Too often, farmers and non-farmers find themselves in opposition with each other, especially when it comes to environmental issues. Pie charts like this one probably aren’t helpful, where nutrient sources to the Chesapeake Bay show loads from the agricultural sector lumped together, while nutrients from the urban sector are divided into multiple categories. There’s denial on both sides- farmers correlate water quality issues with increased development and combined sewer overflows, and others have strong opinions about different farming methods and production systems.
Nutrient loading data is essential for watershed planning, but sometimes our attitudes about our urban and agriculture sectors belies the fact that we all contribute to the entire pie chart of nutrient sources. We all eat, and we all poop, right? Farmers rightly talk about how no one would eat without them, but farmers wouldn’t get very far in the long term without consumers, either.
There are plenty of examples where diverse groups are working with each other instead of against each other. Take, Shore Rivers, a watershed organization whose Board of Directors includes farmers. Delmarva Land and Litter Challenge likewise includes a diverse group of members. The Delaware-Maryland 4R Alliance is a group that I’m involved with that aims to bring different stakeholders together to demonstrate tools and technologies that can improve profitability and reduce nutrient losses to the environment. When farmers, watershed groups, conservation agencies, researchers and others opt to collaborate, the result is more informed, practical, workable solutions than blame alone will ever be.