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Most of these posts seem to be aimed at convincing
the unconvinced. If one is already convinced, can the bare facts and
methods be found in Jeavons' latest book?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 12:24
PM
Subject: [Livingontheland] Cultivating
Our Garden, by John Jeavons
Cultivating Our Garden, by John Jeavons
http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/InContext.html
A
sustainable community involves a dynamic interdependent
relationship
between each of us and the resources that sustain our lives.
Rather than
shirking human labor, trying to reduce the amount of it used or
to increase
its productivity in sustainable ways, we need to exalt in its
proper use
and in the maintenance of the very muscles involved in an
effective human
life. Properly performed, labor is not tedious or
enervating,but
strengthening and rewarding.
Using resources more
efficiently--doing more with less--allows us to use
our personal energy
more effectively. The field of electronics was recently
miniaturized on
this basis. In fact, the world is on the verge of a major
new
discovery--that there are major economies of small scale, such as
the
miniaturization of agriculture. The sophisticated low-technology
techniques
and the approaches involved in this kind of food-raising will
make possible
truly sustainable agricultural practices
globally.
GROW BIOINTENSIVE Mini - Farming
This
miniaturization of agriculture is not new. Small-scale,
sustainable
agriculture has supported such widely dispersed civilizations
as the
Chinese 4,000 years ago, and the Mayans, South Americans, and Greeks
2,000
years ago.
Ecology Action has dedicated almost a
quarter-century to rediscovering the
scientific principles that underlie
these traditional systems. The people
in Biosphere II in Arizona have been
using techniques based on those
outlined by Ecology Action: they raised 80
percent of their food for two
years within a "closed system." Their
experience demonstrates that a
complete year's diet for one person can be
raised on the equivalent of
3,403 square feet!
This is an
improvement over traditional Chinese practices, which required
5,000 to
7,200 square feet. In contrast, it takes commercial agriculture
22,000 to
42,000 square feet to grow al the food for one person for one
year, while
bringing in large inputs from other areas. At the same time,
commercial
agricultural practices are causing the loss of approximately six
pounds of
soil for each pound of food produced.
GROW BIOINTENSIVE mini-farming
techniques make it possible to grow food
using 99 percent less energy in
all forms - human and mechanical, 66
percent to 88 percent less water, and
50 percent to 100 percent less
fertilizer, compared to commercial
agriculture. They also produce two to
six times more food and build the
soil.
The GROW BIOINTENSIVE Method
The basics of this
whole-system approach can be summarized as follows:
Most life in nature
occurs at the interface of soil, water, air and sun.
GROW BIOINTENSIVE soil
preparation practices create growing beds with more
surface area to
maximize the effect of nature's life processes. Double-dug
beds, with soil
loosened to a depth of 24 inches, aerate the soil,
facilitate root growth,
and improve water retention. The health and vigor
of the soil are
maintained through the use of compost. Close seeding
spacing is used to
protect the soil microorganisms, reduce water loss, and
maximize yields.
Companion planting facilitates the optimal use of
nutrients, light and
water, encourages beneficial insects and creates a
vibrant mini-ecosystem
within the garden. The use of open-pollinated seeds
helps to preserve
genetic diversity and enables gardeners to develop their
own acclimatized
cultivars.
A focus on the production of calories for the gardener and
carbon for the
soil ensures that both the gardener and the soil will be
adequately fed and
that the farm will be sustainable.
How can the
soil's nutrient fertility be preserved with agriculture
continuously
removing nutrients as one crop is harvested after another? One
answer is
surprising. Each person's urine and manure contain approximately
enough
nutrients to produce enough food to feed that person. However,
those
nutrients are not enough when they are spread thinly over the
one-half to
one acre that it takes mechanized commercial agriculture to
produce that
person's food.
GROW BIOINTENSIVE mini-farms require
much less area to produce the same
yield of crops, so the nutrients
contained in one person's wastes can be
applied in a more concentrated way.
This enables the nutrients to be fully
effective, and high yields can
result.
