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Sustainable Farming
The environment is of huge importance to Digital Harvest and through a shared philosophy of 'caretakers of the land' Digital Harvest and its members look to pass on to future generations a healthier planet. Products offered by Digital Harvest will either be taking a step in the right direction towards a sustainable farming future, or the businesses we promote will have implemented programs within their operations which support our enviromental stance. Through nurturing our primary resource (the land), we believe we can improve its condition, and 'harvest' better yeilds in both livestock, and cropping.
Earlier this century birth was given to a number of synthetic compounds which now dominate our agriculture. Many of these fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are responsible for the slow and agonizing death of our soils.
New Zealand, Australia and the Third World are the last bastions of the old, inefficient, low analysis, high impurity, fertilisers such as Super-phosphate. Even in the United States (not known for it's safe, healthy farming practices) they use high analysis, low acidity Triple Super, with less "bulk" and therefore less impurities, 50% of their fertiliser is liquids. In Europe Super-phosphate is banned altogether.
In New Zealand we seem to still be taking quantity over quality. Year after year we are blindly dumping tonnes of N,P & K products across the land, without questioning if we actually need it, or applying it in a fashion which is not available to our pasture. This is resulting in the locking up of phosphates and the leaching of Nitrogen & Potassium at toxic levels into our lakes, rivers, and oceans.We have got to change if we don't wish to totally self-destruct and kill our soils.
Digital Harvest are not saying you have to go completely organic, but we are asking Kiwi farmers to question the advice they are getting, and to become part of the solution. We need to be more scientific in our approach to farming, only applying what is needed, and giving something back to the soil. This can be done by adopting healthier fertiliser programs with a percentage of organic based products such as kelp seaweed, fish & humate.