Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
T
OWARDS A
P
ERMACULTURE
L
IVESTOCK
E
CONOMY
Political economy has hitherto insisted chiefly upon division.
We proclaim integration.
Peter Kropotkin, Fields, Factories and Workshops
I
n this last chapter I want to map out some of the features of a post-industrial rural
economy which is the diametrical opposite of the urban dystopias pictured
in extremis
in
Chapter 15. Its defining characteristic is that it is in a state of 'energy descent': most of its
energy is derived from biomass, muscle power and other renewable sources such as wind,
water and solar, and there is not very much of it, though enough, let us say, to manufacture,
maintain and operate serviceable computers and a reduced amount of machinery - roughly
the levels available during Cuba's 'special period'.
To a greater or lesser extent most of its other features are a natural consequence of this
one condition. This is a society which can only afford default levels of livestock, which val-
ues human labour and animal power highly because energy is expensive, which is broadly
self sufficient in its food and fibre without being xenophobic about imports, which has more
people living and working in the countryside, and where a larger area is covered by trees.
Mostly I focus on the rural economy and rural land use, because this is a book about live-
stock, but that does not mean there are no towns or cities. How large they are will depend
upon two things: how much energy there is available to support the demands of industry and
an urban lifestyle; and how many people wish to live there. The rural landscape and way of
life described here will appeal to some, but not to others.
Nor should it be assumed that this is an entirely carnivorous society. There will be vegan
and vegetarian households, farms and communities - there might be a vegan county just as
there are Amish counties in the USA. Conceivably the entire country could be split between
corn and horn, rather as it was in mediaeval times between the central 'champion' country
of open fields, where livestock became progressively harder to maintain as population grew,
