One of the most serious environmental problems facing us today is the erosion and degradation of our soil, and modern industrialised farming has precipitated this, turning one solution into two problems.
The natural state of affairs is thus; farms combine livestock and crops, rotating their fields so that manure from the animals replenishes that taken from the soil by arable produce. Sometimes parts of the farm are left fallow to recover and grow grass which feeds the animals. There is no soil erosion, a perfectly sustainable ecosystem and plenty of jobs for farm workers.
The current state of affairs is vastly different. Our farms are now generally specialised, concentrating totally on crop production, or meat and milk. This has divorced the natural manure fertiliser from the arable land, replacing it with chemicals that ultimatley end up washed into rivers, while at the same time turning this valuable resource into a dangerous bi-product, slurry, which is highly toxic and also causes sever pollution to rivers, streams and water supplies.
For the animals it is far worse than that. They are kept in shocking conditions in the race to produce as much meat, eggs and milk in the quickest time on the smallest amount of resources.
A major factor in the fall of the Roman empire was overfarming of the land (see A Green History Of The World). The problem is this is no longer only happening in one country, but across the globe. It can take hundreds or a thousand years for nature to form even an inch of topsoil but since farming began in America they have lost at least a third of theirs. The climate is on our side in Britain so we really shouldn’t have any soil erosion at all except what nature can replace, but intensive farming has caused it.
Supporters of intensive farming claim that non-chemical farming cannot feed the world, but this is nonsense, especially if all the money and resources that are currently spent on researching new chemicals was channeled into making of natural food production more effective. More pertinently though, chemical farming definately cannot feed the world as long term it simply isn’t sustainable! Soil isn’t just dead matter! It’s made up of billions of tiny organisms and bacteria, which form the new soil and keep it healthy. If the pesticides in intensive farming don’t kill these creatures, the herbicides will kill the vegetation that they feed on having a knock-on effect. If we continue this soon we won’t be able to grow anything at all!
Pesticides have been shown to cause all sorts of horrible things like birth defects, cancers and gene mutations, I feel like eating organic!
Permaculture describes a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem. Combining plants, animals, water, buildings and the local landscape, more energy would be produced than expended, all nutrients, materials and resources would be recycled and nature would be interfered with as little as possible. Sounds great doesn’t it?
To learn more about this important issue refer to chapter eight of the fantastic book It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This.
I recommend everyone buy it quite frankly, especially since you can usually get a copy for £0.01+postage second hand on amazon. Or a fiver from the official site.
Postscript (added 09/12/07):
Permaculture Magazine has been recommended to us by
Small Fish Online.
Postscript (added 15/12/07):
Please scroll down and read comments for a wonderful article which was kindly added by our good friend and associate
Kindness Of Strangers.
Postscript (added 27/02/07):Why You Should Avoid GM FoodFor the rest click onto youtube :-)