About the Farm

Spring Valley EcoFarms is a living laboratory for ecology and organic farming, where science and theory are applied, observed and analyzed; basic ecology and agronomy are put to the real-world test of economics and politics. The site is located in Athens, Georgia and is composed of 100 acres of land that includes experimental plots, an old growth hickory stand, organic farms, pastures, ponds, newly planted fruit groves, greenhouses and animals.

The farm house which dates from the 1860’s is now almost completely renovated and will be dedicated to becoming SVE’s welcome center; the center will feature living quarters for visitors, a media center, gallery, library and much more!

History

Spring Valley Farm was founded shortly after the Civil War, and for almost a century, was farmed for cotton, as were most of the farms in the Piedmont Region of Georgia. But unlike most of the farms that were abandoned during the Great Depression, the family that owned the farm, along with share-croppers, continued to farm for wheat, sorghum, and other commodities until the last farmer of the clan, passed away in the 1970s. The heirs leased the open fields to a local farmer who continued conventional cultivation until 1993, when Dr. Carl Jordan, an Ecology Professor at the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, purchased the farm.

For over 25 years, Carl Jordan studied the impact of conventional agriculture and forestry on the biodiversity of ecosystems throughout the world. The farm at Spring Valley provided an opportunity to put into practice, some of the lessons he had learned about how to reverse the decline in biodiversity brought about by the monocultures of crops and trees that have become so common in today’s economy.

Spring Valley EcoFarms

The uniqueness of Spring Valley EcoFarms lies in the fact that the founder Dr. Carl Jordan, and many of the scientists, farmers, students and community members come from Academia; they have earned their stripes in the “formal” sciences of ecology, agronomy and forestry. They are now applying what they have learned to managing our agricultural and forestry systems in a sustainable manner that does not deplete the resource base.

The approach is a fine-tuned balance of scientific knowledge dosed with a lot of the very valuable experience from “real farmers” and “local experts” who know their environments better than anyone. Spring Valley EcoFarms is a collaboration to focus on local environmental problems and solutions, while serving as a model that can be used to guide more sustainable development.

A Site Specific Laboratory

In contrast to physics, chemistry and genetics which have universal applicability, sustainable agriculture and forestry are very site-specific. While general principles such as energy-flow and nutrient cycling exist in all ecosystems, the way energy flows and nutrients cycle depends on the local climate, soils, flora, fauna and the people that manage them. For this reason research on sustainable agriculture must be site- specific, and while there are farms/ organizations that do this in New England, California, and the Mid-West, there are very few in the South-East and none in the Piedmont region which stretches from Northern-Alabama to Central Virginia. The irony of this is that sustainable forestry/ agriculture in the Southeast is more dependent on soil maintenance than other parts of the country, due to the hot, wet climate which promotes rapid spread of disease, and rapid decomposition of soil organic matter. Spring Valley EcoFarms is dedicated to solving practical problems in sustainable agriculture in sub-tropical climates.

Organic Farming

Organic agriculture is labor-intensive and thus the organic farmer is limited as to the amount of acreage that can be farmed. To this end, Spring Valley EcoFarms is researching and adapting techniques such as no-till and strip-till cultivation for the small organic farmer.

There are many “organic” industries that farm according to the official organic standards, thus they comply with the letter, but not the spirit of the originators of organic farming. These industrial organic farmers rely heavily upon petroleum subsidies to transport foods over thousands of miles and process their produce through energy consuming food factories. In addition, industrial organic farmers frequently till their soil because there is no official organic standard to prohibit this. Ironically, tilling the soil destroys the soil organic matter which is the very resource that organic agriculture depends on. In contrast to industrial organic agriculture, Spring Valley EcoFarms strives to develop and encourage agriculture that is less dependent upon external subsidies, and aspires to gain most of the resources that it needs for soil fertility and insect control within the boundaries of the farm or the local community at most.

Biodiversity and Sustainability

The most important aspect of accomplishing sustainable agriculture and forestry is maintaining a diverse complement of flora and fauna. A whole integrated system in this context means that there is diversity in the number of species present and that there is genetic diversity within the species. There is diversity of the landscape and the crop rotations; there is diversity of the farm animals and the microorganisms in the soil- particularly for beneficial insects. In order to accomplish this, a farm needs a variety of crops that can be rotated to keep insects, pests and diseases from building up. This enables more efficient use of the soil, water, and nutrient resources.

Sustainability has become a widely used word these days. It’s a significant concept at Spring Valley EcoFarms. The economic and more popularly known definition of sustainability means that if a farmer plants this year and his economic profit is great enough so that he is able to plant again the year after, his system is sustainable. The ecological definition of sustainability is using resources in such a way that they are not depleted; this is a focal point at Spring Valley EcoFarms. The economic definition of sustainability fails to put value on the services of nature, such as beneficial insects, and the soil micro-organisms that keep the soil fertile. Spring Valley EcoFarms is dedicated to driving awareness and implementation of ecological sustainability. It’s easy, accessible and free.