permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        The Overstory #247: Multiple functions of perennial 
agriculture
Date:   Tue, 19 Jun 2012 02:35:21 -0600
From:   The Overstory <overstory@agroforestry.net>

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Homegarden on sloping land in Bali      
Perennial homegarden on sloping land in Bali. Such time-tested systems
exemplify the multiple functions of perennial agriculture.

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**/The Overstory/* #247/
/*

*Multiple functions of perennial agriculture*

by Eric Toensmeier

June 17, 2012

*Introduction*

Unlike expensive geoengineering approaches to slowing climate change,
regenerative perennial agriculture is remarkable in addressing many of
the challenges facing humanity today while sequestering carbon. Were
humanity to prioritize this strategy to stabilize our climate, we would
reap many other benefits and help address challenges from erosion to
food sovereignty.

*Carbon Impacts*

Sequestering carbon is not the only climate impact of permanent
agriculture. Perennial agriculture practices require less fossil fuel
inputs, both from mechanization and from chemical fertilizers.
Implementation of food forestry around the world could reduce fossil
fuel use in transport dramatically by increasing local production.

Interestingly, at least in tropical regions, the most powerful climate
impact of agroforestry is not in the carbon sequestered on-farm (which
is significant), but in the reduction of pressure on wild trees and
forests. Because agroforestry provides fuelwood and reduces or
eliminates the need for shifting cultivation, every hectare of
agroforestry prevents the deforestation of 2.5-10 hectares of wild forest.

*Improving Soils and Slopes*

Perennial farming systems have dramatic powers to stabilize eroding
farmland, especially sloping lands. Practices like using nitrogen fixing
perennials, keyline plowing, and intenstive livestock rotation have
fantastic soil building abilities. Plantings of useful trees can protect
coastlines from damage caused by increased storm activity.

<http://agroforestry.net/images/Multiple-functions-Toensmeier.jpg>

*Benefits to Water*

On the farm scale, trees and perennials can dramatically improve
rainwater infiltration and groundwater recharge. At both the farm and
regional scale, permanent agriculture can break the flood-drought cycle
by soaking up and slowly releasing water like a sponge, providing a
longer season of moderate water flow in streams and rivers downstream.
Erosion control and slope stabilization means less siltation and
nutrient runoff in streams, having effects from local waters to offshore
coral reefs. Finally, at the regional scale large plantings of trees
transpire sufficient water to create rainclouds, allowing rain to fall
further inland and fight drought and desertification.

*Ecosystem Benefits*

Food forests provide many of the same ecosystem services that “natural”
forests do. In addition to the water, soil, and climate benefits
mentioned above, they can serve as critical habitat for many kinds of
life, and their diversity is much higher than annual agriculture.
Regenerative practices can heal degraded land and bring it back to
biological productivity and health.

Perhaps most interesting is that permanent agriculture not only fights
climate change, but it is also resilient in the face of the increased
intensity and frequency of droughts, floods, and other extreme weather
events. Trees and perennials typically have stronger and deeper root
systems than annuals and can survive and continue to yield in conditions
that would ruin many annual crops. Polycultures provide a form of
insurance against crop failure due to pests, disease, or weather by
having multiple backups of additional crops, so that each year there is
always a yield of one kind or another.

*Microclimate Impacts*

On the farm scale, shade can be essential for livestock and certain
crops, particularly in the tropics. We owe coffee, vanilla, chocolate,
ginseng, wasabi, ramps, and many other important products to the shady
canopies they grow beneath. Trees in particular are also important for
filtering air pollution and particulates, and help create a protected
and nourishing microclimate in most places they are planted.

*Improving Agroecosystem Productivity*

Many perennial farming practices are already in common use due to their
positive effect on yields. In many parts of the world windbreaks, living
fences, and living trellises are standard farming practices.
Agroforestry frequently incorporates nitrogen fixing plants, and growing
plants for compost and mulching purposes is common in many sustainable
agricultural systems. But all of these practices could be much more
widely spread.

Biochar, a farm-made charcoal soil amendment, is a practice with
tremendous carbon sequestering potential and a great soil builder. It is
currently controversial due to concern over its being used as a large
scale monoculture and taking land away from food production in the
developing world, much as has happened with corn-based biofuels. It
appears to me that as an integrated farm practice, not as a vast
monoculture, biochar can have a positive effect on farm productivity
while sequestering substantial carbon without impacting food security.
Any of these perennial farming systems, if practiced by large
corporations in vast plantations, can lose carbon efficiency as well as
potentially causing negative social and ecological impacts.

