The challenges of the 21st century, peak oil and the rise of global warming, will require a new approach to agriculture. Agriculture must now not only grow food but it must grow fuel as well. The competition between food use and fuel use is escalating and will escalate prices for both. The high cost and unavailability of natural gas and petroleum will make existing methods of fertilizer manufacture and long distance transportation of crops unfeasible. Turning soil exposes stored CO2 to the atmosphere significantly contributing to global warming.
Rockhouse Mountain Agriculture feels that local solutions to the challenges described above integrate well with the lifestyle of a family that grows its own food and fuel or a small family farm serving its community. The company is dedicated to research environmentally friendly farming and gardening techniques. This includes composting with organic materials, scientific soil reconstruction, research into nitrogen absorption, intensive gardening techniques such as raised bed and hot-house farming, and no-till. It is the belief of the company that solutions developed here can affect food production through-out the world, especially with underdeveloped countries where commercial fertilizers are and will be too expensive.
