cobblestone farm<\/a> in mansfield, connecticut, is in this situation currently.<\/p>\ncobblestone farm relies on a community supported agriculture (csa) system where customers pay up front for a share of the season\u2019s harvest, dorfer said. the csa spans\u00a0about 20 weeks during which it provides fresh produce for members.<\/p>\n
csa members at cobblestone farm pay either $400 for a half share or $780 for a full share, dorfer said in an interview at her farm. a half share feeds about two people, and a full share feeds three to four people. some vegetables included in the csa are pick-your-own and others are pre-harvested prior to pick up. csa members may choose from one of three days each week when they can pick up their produce,\u00a0dorfer\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
a csa arrangement provides a financial cushion for farmers like dorfer.<\/p>\n
\u201cthe csa cuts out variability in income, which is good for me because, frankly, shit can happen,\u201d\u00a0dorfer\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
dorfer acknowledged that paying up front before the harvest may seem like a risk to the consumer. nonetheless, she said, \u201cit has never happened that csa members have not gotten the full value of their share.\u201d<\/p>\n
no local farmer escaped the drought this year. all experienced detrimental effects on their growing season, despite finding ways to work around the lack of precipitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cwe\u2019re not going to get the growing season back,\u201d said larkin-wells, describing spring valley student farm\u2019s losses this harvest season.<\/p>\n
dorfer also expressed difficulties with watering her crops this season. she said she stopped planting earlier than usual, and will therefore have fewer fall crops and fewer crops in general for farmer\u2019s markets this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cthere comes a point where you have to decide what to water,\u201d said dorfer, also explaining her increased costs of irrigation this season. she is not the only person in the field of agriculture noting increased expenses nowadays.<\/p>\n
margaret walsh is a senior ecologist at the united states department of agriculture. in a presentation, she said farmers continue to incur increased costs to combat drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cclimate change trends require that farmers learn to adapt,\u201d walsh said. \u201cthere are a lot of adaptations or options that farms can do, but this doesn\u2019t make them cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n
farmers throughout the nation \u2013 and even on a global level \u2013 are learning to change their practices, often with expensive agricultural tools or methods, said\u00a0dietz,\u00a0whose\u00a0work at the water resources institute has informed his perspective\u00a0on innovations in agriculture.<\/p>\n
\u201cadded heat in the atmosphere is beginning to impact our food supply and part of the problem is learning to adapt to that now,\u201d\u00a0dietz\u00a0said. \u201cfor example, in connecticut, farmers in the past didn’t need to rely on watering their crops through means other than precipitation; now they have to learn and implement other irrigation techniques almost immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
however, farms like spring valley student farm that are not reliant on a profit, or like cobblestone farm that benefit from the added financial security of a csa, are better able to adapt to varying levels of precipitation. both larkin-wells and dorfer said their growing seasons were not complete losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cthe fact that we had anything still grow this season despite the drought is an illustration of what healthy soil can do,\u201d larkin-wells said.<\/p>\nin the distance, jessica larkin-wells, the farm manager at spring valley student farm, gives instructions to student volunteers on the farm\u2019s property in mansfield, conn.,\u00a0on sept. 23, 2022. (madeline papcun\/university of connecticut)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"farmers around mansfield, connecticut, and around the world, have been facing intertwined production and economic challenges due to variation in precipitation levels. so how are they adapting?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4919],"tags":[112,4824,3445,192],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-agriculture","tag-connecticut","tag-local-farming","tag-rain"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
farmers forced to adapt as changing precipitation patterns reduce output, income - planet forward<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n