methods — the way it was in the 1900s when the NJ vegetable farming was booming.
Production vegetable and fruit operations now mostly compete for mass-market sales in common supermarkets. The competition is fierce and the profit margins for farmers are low, as corporations squeeze every nickel for the sake of investors. Local food grown with sustainable/organic methods have higher profit margins at small chains like Whole Foods, farmers markets and community sustained agriculture (CSAs) farms where “shareholders” get a weekly share of vegetables during the growing season. In places like San Francisco, small organic farms produce most of the product that distinguishes California Cuisine and underpins the Slow-food Movement. There are farm-fresh restaurants in our area like Talula’s Garden in center city Philadelphia. Small farms are also springing up in cities, like Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia or Little City Gardens in San Francisco, that provide fresh, locally-grown food to their communities.
Sustainable and organic farming practices can also stop the flow of chemicals into our soil and, ultimately, into our drinking water. This kind of farming will sink or swim only if it makes profit, but if gently introduced into the existing farming economy, experience will build that there is money to be made.
It would also improve the land for wildlife. The heart of a good, sustainable system is the use of compost and balancing of natural conditions to minimize drastic controls. It leads to the use of overwinter cover crops that improve soil and provide wildlife with good winter cover and food. This type of agriculture can be done in smaller fields creating field borders with overwintering habitats. The wildlife that flourish in this landscape can also bring income as hunters pay higher prices for access to abundant game. 
A field of soybeans ringed with a field edge of good overwintering plants.
In the meantime, the second way to help wildlife is for farmers to participate in existing and new practices being subsidized by the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Over the last decade the NRCS has been offering incentives to devote more land to buffers and filter strips. One program, Environment Quality Incentives Program (EQUIP), encourages farmers to create vegetated buffers along water ways to help prevent chemicals and fertilizers from reaching surface waters. Other NRCS programs include practices to create habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects (who eat crop pests). These and other practices are the heart of national efforts to restore quail habitat (National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative) and other game species that have fallen on hard times.
Organic/sustainable farming and the adoption of NRCS practices could dramatically reduce or eliminate the chemicals flowing into our drinking water. They can lift the value of farming in our region, lift rural incomes, and restore wildlife to abundance once again.
