Call it eco-agriculture

6 Comments on "Call it eco-agriculture"

BillT on Sat, 20th Oct 2012 1:07 am 



In other words, we go back to the means and methods of the mid 20th century. But we cannot. All of the good soil that existed then is gone. Not much left but dead dirt that requires tons of chemicals to grow anything. It takes centuries to make 2 foot of rich topsoil. But, it is a pretty chart. Someone made a nice wage off of this project. We just have to change our diet from meats to grains. Rice anyone?

kervennic on Sat, 20th Oct 2012 7:20 am 



Agro ecology is a theory. It is nice, but it has to be proven on field. I see a lot of people debatting but saw very bad report from investigator of real experiments.
However i believe in the concept, because it was used in the past. But I would like more concrete tips than some drawing from white collars to implement this at home.

Zenodotus on Sun, 21st Oct 2012 1:17 am 



Actually, the practice of keyline plowing, of rapidly cycling through several generations of fast and deep growing plants which are then intentionally overgrazed, leaving the roots behind to rot and fertilize can build up to 2 feet of topsoil in just a year or two (mileage may vary) Perfected by an Austrailian man named Yeoman, IIRC

Zen0dotus on Sun, 21st Oct 2012 3:52 am 



@BillT: That is normally the case, unless people get clever. In fact, P.A. Yeomans in Australia developed a system called “Keyline plowing” which can build up to 24″ of topsoil in much less time by repeatedly, systematically subsoil plowing, watering, and sowing fast-growing grasses which are then overgrazed to the point of death, which leaves the root systems in the soil to rot and turn into humus.

http://ecosystems-design.com/Keyline%20Soil%20Building.html

GregM on Sun, 21st Oct 2012 4:32 pm 



@BillT:
Not sure how you arrived at the conclusion that this chart indicates we have to “go back to the m & m of the mid 20th century.”

Did you study the image? This is more like going back to some of the methods that sustained oriental peoples for millennia (read the book “Farmers Of Forty Centuries”).

But now we also have the benefit of massive scientific knowledge about soil biology and its symbiotic relationship with plants, the value of biodiversity in agricultural production (permaculture food forests and multi-speciated perennial polycultures, etc.) as well as technologies including drip irrigation and inexpensive polytunnels. Also electrified fencing which allows the small scale control of roving herds of herbivores duplicating the processes that produced millions of bison while building the rich topsoil we are now destroying throughout the midwest using those mid-20th century methods…

As to changing changing our diet from meats to grains: Way Wrong. Tillage agriculture (the growing of annual grain crops) is by far the most devastating aspect of modern food production. Historically, this practice has been the ruin of countless cultures which had to die off or move on after they had depleted their soils. Those societies that derived the mainstay of their diet from animal proteins using controlled pasturing practices (shepherding) were not only the most stable and sustainable, but also the healthiest (look into the work of Dr. Weston Price).

Modern eco-agriculturist Joel Salatin has been proving for over thirty years that we can produce multiple-times the amount of nutrient-dense food from a parcel of land by grazing it than by growing annual grain crops (which are a very poor food for humans, anyway). All the while building topsoil, improving fertility and sequestering carbon!

Not trying to be ornery or argumentative, BillT, but I’d sure encourage you to do your homework on this stuff — its potentialities are downright exciting.

Zen0dotus on Mon, 22nd Oct 2012 5:25 am 



@Kervennic: Actually, agroforestry has a long and very positive history. Over the last 30 years or so, growers in Australia have developed edible forest gardens that recreate the structure of a healthy forest, with canopy trees, bushes, ground cover, roots, etc. They last for years without tending, are more productive per acre than single-crop monoculture farming like we’ve been used to, and take maybe a couple of days labor per month to maintain. Going further back, there’s a family farm in Saigon, Viet Nam that has been in the same family for 23 generations. That’s 300 years of stable, self sustaining, non-chemical reliant food and medicine productions. There’s one even older, at an oasis in the desert of Morocco, based around date palms, which has been around for Two Thousand Years. Some theory, huh?

Like GregM said, I’m not trying to be argumentative here. Just sharing what I’ve found out, so we can all do better.