Why use cover crops? Cover crops repay the soil for the benefits we take. Just as our plants and animals nourish us, cover crops nourish the soil, returning the energy we remove as we harvest or graze. We could treat the soil like dirt, pouring on herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Treat it as nothing more than an anchor for the roots. Alternatively, we can add sustainable sources of energy, such as soil amendments, organic fertilizers and cover crops that feed the soil instead of killing it. By nourishing the soil, we in turn enhance the health of our crops and ultimately ourselves.

Cover crops take up and store nutrients to be used by subsequent crops, suppress weeds, host beneficial insects, improve the structure and arability of the soil, and can even break up clay and hardpan. Most of all, when they are turned into the soil, they provide food and energy for the real farmers, the organisms that live and thrive in a healthy soil, feeding and caring for the plants. Use cover crops to create a system which renews itself, absorbing energy from the sun, taking up energy released by dying micro-organisms, and releasing it in the fullness of time to new generations of crops and microorganisms. Build a sustainable agriculture guided by intelligence and care and started from seed.