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E-News Content
Prompt
Share your story: Why are you a climate-friendly farmer?
Did you become an organic farmer because you wanted to build your land and/or community’s resilience to climate change? Or did learning about this potential resilience reinvigorate your dedication to organic farming somewhere along the way? Does the knowledge that your work is building more resilient landscapes and communities keep you going when the going gets tough? Share your story with your community: reinforce the message that climate resilience is important to you and integral to your practices, take your readers along for a reflection or a recent vignette…make it personal!
Blurbs to Copy and Paste
Each of the e-news blurbs below focuses on one of the climate-friendly campaign’s five talking points, except for the last one, which focuses on the intersection of food access and climate-friendly farming. Feel free to make them your own or just copy, paste, and send! Peruse the full media folder for imagery or use the related photos and/or graphics that are suggested with each blurb. We also have a banner graphic that looks nice in email newsletters. You may also notice that each e-news blurb corresponds to a blog post included in this toolkit–feel free to publish those blog posts on your website and link to them in these corresponding e-news blurbs.
Jump to theme:
- Organic practices protect natural resources
- Organically farmed soils release fewer greenhouse gasses
- Organic farms are more resilient to extreme weather events
- Organically farmed soils store carbon
- Organic farms are good for communities
- Food access
Theme: Organic practices protect natural resources
Corresponding Photo and Graphic.
Support Organic, Protect Natural Resources, Save Our Climate
Protecting, and strengthening, natural resources is one of the reasons I got into organic farming. Now, in the climate change era, it fuels my commitment to this work even more. As stewards of this patch of land, it matters whether we’re building its resilience or weakening it. We take pride in the ways our practices protect our waterways, air quality, and soils. These natural resources are inherently valuable just as they are, but we also recognize that, when healthy, they are terrific allies in the fight against climate change. [Optional: Learn more on our blog post here (publish blog post #1 and link to it here)]. We thank you for your support of our climate-friendly farming. We couldn’t do this work without you, and it’s so much more enjoyable with you along for the ride!
Theme: Organically farmed soils release fewer greenhouse gasses
Corresponding Photo and Graphics.
Buy Vermont Organic: The climate-friendly choice for fewer greenhouse gasses
Sometimes, what you don’t do is just as important as what you do. That’s certainly the case for Vermont organic farms, which abstain from toxic fertilizers and pesticides. These persistent petrochemicals pollute our soils, waterways, and airways, so they’re an easy “no” for us. They also happen to be one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gasses, a primary accelerator of climate change. We do things different around here–we use compost for fertilizer, and invite healthy levels of biodiversity to our farm, encouraging a vibrant food web to keep crop pests in check. [Optional: Learn more on our blog post here (publish blog post #2 and link to it here)].
We also invest a good share of our time and care in the foundation of it all–our soils. In the fight against climate change, healthy soils are heavy hitters, so we’re not shy about giving them our best. Did you know that healthy soils sequester greenhouse gasses like carbon? Once sequestered in the soil’s biological processes, these compounds actually serve as nutrients, fueling plant life and soil microbiota alike. And you can imagine that makes for even healthier soil that can sequester even more greenhouse gas. It’s a virtuous cycle for the win–and those are the kinds of cycles we need to be fueling as we face climate change.
Theme: Organic farms are more resilient to extreme weather events
Corresponding Photo and Graphics.
Buy Vermont Organic: Climate-smart farming for extreme weather events
In the coming years, Vermont is expected to see an increase in the frequency and intensity of heavy rain events due to climate change. There’s not much any riverside farm can do against a hundred-year flood, but when it comes to more nuanced scenarios, Vermont organic farms are much better equipped to withstand extreme weather events like flooding and drought than their conventional counterparts. That’s thanks to the healthy soil we’ve developed, the rich biodiversity we foster, and other practices like riparian planting. [Optional: Learn more on our blog post here (publish blog post #3 and link to it here)]. It means a lot to us that we’re managing our land in such a way that improves its resilience to the effects of climate change, not depleting it.
Theme: Organically farmed soils store carbon
Corresponding Photo and Graphics.
Soils and Sequestration: Organic Farmers are Climate Farmers!
Want to venture back to high school biology for a sec.? I knew you’d be game! Well, there’s only one carbon cycle on this Earth of ours, one nitrogen cycle, one phosphorus cycle–and we believe it’s important to manage our land in ways that route these compounds where they’re most beneficial (the soil!) rather than where they’re most destructive (airways, waterways). The organic practices we employ sequester these compounds in the soil, where they serve as nutrients, fueling a diverse web of land and life, instead of emitting them into the atmosphere, where they serve as greenhouse gasses. The best part of it all is that the more greenhouse gasses our soil sequesters, the healthier it gets, and the healthier it gets, the more it can sequester–it’s a virtuous cycle that’s a strong climate change fighter.
And you–supporting our farm, our practices, our soil sequestration? You’re a strong climate change fighter too. [Optional: Learn more on our blog post here (publish blog post #4 and link to it here)].
Theme: Organic farms are good for communities
Corresponding Photo and Graphics.
Buy Vermont Organic: Protect our health, our climate & our community
The health and connectivity of our local community matters a lot to us–both as neighbors and as food producers. For that reason, the climate-friendly organic practices we use go towards boosting the nutrient density of our crops, strengthening the resilience of our land, and ensuring we’re able to provide food for our community when times are tough. We’re proud to be a part of [this town]’s self-sufficiency, especially as we know that the more a community is able to provide for its own needs, the less affected it will be by the supply chain disruptions climate change is likely to bring. And we’re grateful to be doing this work here, with you. They say it takes a village–we’re really glad this is ours.[Optional: Read more on our blog post here (publish blog post #5 and link to it here)].
Theme: Food Access
Corresponding Photo.
Climate-Friendly Food for All
All people, regardless of circumstance, should have access to local, organic food that is nourishing and climate-friendly. NOFA VT’s Community Food Access Programs are an incredible resource in Vermont’s food system. They make it easier for all Vermonters to access Vermont organic food. Whether that means at the farmers’ market or farm stand, through a CSA, or senior housing, these programs offer a range of approaches to improve local, organic food access for Vermonters. Quite a few things in life are hard–getting fresh, nutritious, local food shouldn’t be one.
[Optional: Read more on our blog post here (publish blog post #6 and link to it here)].