Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
cycles, rather than just mulching, intercropping and herb spirals. Some of the measures
taken require a change in our land management systems, and also in human settlement pat-
terns. This is a society in a state of energy descent, with increasing dependence upon re-
newable resources, more waste cycling and (consequently) a localized economy which is
more integrated with natural processes. The approach towards livestock is a default strategy
in respect of the cows, insofar as they are grass fed and contribute to the fertility building
of the arable rotation; but less so as regards the pigs and chickens since a certain amount
of grain is grown to feed them (though in the next chapter I argue that a certain amount of
livestock grain is necessary for food security reasons). Here is a list of the main features I
have introduced:
Meat and Dairy
The amount of beef in the diet has been reduced both by no longer
running a suckler herd, and by reducing the average age at which beef cows are
slaughtered. There are 83 grams of red meat per person per day. For a family of four, this
is the equivalent of a 5lb Sunday joint, which could probably be spun out till Tuesday or
Wednesday. Together with a smidgeon of chicken and fish it comes to 38 kilos of meat
per year, which is about half the amount people eat now. The volume of milk consumed is
the same as it is at present, and everyone also has a couple of eggs a week. Farm animals
provide 670 calories of the daily ration of 2,767, whereas in Mellanby's basic diet they only
provided 517.
Pigs
To compensate for the reduced amount of beef in the diet, I have introduced pigs.
Although partially fed on grain, these are efficient because their diet consists of two thirds
crop residues, whey and food waste. This ought to be possible since in the early 1990s even
commercial pig feed consisted of 50 per cent food waste, and on top of that there is all
the domestic food waste which currently goes into landfill. The figure of 2767 calories per
person (including children and old people) allows for around 700 calories of food waste,
which in theory is enough to provide our pigs with all their food. I have kept this margin
tight because selling feed to small-scale pig units on mixed farms is an economical way of
ensuring that the nutrients in food processing waste cascade back to the land. The pigs also
bring fat into the diet, and produce it on less land than rape oil.
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Chickens
I have also introduced chickens, which in this model are fed on grain. They
take up more land for less calories than pigs, but this is only because the pigs are getting all
the food waste. It is possible to feed much of the waste to hens, and they convert it into pro-
tein more efficiently than pigs. But the advantage of pigs in a northern country is that they
produce fat, when little else does. If resources became scarce, I would expect commercial
chickens to be among the first to rise in price (a boiling fowl was a luxury to be had only on
special occasions in the 1950s) but there would still be plenty of opportunity for backyard
hens fed on household scraps.
