Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
One other observation must be made here: that there is little difference between a default
livestock strategy and a permaculture one. Permaculture, in the words of Bill Mollison who
coined the term, 'is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of looking at
plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product
ciency, like Nature's, relies on a maximum of connectivity between different but comple-
mentary components, so that the byproduct of one is easily available to provide the feed-
stock of another. Monoculture does not exist in nature, nor does waste, for whatever is
waste to one species is food or habitat to another. The object in permaculture is not to pro-
duce a maximum yield of one or two species, but to enhance the richness, the diversity and
the interconnectedness of the entire system; under normal circumstances, livestock activity,
nourishment and waste production play a contributory, but not a dominant part.
In a permaculture system the role of livestock is by definition a default one: the number
and the species of animals is a function of the system as a whole; overemphasis upon one
species, or upon livestock as a whole, will cause waste, inefficiency and stress. The FAO's
preferred 'active land user' strategy (ie competing with other sectors for the establishment
of feedcrops, intensive pasture and production units) is the direct antithesis of permacul-
ture. On the other hand its description of traditional mixed farming cited earlier in this
chapter could almost serve as a definition of permaculture:
Multifunctional, integrated production systems based on local resource systems
with non-food outputs serving as inputs in other production activities within the sys-
tem.
From hereon, I will continue to use the term 'default livestock ' to specify 'animal
products and services that arise as the integral co-product of a wider agricultural system'
,
while I shall take 'permaculture' to refer to strategies or systems where livestock is entirely
or largely limited to a default role.
1
Elferink, E V, Nonhebel S, and Moll, H C (2007), 'Feeding Livestock Food Residue and the Consequences for the
Environmental Impact of Meat',
Journal of Cleaner Production
, xx, 1-7.
2
Steinfeld
et al
(2006),
Livestock's Long Shadow
, FAO, p 76; see also p 31.
3
FAO (2009),
Livestock in the Balance
, State of Food and Agriculture Report for 2009 (SOFA 2009), p 29.
4
Fadel, J G (1999), 'Quantitative Analyses of Selected Plant Byproduct Feedstuffs, a Global Perspective',
Animal
Feed Science and Technology
79, pp 255-268. While milk production has increased about 10 per cent since then, crop
yields have increased correspondingly so the estimate probably still applies.
5
Hall K D
et al
(2009), 'The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and its Environmental Impact',
PloS
ONE
, November 2009, Volume 4, Issue 11.This paper calculates that the amount of food wasted in the US has grown by
50% since 1974 and amounts to around 1400 kcal/ person/day.
