13: Farming as an Act of Hope

USA

A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer

When John and Danile Martens returned to the United States from an MCC term in Cambodia, they knew one thing: they wanted to grow food. 

The idea of permaculture was just beginning to spread at the time, and John said, “They were doing really cool stuff with permaculture in Cambodia.” 

“We lived in a place (in Cambodia) where the soil just seemed hard to work,” Danile said, “ You come back here (to South Bend, Indiana) and stuff grows without having to even work for it. It seemed crazy that people are just growing grass.”

A few decades later, the couple lives on a 77-acre farm shared between three families. Permaculture has become their way of life. 

At Restoration Farm, the three families raise pigs and broiler chickens for meat as well as laying hens for eggs. They harvest almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cherries, apples, peaches and plums from trees on the property as well as blackberries, raspberries, elderberries and grapes. They even tap maple and walnut trees to make their own syrup.

Danile’s big garden produces almost all of the couple’s vegetables. And their income comes from a herd of beef cattle, which they graze using a rotational grazing method to maximize regeneration of the soil and plants. 

The farmers are making an effort to get away from using fossil fuels and all three houses have solar panels.

John said: “we’re transitioning as much to electric as we can.” That means electric cars, electric lawnmowers and an electric tractor (which he’s working on getting now). 

Where do John and Danile get the motivation to do all this? 

“We find ourselves grieving a lot (because of climate change),” John said. “Regenerative agriculture is the thing that kept us from really despairing completely.” 

“If there’s something that you can do that contributes to the mitigation of climate change,” he said, “that changes your perspective and gives hope.”

The couple also finds hope in books they read. Their recent favorites include: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, The Secret Life of Fungi by Aliya Whiteley, Nourishment by Fred Provenza and Call of the Reed Warbler by Charles Massy. 

Books like these open their eyes to new possibilities for regenerating the earth and living sustainably. 

Danile said: “Getting excited about possibilities we’ve never thought of gives hope in face of climate change.”