I am often asked how Little Sprouts Farm is different. To answer that here is a list of some of our basic farm rules that govern all that we do as a foundation to everything else. They are in no particular order. Some of these are self-learned, some are from respected authors and mentors. All of these are important to our success as a sustainable farm. How we are different is that many of these (if not all) are contrary to standard factory farming practices. To define a common factory farm, done to government specs, just take the opposite of these rules.
- If it smells bad, you are not doing it right.
- If children can not safely assist in activities, you are not doing it right.
- If it doesn’t happen in nature, it’s not natural.
- Every farm animal should be free to express its instincts and live with respect.
- People deserve openness and transparency in all aspects, especially in their most basic need: food production.
- If the soil doesn’t improve from year to year in all aspects, you are not doing it right.
- Plants that don’t reproduce true on their own, are not intended to be grown.
- No man-made chemical has ever improved on the natural methods, in the long run.
- Success in nature exists only as a delicate balance between different species, not as single crops or animals.
- The secret to nature is balance, too much of any one thing is bad, it is the balance between many things, sometimes hundreds, that makes life successful.
- Caring for the earth (animals, plants, and environment) is man’s first God-given responsibility (aside from multiplying).
- Farming is about nutrition and people, not plants, animals, and profits.
- Never try to improve nor alter something you don’t yet understand.
- If it doesn’t work year after year, it shouldn’t be done today.
- Insects, bacteria, and misc “bad things” are not the enemy. the enemy is the pre-existing conditions that cause the “bad things” to come. Removal of only the “bad things” leaves the conditions that nature tries hard to destroy in order to protect itself.
- It is wiser to work with nature (cycles, seasons, etc) than against it.
- Farming properly is hard work, requires great insight and intelligence, creative thinking, intuition, and expertise. It is ok to make a decent living at it.
- Sunlight, air, soil, and water are the ingredients of life. Each must be cared for and protected at all costs.
- Intervention usually leads to the need for more intervention. Only nature itself is self-sustaining.
- Nutrition begins in the soil. It is impossible for food to be healthier than the soil it comes from.
- Increasing yield does not increase nutrition, normally more yield means less nutrition per pound.
- Large size is in itself one of the biggest mistakes of farming. Large operations are fundamentally different from small operations, and produce a totally different product. We need more farms, not bigger ones.
