(Host) Commentator Ron Krupp has been thinking about the damage Irene
did to our food crops and wondering what to expect this coming spring.
(Krupp)
It won’t be long now before gardeners and farmers will be planting seeds in greenhouses and in the confines of
their homes – even though we’re still recovering from the
wrath of Tropical Storm Irene and the awesome damage it did to our land
and crops. The rescue response was quick and healing, but the anxiety
associated with its power is still with us. It’s like post traumatic
stress disorder on a state-wide scale.
In the months since
Irene, I’ve been wondering how gardeners and farmers directly affected
by Irene were faring. Hundreds of soil samples were sent to the lab at
UVM to test for heavy metals and hydrocarbon contamination. The good
news is that they came back clean. And it was found there was no
nutrient loss in the fields. Micro-toxin testing on hay and silage on
dairy farms have not turned up any problems as yet. But testing
continues on these crops.
One question which repeatedly comes up
has to do with bacterial contamination such as E coli. According to
Vern Grubinger of the UVM Extension Service – testing for bacterial
contamination is a complicated and difficult process. There can be a
small pocket of contamination in one area of a field and nothing in the
rest of the acreage. And there are many types of E coli – some are
harmful but most are not harmful at all. It was recently concluded that
planting could take place in 2012. After 120 days, any harmful bacteria
will have broken-down naturally.
Last spring, my community
garden plots in the Intervale were inundated with water from the
backwaters of the Winooski River. But in that event, the water was
filtered by the grasses and reeds and there was a minimum of
contamination. That was not the case with Irene when 5 feet of water
came directly into the gardens from the river. So in the fall, most of
the community garden land was tilled up and winter rye was spread over 3
acres. I also put compost on my garden plots which has the added
benefit of an antibiotic component in its arsenal of improvements to the
soil.
One thing that can’t be recovered, however, was the loss
in dollars to the farmers. I estimate that the 10 organic farms in the
Intervale lost close to one million dollars in revenue due to
contamination. Dairy farmers’ hay and corn silage crops were also
devastated throughout the state. Some farmland was totally wiped clean
from river flooding and is now filled with sand, rocks, and boulders.
This land will not return to production.
For some time now,
we’ve seen radical changes taking place in our climate from extremes of
heat and dry weather to heavy rainfall. I don’t know what the future
will bring and I’m not sure how to prepare for it, but despite the
uncertainty, I still plan to begin to germinate seeds in my home again
in February and March.