By Matt Downie
True efficiency is to do only what’s required to achieve optimal results.
So what are optimal results?
Getting clear about what we really want to accomplish is the only way that we can have measurable outcomes to assess the efficiency of our actions. Most people would agree that we want to see health restored to our environment (Food production should not contaminate and denude the soil, water ways and surrounding ecology). We also want our food to be produced organically, available fresh year-round in season and produced as cost and resource efficiently as possible. These two outcomes don’t seem unreasonable and yet we are globally in the midst of the worst environmental degradation ever caused by our species and have the situation where organic foods generally cost more than industrially produced food commodities.
Holistic efficient production
When it comes to cost efficient, reliable and sustainable organic food production, I believe that there are a number of key factors that when combined into a nature aligned strategy, will ensure reliable and cost effective organic production, true sustainability and food security, and see renewed health for humanity and the entire Earth biome.
- The ecology of any healthy natural site harbours a diverse range of species that co-inhabit to create a productive symbiosis of abundance, resilience and self-regulating balance. We can take this model and create enhanced production ecologies incorporating the widest range of food plants and domestic animals from around the Earth to create production guilds that fill every niche and microclimate, are self-sustaining and create nature autonomous abundance.
- Water availability throughout the year – Natural rain and spring water should be collected in dams as high up in the landscape as possible, with the overflows directed out along contour channels through the production areas. This simulates the natural flow of creeks soaking the adjacent land, promoting lush plant growth, limiting the impact of drought periods and making food production easier and more reliable.
- No-dig cultivation methods keep the natural integrity of the soil stratum where the essential organisms responsible for nutrient recycling, fertility and health are able to perform as nature designed. Ploughing and tilling should only be used strategically as a onetime event to open compacted soils and allow water, air, nutrients and life to recolonize it.
- Habitat for life – Repeated mowing and slashing are amongst the most wasteful and pointless use of time, energy and resources. Achieving nothing other than a temporary unnatural uniformity. What did our forbears do with grass and weeds before motorized equipment? They had a greater appreciation of life cycles and allowed meadows, prairies and emergent forests to exist, manage their animals within these ecosystems that produced for them wild berries, fruits & nuts, tubers & roots, herbs & grains all flourishing on nature’s terms with very little effort. Mowing and slashing should only be used strategically as a preparation to modify the ecology towards new productive crops being established via strategically broadcasting seeds, transplanting seedlings and planting trees into position.
- Heirloom and natural varieties of plants have a long history of growing under organic/natural conditions. These varieties have genetic diversity within them which allows for adaptation to seasonal and climatic variables, they have an ability to coexist with a diverse range of insects, have a strong history of reliable performance and produce their own viable strong seeds for future planting. Your own seed bank, both living in the field and properly stored have been more valuable than gold in crisis times.
- Heritage livestock are the varieties of domestic animals that our ancestors developed as they selected and bred for traits such as foraging ability, good natural growth rates, resistance to disease/ robust health, predator evasion and ability to reliably reproduce. Many of these strains still exist and can be utilized within breeding programs to further select animals best adapted to free-range self-feeding conditions and to create natural hybrid vigour from combining these heritage forms.
- Nature is an all inclusive Whole- The targeting of particular plant or insect species to be eliminated through spraying chemicals throws the entire ecological balance into a downward spiral. Any species that seems to be in excess is merely a symptom of other variables that have previously been put out of balance. It really is a can of dying worms…. that when you plough and lay bare the soil, apply chemical fertilizers, spray to kill pests and weeds, grow fields with limited diversity, then slash the immediate neighbouring weed vegetation to the ground you are creating an ecological dead zone ( The very actions that create desertification). The problems that these actions have created are not solvable with more reactions to the symptoms. This is just chasing your tail and adding further to the environmental degradation. The only solution here is to back away from the ecological war zone created and allowing nature to start the healing process. By learning to appreciate diversity and natural life cycle processes, the window to seeing the bigger picture can be opened and the interconnected web of life which we are an intimate part becomes apparent. The choice now is, are we a parasitic entity ravaging the planet, or an intelligent species living in symbiotic balance with its own habitat.
- Nature is generous and wants to thrive everywhere it can. If we can pause from habituated assumptions and actions and acknowledge nature’s 3+ billion years experience, adaptation and success on Earth, we could return to the role of working in collaborative symbiosis with the fundamental life forces energies in our own ecological gardens and farms, localising food security, incorporating more of the Earth’s amazing productive species, learn how to optimize nature’s conditions to thrive and simply promoting natural momentum towards year-round abundance with ease.
Recent Comments