Presented by Fields of Zion International, Inc.
What is sustainable farming?
FOZI core farming values:
- Promote sustainability in farming and our communities.
- Promote good stewardship of land, water, air, energy and other natural resources.
- Promote a system of food and fiber production which is both equitable and profitable, not only to the farmer but the community as a whole.
- Emphasize quality of life for farmers and the communities they serve.
- A farm/community cannot truly be sustainable unless it is self-sustainable.
- Biodiversity of species is a core fundamental principle in creating sustainability.
- Livestock add an additional layer of diversity & sustainability to an organic farm.
- Promote organic food & fiber production.
- Raise up a new generation of farmers.
- Be a net benefit to our communities, our nations and the world by producing more then we consume whenever possible, especially in the areas of resources and energy.
For any business venture to succeed it must include a plan of long term sustainability and growth.
The best scenario includes a plan where production capacity naturally increases slowly over time. This must be true for the land as well as those given stewardship of it.
From Wikipedia, Permaculture:
· Care for the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
· Care for the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.
· Return of surplus: Reinvesting surpluses back into the system to provide for the first two ethics. This includes returning waste back into the system to recycle into usefulness.[14]
Permaculture design emphasizes patterns of landscape, function, and species assemblies. It determines where these elements should be placed so they can provide maximum benefit to the local environment. The central concept of permaculture is maximizing useful connections between components and synergy of the final design. The focus of permaculture, therefore, is not on each separate element, but rather on the relationships created among elements by the way they are placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts. Permaculture design therefore seeks to minimize waste, human labor, and energy input by building systems with maximal benefits between design elements to achieve a high level of synergy. Permaculture designs evolve over time by taking into account these relationships and elements and can become extremely complex systems that produce a high density of food and materials with minimal input.[15]
Twelve Principles of Permaculture Design Articulated by David Holmgren in his Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability:[17]
- Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
- Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
- Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
- Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
- Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature’s abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
- Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
- Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
- Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
- Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
- Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
- Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
- Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.
Requirements for a sustainable homestead farming operation:
- Each Property must be overall reward positive.
“The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.” 2 Timothy 2:6 NKJV
The homestead farm operation must provide a positive tangible and equitable return on investment to the operators and others who make investments of time, labor and resources.
Permaculture design principle 3 -Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
Without this simple principle in place, what motivation is there to work hard and make investments? What farmer would plant seed without the reasonable expectation of a harvest? Is it not then reasonable that the farmer who grows the food we eat every day should be compensated in the same manner as the doctor who fixes us once a year? There must be a reasonable expectation of quality of life for everyone, given they are willing to work hard in whatever areas they are able.
- Properties should be resource positive.
While it can be said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” simply taking a closer look at all aspects of natural design, shows us that while matter is limited, it can be manipulated in different ways to create an abundance of that which is useful out of that which is not.
Permaculture design principle 5 – Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature’s abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
Permaculture design principle 6 – Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
Many people have mistakenly looked at resources with a closed-minded approach. Take water for example. It can be said that there is only so much clean drinkable water available, and farming requires a large amount of it. However, if we look at water in a different light, we can see that like energy, water is never consumed in nature, simply recycled. The problem has been that man often chooses to waste that which can be easily replaced. If instead we look at water as precious, then the desire to conserve and even refine it becomes more valuable.
Permaculture design principle 6 – Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
Taking a step further, we simply need to change out mindset from conservation to creation. How do we thus create more of the resource we need from what is already available to us? Thus, if we can in fact create that resource, can we then apply the principle of multiplication and create more then we need?
- Each property should be overall energy positive.
There is a common misconception that energy is scarce. However, this idea stems from the notion of where man gets his energy from. We have for generations tapped into the wealth of energy stored up in fossil fuels, and even the energy of the atom itself. This energy was not stored up by man’s intellect and ingenuity, instead by natural process. Coal, oil, natural gas and propane are all the result of decaying bio matter. That bio matter contains energy which originally came from the sun! We burn these fuels, and in doing so release their stored energy potential.
Permaculture design principle 2 – Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
Instead of tapping what is finite, we should simply look to the infinite source, the vast amount of energy available to us every day from the sun. Can we thus use our intellect to store and even create an abundance from the energy already available to us?
- Bio-diversity
Permaculture design principle 10 – Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
The world’s most sustainable ecosystem is the natural forest, comprised of thousands of micro systems, which work together to form a macro system capable of producing a massive abundance of stored energy. These micro systems, are also further broken down to include an innumerable host of organisms living in a symbiotic relationship together. The more diverse the systems, and the more systems in convergence, the greater the diversification, and as such the more resilient the overall ecosystem becomes.
We can observe the opposite of this resiliency occurring all over the world in the death of species and habitat due to the disturbance of perhaps just one small element being eliminated or introduced in a single system.
Permaculture design principle 8 – Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
Financial Design:
Labor is one of the greatest factors in a farming operation. It is often a very limiting factor in growth since there currently lies a disparity in the difference between what food costs to produce, and what it sells for. This disparity occurs because an unrealistic attribute exists in the current market… Cheap labor, made available through cheap energy, at the expense of quality of life for the growers, as well as damage to our environment through the use of fossil fuels, harmful insecticides and chemical fertilizers.
Fortunately, a new generation of farmers are observing and even challenging these trends. Organizations like WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) are helping to change this dynamic, by placing potential new growers with experienced teachers. This symbiotic relationship creates a unique environment. Experienced farmers can not only share their wisdom with a younger generation, but receive much needed help at very minimal cost, without the burden of hiring workers. The new growers gain valuable insights and experience through hands on learning, while potentially sharing their personal experience and know-how with their host.
An input of 4-5 hours a day of manual labor per person, in exchange for simple food and shelter, can be a tremendous help to a small homestead farmer.