The Global Farm

Goat enclosure.

Rooftop garden utilizing soda cans wrapped in socks.

Drip irrigation system.

I had the pleasure of visiting ECHO’s Global Village this week in North Fort Myers, FL. ECHO stands for Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization and they are dedicated to fighting world hunger. They do this by conducting research on innovative farming techniques for various climate zones, providing non-evasive seeds that can greatly aid farmers in a particular climate zone, and by providing agricultural training to college graduates (who train with them for a period of one year as interns) and missionaries.

One of the primary ways that ECHO achieves its research is through the “Global Village” farm they have created. This is an area comprised of six climate systems where their interns get hands-on experience learning about sustainable agriculture and receive training they will later take to the field.

The six climate systems in the Global Village are composed of: Semi-Arid Tropics, Tropical Rainforest, Tropical Highlands, Tropical Monsoon, Hot Humid Lowlands and Urban Gardening. The Global Village includes techniques on farming, irrigation and animal husbandry that can greatly improve the productivity of peasant farmers around the world.

ECHO’s Global Village uses “organic agriculture,” which means they only use manure, compost, organically approved pesticides, and crop rotation. At the Global Farm they produce their own manure for fertilizers from animals they have on-site. From the Vetiver Grass, they produce their own mulch and this plant also serves as a wind break and serves as a fence to block the garden from the sight of animals. Certain insects, such as ladybugs, can also be utilized to keep evasive insects away from the crops.

My tour of the Global Village was given by intern, Laura Catherine Conville from Alabama. She is specializing in the Tropical Monsoon climate. She has already helped various farmers in many South and Central American countries, such as Bolivia and Columbia and is at ECHO for further training.

We started our tour learning about how tilapia and ducks have a wonderful mutualistic relationship. This can be a wonderful source of protein for peasant farmers in warm tropical climates. Tilapias thrive in warm tropical ponds and can survive in water with low oxygen levels. They feed on algae that grow on the surface of the water which thrives on account of duck droppings. The ducks love having the pond and are better suited for life in the tropics. They have fewer diseases than chickens and their eggs taste similar to chicken eggs. This is a wonderful sustainable source of protein.

In the “Hot Humid Lowlands” climate zone I heard about a very interesting discovery they had made on increasing the yield of rice production called System of Rice Intensification (SRI). Rather than planting the rice close together, they were planting it further apart and intercropping it with another plant. Intercropping had two benefits: it prevented having to weed the field and by planting a crop, such as a legume, and you also provide the soil with much needed nitrogen. In this case they had planted rice bean, increased the production of rice by 10%, obtained an additional crop, and gave nutrients back to the soil.

The “Tropical Highlands” climate zone can be some of the leading areas of malnutrition due to the high levels of soil erosion. All the nutrient-rich soil washes down to the bottom of the valley every time it rains and growing crops becomes very difficult. The answer to preserving the soil is terracing which is extremely labor intensive. ECHO has come up with a technique called Sloping Agriculture Land Technology (SALT). The idea here is to plant perennial trees with deep root systems, in rows every 5 to 15 meters, depending on the slope. Then you weave in between them twigs and bark and this will catch the soil and prevent soil erosion. The only problem with this method is it is not immediate and it takes time for perennial trees to grow and establish this barrier.

I was very impressed with the research on animal husbandry. Animals can be a sustainable and valuable resource for a peasant farmer. Rabbits are unique in that their manure can be applied directly to plants. Additionally, they consume many greens which humans do not eat so they are not in competition for food with the humans. They do not take up much space and if they are too plentiful they can provide the family with a protein-rich meal.

At ECHO they also had a special breed to chicken called turkens. Turkens have 60% fewer feathers on their bodies and are better suited for warm weather. Their bodies are tropically inclined and they require less protein. In the Tropical Monsoon climate area, the turkens are very helpful. After the crop is harvested, the turkens eat the insects, weed seeds and seedlings. They also aid in incorporating air into the soil by tilling the soil with their feet and they add fertilizer to the soil with their droppings.

Another animal that can be helpful for a peasant farmer is a goat, as long as it is contained. ECHO has devised containment ideas for goats where the goat can be fed with greens that humans do not consume but that the goat will eat, and where they can collect the goats manure for use as fertilizer. Goats are well suited for semi-arid tropics and can do well in very warm climates. The goat can also provide milk for the family.

