A recent situation at a commercial orchard has once again illustrated and further underlined the vast chasm between the current state of conventional orcharding practices and the regenerative orchard movement.  And it’s not so much a difference in practices or even philosophy, though that is part of the issue, but more a fundamental misunderstanding of the damage conventional agriculture (i.e., synthetic pesticide, fertilizers, fossil fuels) is causing the support systems of this planet. Alternatives are brushed off as unrealistic while we watch the world fall apart around us. Academia continues to primarily support synthetic remedies as the answer and all else as “voodoo.”
 
Reports over the years have shown the impacts global agriculture is having on the planet. Loss of forested land (primarily for animal agriculture), reduction in pollinator and general insect populations, loss of biodiversity, loss of pressure fresh water resources, increased climate change, glyphosate, and overuse of pesticides. One of the more shocking reports I’ve read was the implication that global fungicide use in agriculture was encouraging the evolution of super-fungi that threaten more than just our silly apple trees. “Some scientists cite evidence that rampant use of fungicides on crops is contributing to the surge in drug-resistant fungi infecting humans.”
 
This recent incident also underlined how far I have journeyed in my own life and career, from someone who knew nothing about farming, much less orchards, to someone who recognizes all too well the realities of conventional horticulture as being taught farmers around the country. This knowledge creates an unfortunate dichotomy in my daily practices, as I balance basic biological realities with joyous, often naïve, expectations. Of course there’s a lot of gray area in between the hardcore conventional grower and the “dance naked in the moon” holistic orchardist, there has to be, nobody has any of it figured out, or at least I certainly don’t. The bottom line is that we need to take our farming and orcharding practices in a new more aspirational direction. Why do we wait for great calamities to have great expectations? If we don’t start to think and act with greater awareness, on a higher spiritual level, then for sure we will end up in an unrecognizable world not too far down the road. In many ways we are there already.
 
 The truth is that for far too many years I’ve had one foot on either side of the line. One foot in the conventional camp, one foot in the holistic. Further, I have hoped that  my efforts working with conventional growers would somehow prod the industry in a more sustainable, more environmentally, more ecologically conscious direction. At the same time, I hoped to open some naïve eyes to the biological realities of organic orcharding in the northeast. I don’t want to sound too self-righteous and I’m certainly not unduly criticizing conventional growers for what they do, because in large part it’s the way they’ve been indoctrinated and it is often simply what they have to do to survive. But where I am critical is in an unswerving dogmatic commitment to a particular way of doing things “just because,” for not thinking outside the box, not being creative, not being compassionate or empathetic enough, just sticking to the hard cold facts “because.”
 
I write this mired in the middle of apple scab season, without the sun or warmth the trees need, trying as best I can to usher the growers I work with through the spring gauntlet. Those are the biological realities. The renewed intention, or vision, is what’s needed in order to make that run each year without the use of harsh chemicals or fertilizers. We know the goal, we need the collective motivation. Can we as a global farming community make the leap across the chasm, bridge the gap, and change the nature of farming in America?