by
Jonathan White B.App.Sci. Assoc. Dip.App. Sci.
How to restore our basic life-supporting systems;
water, air and soil
The
breakdown of our food growing systems poses one of the biggest threats to our
survival. Our existence depends upon our agricultural systems, but what
do our agricultural systems depend on?
The answer: water, air and
soil. These basic elements support all life-forms and without them, life
as we know it cannot be sustained.
In
nature, food grows as part of an ecosystem. An ecosystem is an ecological
system that is made up of many biological parts, or components, that all
interact with one another. These components are mostly made up of
organisms such as plants and animals. They feed on each other and depend
on each others’ presence to survive.
Just as
plant and animal components are dependent on each other, basic life-supporting
systems - water, air and soil - are also dependent on each another.
For
example, the flow of air affects rainfall and rainfall affects the flow of
air. In addition, life-supporting systems are dependent on the components
and vice versa. For example, soil is created by plants and plants are
created by soil.
In summary, components are dependent on life-supporting
systems and the life-supporting systems are dependent on components.
However, it gets even more complicated than that.
Within
the basic life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - there are
sub-systems. If we take a look at water, it can be broken up into many
sub-systems, including: rainfall, surface water, ground water, humidity and
transpiration.
It is not necessary (or even possible) to understand
everything that’s going on within an ecosystem, however it is very important to
understand this:
Each and
every component, system and sub-system is important in running the overall
ecosystem. When you disturb one, the others start to fall apart.
Humans
once lived as part of ecosystems. We were just one of many ecological
components within an ecosystem. We were also part of the food chain;
sometimes preyed upon, but mostly a predator.
When we discovered
cultivation we discovered many advantages, such as being able to grow staple
crops in relative density. By clearing an area of its natural components
we have been able to increase the quantity of a single, useful component such
as a commercial crop.
A typical
farming operation strives to eliminate as many ecological components as
possible so that a predetermined yield of a specific crop can be
obtained. For example, a farmer sows 10 acres of wheat and expects to
achieve a yield within a certain range.
If it’s a good year he will
achieve the upper end of the range and if it’s a bad year he will achieve the
lower end of the range. This offers him a relatively secure livelihood
and he can live his life in accordance to the money he makes from his
predetermined yield. It makes perfect sense from an economic point of view.
However, this
only works when the basic life-supporting systems are working, hence, adequate
water, air and soil. The problem is that these basic systems are part of
an ancient ecosystem that is long gone.
The soils that we now grow crops
in were part of a natural ecosystem and the millions of components that once
existed were a critical part of keeping the basic life-supporting systems
healthy and functioning.
By
stripping the land of natural components we start to see the degradation of the
basic life-supporting systems - water, soil and air. When a large number
of living components are removed, these natural systems break down because the
components and the systems are interrelated.
As a diversity of plants and
animals are replaced with a single species of crop, we start to see effects on
the way the basic water, air and soil systems operate.
- Water moves faster
and is not filtered by a variety of plants. This usually lowers the
ground water and leaves the surface hotter and drier.
- The hotter surface
moves the air in different ways causing rain clouds to travel away from the
area causing localized drought conditions.
- Overall fertility is lost from
soils as water moves out of the system at a greater rate.
- The
temperatures are hotter in summer and colder in winter as there are fewer
plants to thermoregulate the area.
- Rainfall becomes more unpredictable as
the air current is affected by hotter ground temperatures.
- It eventually
gets difficult to grow the commercial crop.
Modern-day
human intervention can offer short-term solutions, but cannot fix the cause of
the problem.
Irrigation from bores cannot provide a sustainable solution
to the breakdown of the water system. Irrigation only lowers the ground
water further making the problem even bigger than it was. The use of
groundwater is not a bad practice in all cases, but it doesn’t fix the root
problem.
Likewise, inorganic fertilizers will not repair the soil
systems. If a soil is being leached of nutrients due to water passing
through it too quickly and hungry hybrid crops feeding on it, it will not be
repaired by adding more minerals.
The same forces that are depleting the
soils are still happening, so the soils will continue to become depleted.
Inorganic fertilizers cannot restore soil structure and cannot build new soil,
like a natural ecosystem can.
Commonsense
will tell you that if there are no natural soil-building systems in place and
soils are being lost and degraded, then fertilizer dependence must
increase. Year after year more fertilizer will be needed to obtain the
same yield.
Remember, the farmer depends on a predetermined yield to
fulfill his lifestyle, but now there is a greater cost to maintain that yield,
in the form of store-bought fertilizers. As costs increase, net profits
decrease and eventually the whole operation becomes economically
nonviable.
When you add market instability and retail competitiveness to
the equation, you can see how difficult it would be to survive as a
farmer. The solution, so far, has been to cut the amount of human labor
on farms because they are the most expensive part of the operation.
