He was
chosen for his devotion to increasing the organic-matter content of his sandy
soils.
About
20 years ago he began to blend chicken manure with municipal paper by-products
and spreading it on his fields.
Then
about 10 years ago he blended leaves and yard waste with mushroom compost and
food scraps in a barn that used to house chickens.
As an
example, Cohoon says a sandy field he bought was yielding only 10 bushels of
soybeans, but this year the soil’s organic-matter content is up by one per cent
and it yielded 54 bushels an acre.
That's a direct contribution to reducing global warming and is far better than other government-backed initiatives such as electric cars which only reduce the rate at which we add carbon to the atmosphere, not reduce it.
The
Innovative Farmer of the Year award will be presented at the Innovative Farmers
Association of Ontario Conference in London in February.
