voice (262)
642-8753Letter from Walter Moora
about Nokomis EcoDairy
Dear Friends,
Susan and I are looking forward to welcoming you to Nokomis EcoDairy
as part of the Kindred Spirits’ Network but many of you do not know
me yet. I look forward to our meeting but meanwhile wanted to tell
you a bit about myself.
I decided that I would be a farmer while still a young teenager,
after experiencing many environments. As a child, my family moved
from the jungles of Borneo to Malaysia and then to beautiful New
Zealand. When I was 15, my sister married a sheep farmer and I was
able to experience farming life, which I loved. I worked on several
farms and went to college but as a 20-year-old I realized that
conventional farming was fighting nature instead of working in
harmony with nature. This did not sit right with me and I looked for
another option.
I had the opportunity to visit some organic and biodynamic farms and
decided that I wanted to farm biodynamically. This means that you
raise the crops on the farm that you need to feed the animals on the
farm. More importantly, we create soil fertility by using manure
from our animals plus special composts we make out of stinging
nettles, chamomile, oak bark and dandelions. The core point is that
you treat the whole farm as one interdependent living organism,
including we farmers ourselves.
My other interest in farming has been the social question of
humankind’s responsibility towards the land and, in particular, how
the land is farmed. America’s biggest industry is still farming and
the predominant attitude is exploitative. Drive around most farming
areas and you experience a monoculture landscape, be it the corn and
soybeans of the Midwest, the wheat fields of Kansas, the vegetables
in the California valleys or the feedlots of Texas.
AgriCulture has become AgriBusiness. While this has brought the
price of food down, we get poor quality food and the land is
suffering.
While there is a huge American movement to preserve nature in parks
and national forests, we have millions of acres of farmland that is
exploited and loses fertility every year. Farms are where humans
interact with nature, yet environmentalists don’t encourage farmers
to create ‘EcoFarms’ which can nurture the land.
It is sad that we are not able to treat farmland with the same
reverence with which we treat national parks. It is in farming that
we most profoundly affect nature, not in the parks. Thus it is
crucial that we farm wholistically and not exploitatively. Ideally
every farm should be a park where people can enjoy both nature and
the healthy growing of food.
A diversified landscape, with hayfields, row crops, hedgerows,
animals, wetlands, birds and woods is a beautiful sight, and you
will see it here when you come. A diversified landscape also obeys
the laws of nature in that it is ecologically sound and the food
produced, if organic, is healthy and nourishing.
Wherever I have farmed, I have made my farm available to
non-farmers. We had educational work days and sleepover camps for
school children and parents. Every spring we blessed the land with a
plowing festival and in the fall we had a harvest festival with
horse-drawn hay rides, music and games. The Kindred Spirits’ Network
brings to fruition this passion I have to bring non-farmers to my
farm.
For the last 5 years, I have been establishing this farm in East
Troy, Wisconsin. I farm 400 acres and milk 120 cows, plus raising
about 100 young stock. I have a unique collaborative arrangement
with Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. I milk the cows, make
all the hay and fertilize the land with our manure. MFAI gives me
machines and advisory assistance in growing all the row crops and
small grains, in addition to growing 20 acres of vegetables.
Although we have two separate businesses, we interchange fields when
necessary and manage the two farms as one biological entity,
rotating crops and creating conservation strips on the banks of our
shared streams.
Now, at 55, I am ready to take the farm to the next level by working
with Susan and my colleagues here to create Nokomis EcoDairy, giving
a home to Kindred Spirits’ Network.
Friends who have visited for the weekend say they will never forget
the experience!
I look forward to meeting you.
Sincerely,
Walter Moora