This
is done by increasing the size of the operation and the equipment. Large
conglomerate companies can grow crops over thousands of acres, tended by very
few humans.
In ecological terms, this means less diversity over a larger
area, which means less natural components and less natural systems in
operation. Of course, the result is that the basic life-supporting
systems; water, air and soil, will be ruined at a quicker rate.
Surely
that means that even these massive operations will eventually become too costly
to run.
The only
way to keep an ecosystem alive and healthy is to make sure the basic
life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - are intact.
This applies to
any patch of land, whether it’s a native forest, a farm or an urban
garden. Every ecosystem is just a smaller part of a larger
ecosystem. In fact, the whole planet could be referred to as a single
ecosystem.
What we do on a local level may only cause a tiny effect, but
if a significant number of local people start doing the same thing, then it
will cause an effect on a slightly larger scale. If this is replicated on
a big enough scale, then eventually, our actions can affect an entire planet.
There is
no buffer that can protect you from the global breakdown of the basic
life-supporting systems - water, air and soil. However, you can cause an
effect on your immediate surroundings.
To restore our basic
life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - we need to increase the number
and diversity of biological components. Diversity is the answer.
Remember, an ecosystem has millions of components, systems and sub-systems
operating in a given area. These systems need each other for their
survival.
We can add diversity to our backyards and farms in the form of
plants and animals. Once we start to add biological components, they will
start to support more biological components.
The addition of biological
components, in the form of plants and animals, will start to build soil.
This in turn will slow down the flow of water and keep it in our
property.
Trees and other plants will reduce and capture water lost from
ground evaporation, mulch soils and create niche spaces for more life-forms.
Your property will be better regulated in terms of temperature and
humidity. It will be cooler in summer and warmer in winter. This,
in turn, helps the plants to yield more, creating more biomass and better
soil.
There will be more opportunities for life forms and the basic
life-supporting systems; water, air and soil will be more supportive and better
able to meet your needs. As these basic systems become healthier, more
sub-systems will appear. Systems within systems will start to rev up and
biological components (plants and animals) will increase in number, diversity
and health.
To give
you an idea of how this may look in real terms, imagine this;
- a backyard that
had a massive number of edible and non-edible plants of differing size, shape,
habit, colour and form.
- Also, imagine a diversity of domestic and wild
animals, native and introduced, edible and non-edible.
- Now, try to
imagine a system where these plants and animals coexist in a way that they fed
each other and, at the same time, create surplus food for humans.
Using a
mixture of edible and non-edible plants is important. Not everything
within the system should be directly consumed by humans.
Non-edible
plants create the structure that supports the edible species. They should
be planted in sensitive areas such as hilltops and drainage lines and in strips
along contours on slopes.
They act as water filters, native habitats,
climate controllers and soil builders. Edible plants fill in the spaces
only after the basic supporting structure is in place.
Ecosystems
are in a constant state of change and so are sustainable food growing
systems. This makes it very difficult to predetermine the yield from year
to year. The system needs the freedom to change as the components and
systems evolve.
This is the most difficult part for humans to
understand.
In our current way of farming we strive to make each year the
same so that the yield can be predetermined, even when the conditions are
changing.
Sustainable agriculture calls for a massive faith in natural laws
and absolute respect for the basic life-supporting systems.
I have
seen many agricultural systems, but very few sustainable ones. I have
even seen several organically-certified farms that are practicing agriculture
in a way that is depleting the basic life-supporting systems; soil, air and
water.
Rather than buying inorganic fertilizers, they simply purchase
organic fertilizers. These organic farmers have little understanding of
natural systems and just operate in a similar way to traditional farmers, only
their job is more difficult without the use of inorganic fertilizers and
pesticides.
The food they produce may be free of chemicals, but they are
slowly killing the basic life-supporting systems; water, air and soil.
To make
the world a healthier place is not difficult.
Even if you don’t get the
design as perfect as you possibly could, just the addition of a diversity of
plants will create a positive effect on the basic life-supporting
systems.
However, if you can get the components arranged in a way that
they feed off one another to create a cyclic flow of energy, then you are
starting to mimic a natural ecosystem.
As the site matures, the basic
life-supporting systems - water, air and soil - will start to be
restored. That is when the system becomes self-sufficient and will
provide excess food for humans, with minimal effort.
In fact, at that
point, we will have returned to the past and, once again, be just another
ecological component within an ecosystem.
Jonathan
White is an Environmental Scientist and the founder of the Food4Wealth
Method. For more information click here Food4Wealth
Hope you enjoyed this article on how to restore basic life-supporting systems by Jonathan White.
We certainly love our Food4Wealth vegetable plot and are excited to create our own ecosystem around our property by working with Mother Nature.
Have you started your own vegetable garden yet?
Allan & Heli