Originally published August 4 2005
Farms getting closer to sustainable, environmentally-friendly operation
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Modern farms cannot really operate sustainably without fossil fuels, reports Mother Earth News, and while such a thing is getting closer to becoming a reality with organic farming, farms designed in the image of natural ecosystems are the ultimate goal.
Clearly, we need to create new food raising systems that will conserve soil, water, and nutrients ...
Nationwide, an estimated 30,000 farmers now rely on crop rotation; animal manures, legumes, green manures, mechanical cultivation, mineral-bearing rocks, and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, supply plant nutrients, and control insects, weeds, and other pests.
Although the expanding organic movement is a positive development, in the final analysis agricultural production will be maintained only if farms are designed in the image of natural ecosystems, combining the knowledge of science with the wisdom of the wilderness.
This is the approach of permaculture, the term coined by Australian Bill Mollison to describe the concept of a self-sustaining, consciously designed system of agriculture.
Permaculture takes the practices of organic farming one step further, applying natural principles to design a self sustaining food-, fiber-, and energy-producing ecosystem.
At the New Alchemy Institute in Massachusetts, we're redesigning our entire 12-acre site in order to test the economic performance of a small farm that employs biological and solar resources as its main production and management inputs.
* The food system absorbs 16% of all the energy used in America.
Soluble fertilizers applied once to worn-out, eroded soil will produce a green manure crop that's high in biomass, which in turn supplies organic matter for biologically derived fertility.
Orchard trees mature, weed and insect populations change, and woodlot composition shifts.
In natural ecosystems, this concept is known as succession ...
By allowing agricultural succession to occur, or even by consciously directing it, energy and nutrients can be conserved, soil losses reduced, and herbivore populations stabilized.
For example, annuals and short-lived perennials planted between the rows of a young orchard will furnish income while the orchard species mature.
Finally, permaculture systems favor diversity over monoculture.
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