How then, do we move backwards? How does a society, with most of the people having no clue of future events, move from being dependent on a vast and intertwined network of goods and services produced by the indigenous people of whereever, to a local resource and renewable energy based society, and do so in the timeframe available (20-30 years using the most liberal extimates, 10-20 with resonable estimates, 5-10 with worst case scenarios), all the while prices on everything increasing, world politics getting more militaristic, governments continuously reducing civil liberties, shortages of goods on the market and weather patterns resembling bad Hollywood movies?
Reading so much about the future of agriculture, I have come across an article with some very interesting stats related to agriculture, fossil fuels, the future of food production, etc.
The gist of the article is simple saying that we need to make a global effort to shift to no-till farming as soon as possible.
No-till farming has several advantages that are crucial.
1) It requires much less energy from fossil fuels.
2) It is healthier for top soil
3) No-till farming sequesters carbon in the soil. Current farming releases carbon.
Negatives
1) There is a 5% to 10% drop in crop yields in the early years of No-till farming.
Some stats from the article that jump out.
Lal and his colleagues estimate that no-till farming is practiced on only 5 percent of all the world’s cultivated cropland. Farmers in the United States use no-till methods on 37 percent of the nation’s cropland, which results in saving an estimated 60 million metric tons of soil [CO2] annually.
“If every farmer who grows crops in the United States would use no-till and adopt management practices such as crop rotation and planting cover crops, we could sequester about 300 million tons of soil carbon each year,” said Lal, who is also a professor of soil science at Ohio State.
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6371 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:52 pm Post subject:
No-Till as practiced today is about using herbicides to kill the weeds that tilling used to kill – saving soil is good, saving Monsanto - maybe not so good
Pops, you seem to have done a lot of research already on No-Till farming. What do you see as the pros and cons of this method of agriculture?
From the POV of a layman (me) reading articles on the internet, it seems to have a lot of potential advantages in a peak oil world. Primarily less fossil fuel use, less herbicide, more carbon soil sequestration, better topsoil health.
It seems to be also be somewhat less work for the farmer. With fewer applications of chemicals/fertilizers, there is a lot less for the actual farmer to do besides planting and harvesting. Is that an accurate description?
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6371 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 8:43 am Post subject:
I don’t know how common this type of conservation tillage is Jay. It doesn’t seem like something big farmers would do - although the fellow in Pennsylvania was growing 100 acres of tomatoes so I can’t see why not.
As far as the benefits you mentioned I agree, as you can see from the ATTRA link there have been many studies done with various combinations of cover and crop, different methods of killing the cover and planting through it.
Other positives are increased organic matter in the top few inches of soil, weed control, water conservation due to shading of the soil, increased beneficial insect population and best of all; nitrogen fixation (using legumes as the cover).
Clovers can add up to a ton of nitrogen per acre – that’s almost enough for corn! So the result is no herbicides, less pesticides and much less fertilizer – probably 0 if manure is available. I’ll modify the herbicide part, biennial and perennial weeds could become a problem eventually but probably not more than 1 application every 2-3 years
I can see this as the basis of a small truck farm, which is what I have in mind. Ramping up from my current ¼ acre to 10 will be a challenge, but it is really how I garden the ¼ now. In a market garden you must necessarily have a variety of crops and the different spacings required almost precludes mechanical cultivation.
On the downside, the soil may warm later in the spring if mechanical killing of the cover is used, increased rodent problems and eventual soil compaction is possible, but I haven’t read any studies on this.
I’ve also thought of modifying this system so that the row spacing is permanent, IOW, the tractor's tires always run in the same track, eliminating compaction of the row altogether and eventually creating a “raised” bed with clover between. If care is taken in setting up the rows on a slight slope, you could promote drying of the soil in the spring by contouring the rows with a gentle downgrade. Since the soil will rarely be bare, there will be no water erosion.
That’s where I am so far, any thoughts? _________________ Make a plan and work it:
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 10:57 am Post subject: Re: No-till farming conversion for the planet
JayHMorrison wrote:
Reading so much about the future of agriculture, I have come across an article with some very interesting stats related to agriculture, fossil fuels, the future of food production, etc.
Permaculture tree orchards are another interesting branch of this topic worth looking in to. While modern, industrialized orchard managment makes heavy use of cheap oil byproducts, a permaculture fruit and nut orchard could produce valuable food, fiber, and fuel with little or no petroleum requirements.
The the fruit of the North American Pawpaw contains fantastic nutritional value. I have a chart of the nutritional value of the pawpaw posted on one of my web pages, obtained from Kentucky State University. This information can be found at:
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6371 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 11:34 am Post subject:
Yes, appropriate species of disease-resistant trees, brambles and grapes contribute greatly to the productivity of a small farm – not only food, but processed byproducts such as alcohol, vinegar, olive oil, etc. In addition, here are some things others and I posted regarding animals on the self-sustaining farm:
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