Lengthen the growing season. Increase yield.
Your grower should apply now for a high tunnel – at 75% off.

Cheap access to higher agricultural yieldsNew studies confirm that drought, heat and other pressures from climate change are hurting America’s breadbasket regions, but local and regional food supplies in your neck of the woods may help lower your food costs, avoid crop failure, and raise nearby food security.

Many towns, however, don’t have enough farmland nearby, so the Natural Resources Conservation Service is encouraging growers to increase their output from the same acreage using high-tunnel agriculture. The simple tunnel I visited this week in Middletown, RI operates winter and summer (with sheeting partly open). Made from a kit of metal pipe, plastic sheeting and a few gizmos, it’s five years old (two years beyond the expected replacement date for its sheeting). Relying mostly on a rain barrel and simple drip irrigation tubing, its windproof environment permits growing plants closer together and higher (think tomatoes) than outdoors.

April 21 is the deadline for growers to apply for a huge subsidy for a high tunnel growing enclosure up to 30 by 70 feet. Easy to erect, these simple greenhouses protect crops from cold, insects, animal pests and water evaporation. They require less fertiliser and pesticides.

Want to encourage a farmer or vegetable gardener to expand? Tell them to apply for one of these super-cheap greenhouses.