Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Much also depends on learning by example. Farmers look over the hedge and,
if they see something working, they often adopt it. They like to learn from each
other and build on what they know already. Often they stick with what they know,
even though it may be suboptimal at the time—particularly in the face of market
demands, which can change quickly.
Fostering the desire to increase sustainability and change may need a more direct
engagement of the spirit within to help farmers and stakeholders to share and develop
further wisdom from their love of the land and its use. I discovered this when I dem-
onstrated the spade test to farmer groups. The careful, respectful handling of the soil
by members of the group made me realize the need for its stewardship. As scientists,
we tend to forget the obligations of stewardship (Lal 2009c) and of soil husbandry to
maintain and improve the health of the soil, plant, animal, and human system (Berry
2009; Batey 1988; Shaxson 2006).
Handling the soil can release a flow of ideas and experiences, which may build on
those of others. This is growth from within and is similar to the growth and spread
of plants that have rhizomes or corms. Rhizomes spread out sideways in the soil and
send up shoots at random. Cutting up the rhizomes causes them to spread rather
than to be destroyed. This is a better model of how information can spread than
a tree model where information filters from above to the grass roots. La Chapelle
and Puzey (1995) suggest that growth from below spreads methods for healing the
destruction of the Earth. Each community or village can develop within its own area,
protesting and growing, bringing an infection of restoration and conservation. All
this helps in the expanding and remolding of knowledge that farmers already have
(Shaxson 2006).
The development of more sustainable practices may be helped by changes in our
diet. The farmers in my community grow many cereals, mostly barley, which are
either fed to cattle or pigs or used to make malt in whisky production. These are
great for that most Scottish of meals, the Burns supper, but not so useful for every-
day consumption. The only crops grown directly for food are small areas of wheat,
oats, and potatoes. World meat production is predicted to double between 2000 and
2050. Grain is fed to animals to make much of the world's meat. This is inefficient
as it takes, on average, 6.5 kg of grain, 36 kg roughage (hay, grass, and silage), and
15,000 L of water to make 1 kg of beef. It is more efficient for us to eat the grain
rather than feeding it to animals to make meat. Such a transition may help organic
farming and conservation agriculture to feed more and more people (Azadi et al.
2011). To achieve this, whole cultures may need to adjust to eating different types of
food. This needs a change from within, brought about by the development of a spirit
of conservation.
It is important to remember the wisdom of our ancestors. Much is made of the
abuse of the Amazonian rain forest as it is cut down for food production, yet the old
indigenous peoples had a system of sustainable agroforestry, described by Hillel
(1992) and Hartmann (1999), that could still be used. Several trees were cut down
in the shape of a circle, like the spokes of a wheel. Legumes and tubers were then
planted to stabilize the soil and to capture nitrogen among them. At the end of the
growing season, the trees were burned, and the ash was used as fertilizer for next
year's food crops. A range of crops was grown, with their locations determined by
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