Trees' role in agriculture tend to be viewed as limited to the lumber industry or highly organized orchards to grow fruits, but some farmers are looking to the forest floor to get more people into agriculture, at least part-time.

Dennis Lindberg’s five acres in southern Missouri don’t look like a farm. Amongst the trees on the sloping ground are smatterings of small, green plants. Those are his crops.

“Here’s some ginseng here that I planted,” Lindberg said, pointing to a patch that to the untrained eye looks like weeds. “I’m taking the seed from it and just planting it right in here, so it will spread.”

It’s not quite that easy to make a living, though. Ginseng needs seven years to grow before harvest, and it’s worth more the longer you wait. Lindberg has been forest farming for almost 40 years, and for much of that time he has had another job, raising hogs.

Still, forest farming advocates say it is an underutilized form of agriculture. The challenge is finding the right crops to plant in the right type of forest — and some, like Lindberg, are doing that.

Another part of the allure to forest farming is the desire to mitigate climate change. Trees and forests absorb carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas warming the earth’s atmosphere.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture identifies forest farming as a good alternative to supplement income for farmers and other landowners, and the agency provides resources to help forest farmers.

But the agency also stops short of calling it a full-time occupation.

Read the full article about forest farming by Jonathan Ahl at Harvest Public Media.