Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] Fwd: The future is organic: But it's more than organic! | Energy Bulletin - Sent using Google Toolbar

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>, Market Farming <marketfarming@lists.ibiblio.org>, Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: The future is organic: But it's more than organic! | Energy Bulletin - Sent using Google Toolbar
  • Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:22:16 -0400


The future is organic: But it's more than organic! | Energy Bulletin -
Sent using Google Toolbar
http://energybulletin.net/stories/2011-03-07/future-organic-its-more-organic


The future is organic: But it's more than organic!

by Dr. E. Ann Clark

*INTRODUCTION*
Organic will be the conventional agriculture of the future, not because
of wishful thinking or because it is the right thing to do, or because
of some universal truth revealed from on high.

You don’t need to be a utopian to see the agricultural landscape of the
future dominated by organic practitioners - whether in the city or in
the country - if you stop to ask yourself ...*why are we not organic now?*

How did we get to where we are now, and not just in farming but in the
entire agri-food system?

How did we evolve an agri-food system so centered on specialization,
consolidation, and globalization? What drove us to an agri-food system
that reportedly consumes 19% of the national energy budget - but only 7
of the 19% are used on the farm, with the remaining 12% incurred by
post-farmgate transport, processing, packaging, distribution, and meal
preparation (Pimentel, 2006)? Is this all the result of Adam Smith’s
invisible hand - an inevitable and inescapable result of the unfettered
free market or other universal principle in action - or is there more to it?

This paper will present the argument that the future is organic because
the design drivers that have shaped and molded the current agri-food
system are changing, demanding a wholly new, and largely organic,
approach to agriculture. Efforts to make the current model less bad -
more sustainable - are counterproductive because they dilute and deflect
the creative energy and commitment that are urgently needed to craft
productive, ecologically sound systems driven by current solar energy
(Pollan, 2008). Although time does not permit coverage, post-oil design
drivers will also necessarily demand not just organics but novel
agri-food systems emphasizing

# local/decentralized food production, and
# seasonal consumption expectations,
# from minimally processed foods.

Evidence will be presented to show that organic is not enough, however.
Ecological soundness[1] will require a de-emphasis on annual cropping
coupled with re-integration of livestock, both to mimic the principles
that sustain Nature and to dramatically reduce dependence on fossil fuels.





  • [permaculture] Fwd: The future is organic: But it's more than organic! | Energy Bulletin - Sent using Google Toolbar, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 03/23/2011

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page