Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the Soviet Union, some 15 to 20 per cent of the population became involved in food pro-
duction.
Another advocate of ruralization, the Swedish academic Folke Günther, has extended
collapse of communism, both countries found themselves in a similar situation, but where-
as Cuba weathered its difficulties by increasing its farmers and its rural population, North
Korea persisted with an industrial mode of production, and the proportion of people liv-
ing in the countryside decreased. By 1999, 80 per cent of the motorized capacity in North
Korea's agricultural sector was inoperable, and grain production had slumped to 40 per cent
of previous production levels. The country was eventually bailed out with food aid but ac-
cording to former Korea Worker's Party Secretary Hwang Jang Yop (a defector) the death
toll during the food crisis was three million people.
Günther anticipates eco-units of about 200 inhabitants and 50 hectares, largely self-suf-
ficient in terms of food, animal fodder, water, energy and with a maximum proportion of
waste return to the soil; three or four such settlements might share a common social infra-
structure, such as primary schools and small service business. The transition to a ruralized
social structure would occur gradually:
The development strategy implies successive replacement of houses in need of
extensive restoration or rebuilding. Instead of building new houses in existing areas,
small settlements integrated with agriculture can be created in the hinterland of the
urban areas.
In a series of four plans, Günther shows how an urban centre of 33,000, with a population
in its surrounding countryside of 3000, has declined to 24,000 inhabitants with 12,000 in-
habitants living in the periphery after 12 years. After 25 years the town has only 12,000
people, with 24,000 ruralized; and by the time 50 years have passed, the proportions are
completely reversed with just 3000 people in the urban centre and 33,000 in outlying areas.
The region has become ergonomically decentralized and self-sustaining, with the town
centre serving mainly as a cultural and decision-making centre.
Whether Günther's vision for a provincial town in sparsely populated Sweden can be ap-
plied over the same time scale to a metropolis like Manchester is perhaps another matter.
Ruralization on the scale he proposes - with 92 per cent of the population in the countryside
- seems ambitious for a densely populated country such as England. Günther calculates
that 0.2 hectares per person are required for food production, which amounts to about half
the land available per person across the UK. That accords closely with the projections made
in my Livestock Permaculture scenario where the food needs for 60.6 million people are
met on 13 million hectares of land. Technically there does not seem to be any geographical