Because of this higher productivity, GROW BIOINTENSIVE
practices could
allow one-half to three-quarters of the world to be left in
wild for the
preservation of plant and animal diversity.
It has been
said that GROW BIOINTENSIVE practices might make it possible to
grow food
for all the people in the US in just the area now used for lawns.
This
possibility could mean thriving, agriculturally self-reliant cities
with
'green belts' to produce all their food.
Scarcity vs.
Abundance
Scarcity can be changed into abundance when
sustainable,
resource-conserving agricultural practices are used.
.
The world continues to deplete its soils approximately 7 to 80 times
faster
with conventional forms of agriculture - even with organic practices
- than
they are built up in nature. Probably only 50 to 100 years' worth of
world
soil productivity remains for us to use. We are rapidly depleting the
soil
base upon which civilization depends. In contrast, sustainable
GROW
BIOINTENSIVE farming, if used properly, can build the soil up to 60
times
faster than in nature while producing more food and conserving
resources.
. Economically, conventional agriculture in the US produces
on the
average up to $100 per sixteenth of an acre; the net return on a
$500,000
investment on the average 500-acre farm is about $12,000, or a
little over
2 percent. We are depleting our agricultural economic base and
indirectly
our farming community base. GROW BIOINTENSIVE economic
mini-farming, in
contrast, can produce up to $20,000 on a sixteenth of an
acre through
increased yields, decreased resource use, and direct
marketing. It also
offers a foundation for community-based
agriculture.
. The average age of the US farmer is 55, with few young
people entering
farming. In fact, 0.2 percent of the population of the US
is producing most
of the nation's food. We are depleting the nation's skill
base. With
mini-farming approaches, everyone can be part of the rebuilding
of farming
skills wherever they are.
. 75 percent of all the seeds
ever used in agriculture are estimated to
have become extinct by 1990.
Ninety five percent are expected to be extinct
by the year 2000. We are
depleting our genetic base by overdependence on
too few highly specialized
varieties. It is interesting to note that many
if not most, normal
open-pollinated crop varieties will produce equally
high Green
Revolution-type yields with a fraction of the resources and few
insect and
disease problems when GROW BIOINTENSIVE techniques are used
because of the
healthy soil they produce.
. Conventional agriculture uses 100 times
the energy in mechanical and
human forms per pound of food produced,
compared to GROW BIOINTENSIVE
farming. This is because of current
agriculture's heavy dependence on
machines and energy-intensive chemical
fertilizers. We are depleting our
energy base. Sustainable GROW
BIOINTENSIVE practices, in contrast, recycle
nutrients and are productive
enough to be done manually without high energy
consumption.
.
Agriculture accounts for 80 percent of all the water used by people on
this
planet, and dozens of countries already have insufficient water for
growing
all the good needed for their populations. Further, the
agricultural
practices being used do not generally conserve water in our
soil. The
result is that we are in the process of depleting our available
water base.
GROW BIOINTENSIVE practices use a third or an eighth the water
per pound of
food produced as conventional farming practices. Thus, the
amount of water
available for farming, which is currently insufficient, can
be more than
enough.
It is Simple to Begin
The thoughts of
beginning to learn to grow all one's own food seems
overwhelming, but
Ecology Action has designed a small one-bed growing unit
from which to
begin growing personalized solutions. This unit is a 100
square-foot bed
that includes equal areas of compost, diet, and income
crops. As we improve
each 100 square-food area of soil in our backyards or
on our farms, we
begin to understand our climate and the varieties of
plants that thrive in
our own micro-climates and mini-ecosystems. Each
small portion that we grow
of our own food enables us to better appreciate
the farmers whose food we
buy.
Voltaire in Candide suggests that if we each tend our own
"garden," the
entire world will be transformed. In the process, all of our
work will be
filled with meaning. In this way, we will "grow people" who
possess a whole
new understanding: that we must grow soil rather than
crops--create rather
than consume. When we do so, the harvest for our
nourishment will be
abundant beyond our greatest
expectations!
-------------------------
paul tradingpost@lobo.net
That is
well said, replied Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.
--Voltaire
[Francois-Marie Arouet] Candide
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