*A Vast Array of Products*

Permanent agriculture can produce most of our material needs. Foods,
biofuels, construction materials, fiber products, plant-based plastics,
medicine, ceremonial plants, and more can all be produced. Some
perennials can continue to yield for hundreds of years once established.

*Socio-Economic Benefits*

The human benefits of regenerative agriculture are another reason it is
so much more desirable than geoengineering projects like pumping sulfur
into the atmosphere or liquidized carbon back into empty oil wells. A
global investment in perennial farming systems addresses climate justice
by sending funds from the developed countries who have caused most of
global warming to the developing countries who did the least to cause it
but are, perversely, most effected by it. This body of practices can
also address food security, particularly by providing resilient crops
that can survive droughts and extreme weather events.

Beyond nutrition, transforming degraded land to tree-based farming
provides income and regenerative enterprise opportunities to rural
people, and could help drive a return to the land for rural people who
moved to cities in search of income. Permaculture works best with large
numbers of people on small parcels of land, and some research seems to
indicate that carbon sequestration is actually higher on small,
intensively managed parcels. Thus rural economic revitalization may be
another impact of regenerative carbon-sequestering agriculture.

Fossil fuels used in transportation of agricultural goods today are a
major source of global warming pollution, so fighting climate change
means relocalization of agriculture on a massive scale, whether
perennial crops are grown or not. Food sovereignty takes the notions of
local food and food security and unites them with broader human rights
concerns. The food sovereignty platform includes the right to food and
land to grow it on, regional self-sufficiency, prioritizing nutrition
and natural resources over international trade, and peaceful democratic
control rather than corporate dominance of the food system. Broadscale
implementation of perennial farming systems would support food
sovereignty by providing a regenerative farming toolkit for community
self-determination. A permanent agriculture movement can serve as an
ally to food sovereignty against the multinational interests whose drive
for short-terms profit is the cause of so many social and ecological
problems. I also see permanent agriculture as greatly supporting the
development of communities of prosperous smallholders around the world.
I like to call this key element of perennial food sovereignty
“tree-based Jeffersonian democracy.”

Once established, perennial farming systems require less labor and
inputs than annual agriculture. In this light, food forests can be a
tool for movements for democracy, nutrition, and human rights. Steering
climate change funds and efforts in the direction of regenerative,
permanent agriculture can thus help improve the quality of life of
people around the world.

*Stepping up*

Obviously converting land use on such a scale would be a massive
undertaking perhaps unprecedented in history. It would also have to take
place on an extremely tight timeline as well–probably a few decades at
most. But addressing climate change requires us to rethink every aspect
of our civilization, and agriculture is no exception.

Food forestry has always been a great idea, but in this time of climate
crisis it has become an essential one. For many years permaculturists
have focused on our own backyards and farms. While that has been
critical for developing our ideas, its carbon sequestration impact is
barely noticeable on the global scale. Permanent agriculture needs to be
spread much, much more widely to have a significant impact. To prevent
runaway climate change we need to change our civilization’s
infrastructure – and we need to be engaged in our food systems to make
that transformation happen.

My emphasis on perennial farming systems is not to discount the many
other important contributions that permaculture has made and can make to
address climate change. Everything we do, and everything that the
transition and climate change movements are doing, is critical to
finding a solution. No single strategy is sufficient to do what is
required. But large scale conversion of degraded land to regenerative
perennial agriculture is a project that we can put forward to the
broader climate change movements, and get the world’s resources behind.
What a great way for the world to get to know us better – through this
strategy that so beautifully expresses our ethics and principles.

We need as well to be honest about what is and isn’t known about
permanent agriculture, particularly in cold climates. Let’s target more
of our experimentation on replicable models that can be applied at
farm-scale in our own regions and beyond. And what better way to
demonstrate permanent agriculture than developing regenerative
enterprises that allow us to prosper while charting a new course for
agriculture.

It seems to me that this is a critical moment in history for
permaculture. Terraforming the planet into a perennial food-producing
paradise may be the only way to avert climate disaster. Let’s step up as 
a movement and show the world what we have to offer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*ORIGINAL SOURCE*

This article was excerpted from the original with the kind permission of 
the author:

Toensmeier, Eric. 2011. Climate Stability with "Permanent Agriculture."
Permaculture Activist #80.
http://www.perennialsolutions.org/carbon-sequestering-agriculture-global-warming-solution-piece-remove-co2-from-atmosphere-organic-garden.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*AUTHOR BIO*

*Eric Toensmeier* is the author of /Perennial Vegetables/ and co-author
with Dave Jacke of /Edible Forest Gardens/. His writing and teaching is
currently largely focused on regenerative agriculture for climate
stabilization. His writings, videos, and upcoming workshop schedule can
be viewed at www.perennialsolutions.org.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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