I was talking to a local photographer today on the phone who is starting a pinot vineyard in Graton, and I know a bunch of other prospective growers check in once in a while so this link is for you. It comes from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service and it outlines the benefits and methods of farming sustainably with cover crops. Bottom line is that it is a cost saver for most areas. Here’s the meat:

Economics of Cover Crops

The most obvious direct economic benefit derived from legume cover crops is nitrogen fertilizer savings. In most cases these savings can offset cover crop establishment costs. Indirect benefits include herbicide reduction in the case of an allelopathic rye cover crop, reduction in insect and nematode control costs in some cases, protection of ground water by scavenging residual nitrate, and water conservation derived from a no-till mulch. Longer-term benefits are derived from the buildup of organic matter resulting in increased soil health. Healthy soils cycle nutrients better, don’t erode, quickly absorb water after each rain, and produce healthy crops and bountiful yields.

For the rest of you non-farmers wanting to do your bit to move towards sustainability here are two cost effective things you can do to both save money in the long run and help protect resources.

Green Dimes

I joined Green Dimes about three months ago and have been impressed with the level of service for just $3.25 a month. Basically what the Green Dimes folks do is to stop your junk mail by removing your name from various mailing lists for you. They even have a custom catalogue removal service and send you pre-printed postcards where a signature and manual removal from lists is required. Less waste (in a year they calculate that you’ll save 280 gallons of water and they’ll plant 12 trees in your behalf), especially in your own mailbox is a great thing, and the time and effort it would take to do it yourself is much, much more than 3.25 a month.

Buy CF bulbs

There’s a meme going around that I think was started by the announcement that Walmart is going cut its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by switching to CF type bulbs. The benefits of the 60 watt replacement bulbs are many: they will save you money (over $1000 in energy costs over the life of the bulbs for a typical house). Additionally Walmart estimates that

One Compact Fluorescent light bulb keeps half a ton of greenhouse gas (CO2) out of our air. Wal-Mart has over 100 million customers. That means if each customer bought just one compact florescent light bulb, it would:

* Keep 22 billion lbs of coal from burning at power plants
* Keep 45 billion lbs of GHG from being emitted
* Equate to removing 700,000 cars worth of greenhouse gases from the air
* Keep 700 million incandescent light bulbs from landfills

Finally the bulbs have come down in price dramatically. You can pick them up for around $2 each these days and they no longer suffer from the lag associated with earlier generations of the bulbs (click, wait a half second for the light to come on). CF bulbs are now instant on.

Seth Godin has a post on the subject that goes into more detail that I encourage you to check out as well.

Getting rid of your junk mail, saving on energy bills, and being a good steward sounds like a great trio of New Year’s resolutions, and accomplishing them is as easy as screwing in a few light bulbs.

Good times.