The irrigation techniques at the Global Village were all very impressive. I saw examples of a dug well and two methods of retrieving the water. I also saw the Chapin bucket drip system, which is good for the Semi-Arid Tropics climate zone. Rather than hauling bucket after bucket of water from a well, you only have to fill a bucket twice a day. This bucket has small hoses at the bottom that can irrigate 100 feet of bedding with minimal evaporation.

Research into seed technology at ECHO has produced plants with a longer growing season. This can provide a farmer income for a longer period of time and more food to feed their family as well.

One of the most impressive plants I learned about is the Moringa. I am amazed more people do not know about this amazing tree. It would not surprise me if it turns out to be the cure for cancer. If you dry the leaves in the shade (drying in the sun results in a 40% loss of nutrients) you can ground it into a powder that if fed to a malnourished child will bring him/her back to stable health. It will also help malnourished women who are having problems lactating produce milk. Moringa leaves contain seven times the vitamin C in oranges, four times the amount of calcium in milk, four times the vitamin A in carrots, three times the potassium in bananas, three times the iron on spinach and two times the protein of milk. In addition, if you take one ground seed and put it into a liter of contaminated water and let it sit four to twelve hours, it will pull all the solids to the bottom and kill 90% to 99% of the bacteria in the water. The funny thing is the Moringa only grows in poor soil and with little water. It is truly a miracle tree.

The Urban Gardening section had an impressive area showing a rooftop garden. It had examples of things one could find and recycle to use as containers in a rooftop garden, such as wading pools, old tires and shallow basins. Rather than hauling heavy bags of soil to a rooftop you can use soda cans wrapped in old socks, pine cones or old newspapers. One planting bed consisted of carpeting with pinecones on top. You can make compost with your kitchen scraps as long as you leave the meat and dairy out and then just throw some mulch on top. These are all lightweight items that are good for rooftop gardening.

The rooftop garden gave me an idea on how I could grow some of my own vegetables and spices. I live in an apartment but I have a very large terrace that gets the morning sun. The planting techniques I saw could be easily duplicated on my terrace. I also like the concept of using the soda cans and old socks. I save old socks as rags and now they will have a new purpose. I have not made compose since I lived in Seattle, WA and had an actual garden but I might have a reason to do so again and thereby reduce the amount of garbage I dispose of. This would be a sustainable activity by supplying my family with food, reducing our garbage output and recycling soda cans, socks and newspapers to create a planting bed, not to mention make use of the piece of carpet rolled up in the storage room that will be the base of the garden plot.

Babcock Ranch Field Trip

If Edward Vose Babcock didn’t enjoy fishing and hunting, Babcock Ranch might not exist today. Thankfully, Edward, who had a logging business in Ashtola, PA, came to southwest Florida to hunt and fish in 1912. He liked the area so much, in 1914 he purchased 166,000 acres, which included cypress trees and the longest continuous tract of long leaf pine trees left in the whole country. The long leaf pine was cut into rough blocking timbers and transported to Tampa to be loaded onto schooners for transport to South Africa. The logs were needed in South Africa due to their resistance to termites, which caused a lot of damage in the gold and diamond mines. The logs would be used to shore up the mine tunnels.

In the 1930s, when the timber had been logged out, Edward’s son Fred, started running cattle on the property and created the Crescent B. Ranch, which is today one of the largest ranches in the state of Florida. There is anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 head of Cracker Cattle on the ranch throughout the year. Cracker Cattle originated in Florida when Ponce de Leon first brought cattle to Florida from Spain. There are six full-time cowboys working on the ranch. The cowboys use America Quarter horses, which have what is called “cow sense.” They can run ¼ of a mile and stop on a dime and they can anticipate the movement the cattle will make. They are perfect for herding cattle and are very docile in nature. Today the cowboys do not carry a Colt or a Winchester; instead they all carry a cell phones.

The ranch also grows sod, such as Floratam, for sale to home developers and Bermuda grass for golf courses. This is the only part of the ranch that requires water management. Sod cultivation requires 200,000 acres of irrigation on a daily basis.

