Eco-sustainable Agriculture

One Earth Farms is an agricultural business enterprise that incorporates science and technology in the interest of efficient, ecologically sustainable food production.

Stewardship is About More than Taking Care of the Land

One Earth Farms’ eco-sustainable stewardship encompasses environmental, economical and socio-political sustainability, where sustainability is a characteristic of the process or the state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. We accept the vital responsibility to carefully balance long-term land productivity while simultaneously providing food (grain and beef) and other biology-based products.

With the endorsement of eco-sustainable agriculture, OEF management reduces environmental degradation, maintains agricultural productivity, and promotes economic viability over both the short and the long term. Eco-sustainability to OEF is really a long-term process as the particular goals and methods are adapted to each location, which is in turn influenced by unique environmental, economical and political settings.

Soil Conservation

One of the key concepts for OEF is soil conservation. The use of minimum-tillage practices dramatically reduces soil erosion, allows for the build-up of soil carbon, and returns organic matter to the soil by maintaining a protective cover of crop residue on the soil surface. These practices serve to increase the stability of soil aggregates and improve soil structure, which increases water infiltration.

OEF assures well-planned crop rotations by utilizing a variety of crops such as pulses, oil seeds, forages and grain crops. This diverse crop rotation sustains a variety of beneficial soil microbes that enhance plant growth for human consumption, including rhizosphere, a plant growth-promoting bacteria, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and mycorrhizal fungi. Min-till and crop rotation are necessary to simply sustain present soil carbon levels and to conserve soil moisture. These factors in turn create a healthy soil that acts as a living filter to help sustain clean water and air.

Animal Welfare

Animal welfare is our main priority in animal husbandry practices. We believe in and employ low-stress animal management systems that reduce stress on the animals. OEF cattle are raised in extensive range conditions through the Range Finishing Program, minimizing or eliminating the cattle’s time spent in confined feeding or handling operations. The OEF management team is continually focused on finding ways to reduce the stress and weight loss associated with excessive handling of livestock.

Crop and Livestock Integration

OEF’s integration of crop and livestock production systems creates additional synergistic opportunities. Cattle grazing on perennial forage pastures are considered a viable strategy on marginal cropland. The land is sustainably grazed (and not overgrazed), which promotes further improvements to soil quality and reduces greenhouse gasses by keeping carbon in the soil as organic matter. An eco-sustainable approach for food production is to protect the soils, by maximizing plant cover, perform crop rotations and use management-intensive grazing by growing forage crops in rotation or as permanent cover.

Water Preservation

OEF preserves clean drinking water and fish habitats by providing buffer zones along streams and by managing animal wastes to prevent ground and surface water contamination. OEF is also pursuing planting shelterbelts that will provide wildlife habitats in the form of buffer zones along streams, wetland prairies and woodland habitats, and that will further improve water quality and control soil erosion.

Key economics, accountability and social responsibility components

Many goals and practices inform eco sustainability in agriculture:

  • Carefully applying chemicals that minimize negative impacts to human health and environment
  • Continually improving eco-sustainability by setting specific goals to reach new levels of sustainability and reporting progress toward goals annually (e.g., precision farming with variable rates of fertilization to specify crops needs and fields)
  • Continually improving the soil
  • Reducing land compaction via a controlled traffic system
  • Managing moving animals and grazing cycles to have the least impact on wildlife
  • Using the most advanced farming techniques to allow OEF transparency and traceability of products and processes to support product marketing and product branding
  • Reducing energy use through added efficiencies
  • Ensuring safe and fair working conditions for all employees by strictly following Canadian labour laws
  • Providing a work environment with open communication about workplace safety and job satisfaction and with incentives and opportunities for employee skill
    • development as well as consideration of quality-of-life issues for farm workers and their communities
  • Developing a diverse workforce representing many First Nation communities across Western Canada
  • Making a commitment to training First Nation Peoples for future opportunities in agricultural industries of rural Western Canada
Many goals and practices and inform eco sustainability in

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