Janie Burns:
The Renegade Farmer
“We're starting to look at climate change through the lens of agriculture or agriculture through the lens of climate change and that’s exciting,” Janie Burns said sitting in a lawn chair inside her homemade greenhouse. The greenhouse has reclaimed wood ceiling rafters and recycled patio doors for the entrance. Inside, the greenhouse is warm, fostering the growth of greens and sprouted seeds nearly year-round. Outside, Janie’s sheep grazed in the chilly November air.
Janie is fully invested in utilizing agriculture to combat climate change. Her values echo throughout her operation in all of her practices.
“I think the potential to sequester carbon in the soil is enormous, the issue is going to be how farmers are compensated for that,” Janie said.
Janie grew up on a row crop and registered angus beef farm outside of Ontario, Oregon, about 60 miles from her current operation.
Janie found the land she’s on today 25 years ago. The climate, water, and soil in the valley make the plot an ideal location to farm.
“This area is a lovely agricultural valley,” Janie said. “We have a 180 day growing season, an elegant irrigation system that provides water through a gravity flow system, good weather, and good soils.”
The proximity to her market in Boise was another reason Janie settled on this land.
“Finding this place was kind of mediated on the distance to Boise. At one time I was 50 miles away, now I'm 25 or less miles away from Boise. Boise was my target market. I had to be close, but I didn't want to be that close. So that’s how I found this place,” Janie said.
Like most farmers looking for an active Farmers’ Markets, Janie wanted to be close to her market but not too close because of expensive land costs near cities.
The final selling point of the property for Janie was the beautiful 1900s barn.
“I fell in love with the property because it has a beautiful old barn that reminds me of one that my grandfather built in the valley in about 1915,” Janie said.
The historic barn stands at the entrance of Janie’s farm Meadowlark Farm.
Janie owns 10 acres and rents another eight for her operation.
“I raise sheep...actually I raise the grass that they eat. That's my principal job,” Janie said.
Janie said when she started Meadowlark Farm she was a “renegade farmer.”
“Early in my career, I was kind of a renegade farmer because I wasn't using chemicals and I was selling directly to people, and that was considered different,” Janie said.
Janie said she’s watched the markets and selling directly to customers come in waves. In the last decade, she’s watched more consumers demand locally raised products.
Janie said selling directly to her customers allowed her the opportunity to raise her product the way she wanted to.
“I didn't plow up pasture, I left it permanent pasture, and then I overseeded to give more diversity of vegetation to the pastures, and then I didn't leave the livestock on it to mow it to zero,” Janie said.
Janie said she was sure she got some stares from her neighbors.
“I'm sure the opinion of some of my neighbors was that I was just a bad farmer because I wasn't doing what they expected but I didn’t care because I felt I was doing the right thing,” Janie said.
Although more research needs to take place, there is a consensus that there is a benefit to diversifying and sustainably grazing pastures.
“Now we know that the more crop diversity you have, the more vegetation with different roots, flowers, seeds, the more diversity you have on your lands the better for all kinds of reasons. Soil health, habitat for pollinators, health of the animals, are all benefited,” Janie said.
In addition to improving soil health, animal health, and habitats, Janie said there’s also a huge opportunity to sequester carbon through agriculture.
Janie said with that potential, the issue really lies in how farmers would be compensated for their work. Janie said there should be an incentive for farmers to work harder than they already do to put in all of the work required to sequester carbon and create diverse, sustainable, and thriving ecosystems.
“To be compensated, you have to have a market that's willing to pay something. And you also have to have a measurement upon which you can base that payment. So you could look at it kind of like the organic program, in that there are standards, those standards can be measured and inspected. And then the market kind of sets its own level, but there's a premium for that work the farmers put in,” Janie said.
Janie is excited by this potential opportunity. She wants consumers to demand products that are grown to combat climate change.
“We're not there yet, but the exciting part is that we're thinking about it,” Janie said.
Farmers’ Markets and direct to customer sales provide a lot of opportunities for farmers to convey these ideas to their patrons.
“By selling at the farmers market I do get a chance to talk to people,” Janie said. “It's amazing how many people are thoughtful about the food they eat, and they want to not just know what it's fed, but they will they want to go back a couple of steps in, it's not everybody, but there are people out there who want to know.”
Janie has noticed that a good portion of her customers care about the relationship of how she treats the soil, how she treats the animals, and how she treats the environment.
“Eventually, one would hope farmers would be paid for carbon sequestration per acre, nutrition per acre, pollination per acre, we should be paid for all these kind of natural services we work so hard to provide,” Janie said.
Janie is hopeful that demand by consumers will come and that the market can support farmers who are trying to do things beyond sustainability.
“The marketplace has to be involved because you can talk all day about how great these are and how wonderful you're treating your animals but unless there's some compensatory program, you're not going to be in business or have you seen a huge change in your pastures since switching over to you know, diversifying, planting different plants,” Janie said.
Janie sees her farm as a small ecosystem.
“It’s not perfect by any means, but you look at it from several perspectives and see how everything here is able to eat. So the sheep are walking to the hay. They're spreading organic material, they're spreading their own poop. So we're feeding the soil that way. And then how do the plants live? Well, you have healthy soil, you have healthy plants, insects, and then we try to make sure we have something blooming all the time. We have vegetation and interesting habitats for creatures of all kinds.”
Janie has an orchard, nut trees, berries, grapes, chickens and sheep. She said nothing goes to waste on her farm.
“I'm proud of this, it seems to be working,” Janie said. “I think we overthink things and we should just create habitats and nature will kind of take care of the rest.”
Janie is looking forward to connecting local consumers to similarly minded producers. Janie is on a committee interested in finding a permanent, large facility that offers consumers a place to buy goods year-round, education on a variety of aspects of the food system, and storage for producers.
“The market is just one part of it. There's a need for commercial kitchens to add value to products, there's a need for storage, both cold dry and freezer storage so that not every farmer has to have cold storage on their farm or things can be put into storage. That would allow chefs to have easier access, and there’s a need for a hub that allows for distribution,” Janie said.
Janie said there’s a lot of benefits to having a facility like this in Boise. Janie has been working on this for the last two years and is now working with her committee to pitch this idea to the city of Boise.
“Approaching a city is not as easy as one would think because if they spend taxpayer money, someone is going to get upset. However, there is a huge value to the city and for the community that a facility like this would bring to Boise,” Janie said.
Janie encourages farmers and ranchers interested in this work to get started.
“You just have to do it,” Janie said. “For any agricultural enterprise, just do it. If it doesn't work, get over it, move on. Be brave”