The Babcock Ranch also specializes in conducting Swamp Buggy Eco-Tours of their ranch where you go through four diverse ecosystems: piney flatlands, oak hammocks, fresh water marsh, and a cypress swamp. The first ecosystem you go through is the piney flatlands. There are over 900 plants and trees in this area alone but the most dominant plant is the Saw Palmetto. In fact, it is called the “Rambo of plants.” The ranch also makes “Saw Palmetto Honey” and sells it in the gift shop. The Saw Palmetto has a flower that the bees collect nectar from and these bees produce a distinctive honey. The Saw Palmetto also has medicinal purposes and is used in a pharmaceutical drug that helps with prostate cancer. The Saw Palmetto is virtually indestructible. It is resistant to fire and will grow right back after a fire. The only way to get rid of it is to dig it out of the ground.

One of the prevalent tress in this area is the Slash Pine. It is very resistant to fire as well. On Babcock Ranch they did selective cutting and harvested Slash Pine in order to get resin to make turpentine. Cabbage Palms are also very prevalent and you can make “swamp cabbage” from this tree. It was a very popular meal for the early settlers in the winter when food was scarce. Florida is the only state that can eat its state tree, the Cabbage Palm.

Controlled burns are regularly done at Babcock Ranch for various reasons. First of all, pine cones will not germinate unless controlled burns are done right before the pine cones fall to the ground. It is important to maintain a low understory to expose the mineral soil to the new seeds. Another reason controlled burns are important is that Florida is one of the lightning capitals of the United States. If lightning should strike, if you conduct controlled burns, it is less likely the strike will produce a fire that rages out of control. There are fresh water ponds in various areas that are used to help put the fires out if they get out of control.

Another interesting ecosystem on the Eco-tour is Telegraph Cypress Swamp, which is located on the eastern half of the property and includes about 100,000 acres of swamp. It is 5 to 8 degrees cooler in the swamp area due to the bald cypress trees. The swamp is called Telegraph Cypress Swamp because it had a telegraph line, which is still visible today, that ran from Washington, D.C., through this swamp and eventually went under the ocean to Cuba. It was how the United States found out about the sinking of the American battleship Main and what started the Spanish-American War in 1898. In the swamp there were various types of air plants, among them the bromeliad. There was also lichen growing on the trees, which I learned is composed of algae and fungus. The algae collects food and the fungus collects water. Another interesting thing is that lichen will not grow in polluted areas. From the amount of lichen in the swamp, it is definitely un-polluted area.

Besides the trees and plants I have already mentioned, I also saw:
• Spanish moss, which is an air plant that early settlers used to stuff their mattresses. The problem is that Spanish moss contains chiggers.
• Myrtle bushes which were a great asset to early settles. The myrtle berries have a bluish waxy coating. They would boil the berries and the wax would boil to the top of the water. This wax was collected and used to make bayberry candles. The myrtle berries and leaves were also used to make an insect repellent by rubbing on the skin.
• Water hyacinth, a free floating perennial aquatic plant, was in abundant quantities. It is an evasive plant that clogs canals and will take over a swamp.
• Red maple trees
• Oak trees
• Resurrection fern
• Bahia hay to feed the cattle

Some of the other animals I saw on the tour include:
• The White Tailed Deer, which I happened to find out, is smaller in Florida than in the northern states because they do not have need to carry extra body fat since food is available year round in Florida. I saw about six deer along the way.
• The American Alligator was not in short supply. I spotted many in various sizes. Another interesting fact I learned was that alligators lay 35 to 45 eggs and it takes about 65 days for the eggs to hatch. The babies are 5 to 7 inches long and are victims to many predators, such as hawks. Amazingly, approximately only ten survive to adulthood.
• I saw many white ibis’. This bird was almost wiped out by the early Florida settlers who would eat them like we eat chickens.
• I saw a Fox Squirrel for the first time in my life. It is the color of a fox and has a large tail like a fox. It is an endangered animal and this is the reason they are quite rare.
• The Cattle Egret is a species of heron that forms a special relationship with a grazing animal and defends the area around that animal against other egrets. They will try to stay with the same cow for life.
• Wild pigs were running around in great numbers and in various sizes, from five inches long to five feet long. They can root up a whole pasture and the ranch does not want too many in one spot. They have to control their location to prevent destruction of pasture land.
• There are two southern cougars on the property. Southern cougars only meow and purr and have a life span of 12 years. The two at Babcock are 16 years old and were rescued. They were previously owned by private owners that had them declawed and therefore they cannot survive in the wild. Their long life span is quite a testimony to the excellent care they are receiving at Babcock. Southern cougars were introduced into Florida in the 1980s because the Florida panthers were going extinct. There were only about 110 left and they need about a 200 mile radius for breeding and hunting. With the continuing urban growth their numbers are continuing to decrease.
• Wild turkeys
• Whistling ducks
• Wood stork
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Today Babcock Ranch is part of the Babcock Ranch Preserve, which is comprised of 73,239 acres purchased by the State of Florida in 2006. It represents one of the largest acquisitions of conservation land in the history of the state of Florida. The Preserve is being managed by a public-private partnership comprised of Babcock Ranch, Inc. (not for profit corporation), Babcock Ranch Management, LLC (private corporation), Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Division of Forestry and Lee County. The Preserve is responsible for protecting these important natural habitats, including the piney flatlands, the dry prairie ecosystem, the cypress swamp and other important water resources on the property. The wetlands are an important factor in re-supplying the aquifer for southwest Florida and contribute towards conservation and the health of the western Everglades ecosystem.

