Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fish
I have allowed the carnivores a small amount of fish, equivalent to about half
of current consumption levels. If European countries reverted to local control of fishing
grounds, then management of UK stocks would improve and catches eventually rise. There
are some wonderful permacultural systems in Vietnam and China where fish farming is
part of the cycle, but I don't know enough about their potential in the UK to include them
here.
Sheep
I have reduced the number of sheep from 27 million in Mellanby's scenario to
18 million, because they don't produce much food and there is a widespread perception that
they have too much of a monopoly of our uplands at the moment. But we might think twice
about this because, in the absence of plastic fleeces shipped in from China, we may need
more wool than 18 million sheep can produce. Sheep would be bred for heavier fleeces.
Wild Meat
I could find no figures for the volume of meat available from wild herb-
ivores, but it is probably minimal. The figure given is roughly the same as the estimated
quantity of wild rabbit meat eaten in 1953.
Fruit and Veg
In the localized economy envisaged here, a large proportion of fruit and
vegetables could be grown more intensively on allotments, in gardens and on urban land.
Much top fruit would be grown not on arable land, which needs weeding, but in orchards
which could be grazed, or in the vegan case mown. I have reduced the area of arable put
down to horticulture in Table F to 100,000 hectares.
Wheat
High yields come through breeding for seed production at the expense of stem
production. The lower wheat yields associated with organic production can be partially off-
set by producing thatching straw - another form of biomass that will be in demand if we
enter a path of energy descent.
Textiles
I have been unable to establish what current UK consumption rates of textiles
are, and since so much of it is frivolous there is not much point. Textile fibres do not take
up an enormous amount of land. Except for fashion models, most of us eat more than we
wear. In Table F I have allocated 7.25 kilos per person per year (a domestic washing-ma-
chine load), provided by hemp and flax, wool and leather.
Nutrient cycles
Additional nitrogen for crops comes from three main sources.
Enough nitrogen to fertilize one million hectares of crops can be obtained from recyc-
ling human sewage, preferably on crops for animal rather than human consumption. This
requires a society which does not pollute its human waste with heavy metals, through con-
tamination with liquid run-off and effluent. Just over a million hectares can be supplied
with nutrients through ley farming. And a further 750,000 hectares could be fertilized with
a proportion of the available animal manure. How much can be recuperated depends upon
how livestock are managed. In the case of sheep, this might involve bringing them in at
night, to shit in the farmyard, as is normal practice in many places on the continent. Any
shortfall would have to be met by green manure, at a rate of one hectare for every two cul-
tivated.
