Transformation Strategy For Agriculture
by Ken Laing
Given the rapidly approaching impacts of Climate Change and Peak Oil, agriculture in general and organic agriculture specifically need to drastically redefine and focus their efforts.
Goals
- Farms need to run on their own energy
- Stop soil losses and shift to soil building
- Produce abundant and nutritious food
How?
- Borrow from traditional agriculture
- Use appropriate modern technology, examine critically for negative impacts on farm ecology, economy, community and food nutrition and safety
- Adjust scale to encourage intensive management
Important Policy Changes to Facilitate
- Agriculture
- change emphasis from export to food sovereignty approach
- use biofuels demand to correct “cheap food policy”
- support local and organic
- empower communities not corporations
- move ag extension back to farm communities
- use above goals to guide extension activities
- model farms to demonstrate techniques and systems
- encourage intensive rotational grazing to improve pasture efficiency and build soils (organic farming’s no-till)
- encourage micro farms using metabolic power
- encourage draft animal power for intermediate scale farms
- encourage permaculture
- promote integrated livestock/crop farms
- research and promote ways to prevent soil loss and to go further to build soil quantity and quality
- set up model farms to demonstrate the above so farmers can see these ideas in action
- Education
- elementary through university must instil a respect for all of creation but especially the soil.
- Land use Planning
- must shift to encouraging smaller better managed farms
- farm belt around every city
- discourage large energy intensive infrastructure, airports, large highways
- discourage development centred on personal cars - suburbs, dispersed retail and manufacturing
- encourage energy efficient transport - railways, water