Going on the Eco-tour at Babcock Ranch has been the most interesting Florida nature site I have ever visited. I was extremely impressed with the quantity of wildlife I saw in such a short span of time compared to other sites I have visited in Florida. I think it signifies the vital importance of this tract of land for many animal species and their survival. Even though I drove a short distance from home, I felt like I was transported to another world. I truly consider it the number one tourist destination in southwest Florida and a vital tract of land we must continue to protect.

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

All the otters were hiding in Otters Pond and there were no alligators in site among the cypress. The only creature in site was the destructive wild pig and it would not even look up at me so I could get a good picture.

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It is funny how the sites closest to our home are the ones we ignore the most. Just a few miles from where I live, is a place I have driven by a hundred times. I had always been curious about it, but I guess since it was so close, I always put off visiting this site.

The place is the “Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve” in Fort Myers. I finally made the turn on the road and paid this site a visit. It is unusual to have this big expanse of undeveloped land so close to the city and yet surrounded by so much development. I found out that it exists thanks to a high school teacher named Bill Hammon, who got his students interested in ecology back in the 1970s. They wanted to save the slough and went to other high schools in an effort to stop the logging of the area where the slough is located today. They formed an environmental education group called the “Monday Group.” It is thanks to the efforts of the Monday Group, that the city put together a referendum and the city fathers bought the land on which the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is located.

The Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is approximately 9 miles long and 1/3 mile wide. The reason it has the word “six mile” in the title, is an interesting one. Back in the days of cattle drives across Florida, cowboys knew they had 6 miles to go before they reached the dock at the Caloosahatchee River when they reached the slough.

The slough gets an average annual rainfall of about 80 inches, in addition to storm water runoff from 33 square miles of watersheds. This runoff gradually releases its sediments into the slough, which absorbs the pesticides and fertilizers that might exist in the runoff. Slough water seeps into the ground replenishing our water aquifer. If we did not have the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve our water aquifer would be greatly affected.

The varied weather in Fort Myers, as far as wind, rain and dry conditions go, can help the slough in different ways. Hurricane winds blow down dead trees, which eventually rot. This provides nutrients for the soil and enables plants to grow. Fallen trees offer shelter for wildlife.

Drought can be beneficial to cypress tree seedlings. Single new cypress tree seeds need to sprout in the ground to become established. Drought allows them several years to grow tall enough to get their heads above the flood waters.

Lightning often starts fires, but cypress swamps are generally fire tolerant during the wet season. However, during the dry season they are susceptible. Fire does help to clear out underbrush, and most fires burn out when the fuel is eliminated. Healthy trees are often left unharmed. As new seeds are dropped, they will have more room to grow.

The slough is home to many species of animals, such as the American alligator, Barred owl, Bobcat (Lynx rufus), Cottonmouth frog, Eastern mud snake, Raccoons, Softshell turtle, otters, squirrels, and various types of birds, just to name a few. The slough is especially important for migratory birds. It is a resting place for birds flying south in the winter, and some birds actually stay there all winter long. Some of the plants species are cabbage palms, cattails, duckweed, red maple, and lots of cypress. Unfortunately, when I visited, the only animals I saw were a squirrel and the one animal they consider a destructive pest, the wild feral pig.

It is a wonderful thing for Fort Myers that a high school teacher got a group of high school students interested in the environment and saving a very special piece of land back in the 1970s. If they had not organized themselves into the “Monday Group” and decided to make a difference in the world, the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve would most likely be covered with housing developments today, our water aquifer would not be as well replenished, and many animals would not have found a safe refuge.