Behind many efforts to make agriculture more sustainable is the idea that our farming systems need to mimic nature. Increased biodiversity is often the primary tool used in attempting this and highly diverse cover crop mixtures are one example of how it is being applied in agriculture. I will present the research results for cover crop mixtures, why I think nature is not a good model for agriculture, and finally how I think agriculture can benefit from being more discerning about what components of nature it uses.

 

Biography: Andrew McGuire is an Irrigated Cropping Systems Agronomist working for Washington State University Extension. Since 1999, he has been helping farmers build soils in the Columbia Basin of Washington through high residue farming and cover cropping. His work with mustard green manures has facilitated the use of the practice on 25-30,000 acres each year in the Columbia Basin. He thinks, then writes, about agriculture at http://csanr.wsu.edu/category/blog/ and lives in Ephrata, WA.