Understanding Our Systems of Production

The cultivation of food is something deeply tied to the history of humanity and our ancestral cultures. While the concept is a relatively simple one, the cultivation of plants for food is a complex and diverse field of study. Even the best and most lucrative home-gardeners on the planet may be clueless on how to scale up their knowledge into large-scale production agriculture. Likewise, rural farmers using traditional methods wouldn’t know how to begin with conventional agriculture. There are a million ways to grow the same tomato but is there one right way? In today’s world, there are a million labels when it comes to agricultural practices. There’s biodynamic farming, regenerative agriculture, permaculture, organic farming, conventional agriculture, and countless other systems/philosophies. If all this sounds overwhelming to you it's because for most people it is. In this article, we will cover the three big ones that you may have heard of: Organic Farming, Conventional Agriculture, and Permaculture. What are these? Why are they different? Is one better than the others?

Conventional Agriculture

Conventional Agriculture is the system that most of the world's food is grown with. It is done on extremely large scales using heavy machinery and with the help of agricultural chemicals that help provide nutrients and protection to the plants. While many argue that conventional agriculture makes feeding our growing world population possible, it is highly criticized for causing widespread environmental damage and human health risks. Conventional Agriculture was largely born post WW2 with the advent of new technologies that were born from the military industry. This wasn't just technology needed for the development of heavy machinery but also developments in chemistry that allowed us to develop synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Synthetic nitrogen for example was originally developed for the creation of explosives but today is the most important fertilizer on the planet. These technologies led to a period known as the "Green Revolution" where we saw a dramatic increase in agricultural production. Before this time period many academics had predicted that food production would not be able to catch up with population growth and would lead to worldwide food scarcity. Many people to this day believe that this was avoided thanks to the "Green Revolution". Conventional agriculture relies on heavy machinery and many different types of agricultural chemicals that are applied to the crops. While avoiding worldwide food scarcity was a great feat, conventional agriculture does have it’s downsides. Synthetic nitrogen and other fertilizers not only deteriorate the health of the soil but also lead to widespread pollution of water. Chemical pesticides also destroy soil health and pose health risks to consumers and farmworkers. Heavy machinery also degrades natural soil structure and allows wealthy farm owners to monopolize much of the industry. Today genetically modified crops (GMOs) dominate much of the conventional agricultural systems and are highly controversial due to their increased environmental impacts and health risks. Conventional agriculture occurs in seemingly endless rows of crops like these cornfields seen throughout the United States. Large quantities of the world’s food are conventionally grown grains like corn, rice, and wheat.

Pros and Cons of Conventional Agriculture

Pros

1. Produces Large Quantities of Food
2. Low Cost of Final Products
3. Can be conducted on highly degraded soils
4. Requires little Human Labor
5. Easy to implement with standardized methods
6. Easily Practiced on Large Scales

Cons

1. Leads to SoilDegradation and Water Pollution
2. Health Risks to Farm Workers/Consumers
3. Contributes to Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Degradation
4. One of the largest driving forced of Climate Change
5. Often relies on Exploitation of Cheap Labor
6. Mostly Owned by Large Monopolies

Organic Agriculture

While organic food seems like a trendy alternative to conventional agriculture it's important to remember that before the Green Revolution most farms practiced Organic Agriculture! Synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides didn't exist at this time, so by default, everything was organic. Farmers largely relied on animal manure and other natural products to fertilize their fields, while using animal and human labor to prepare them. Today Organic Agriculture refers to agricultural practices that fall under guidelines determined by the USDA (or the respective regulating agency for select countries). Organic farms must be certified to sell their products as organic and must avoid using products that are banned by the organic agricultural regulatory agency. This includes synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and materials that contain residues of these products. Instead, organic farms use fertilizers and pesticides derived from natural materials like manure, agricultural wastes, ash, kelp, or other products of biological origin.

Techniques Employed in Organic Agriculture

1. Crop Rotation
2. Use of Compost and Animal Manure
3. Multicrop and Polyculture Systems
4. Reduced Tillage or No-Till Farming
5. Biodynamic Principles
6. Employment of Beneficial Microorganisms
7. Cover Cropping
8. Green Manure and Mulch
9. Water Retention and Reduction of Soil Erosion
10. Heirloom and non-GMO varieties of Crops

In reality, Organic Agriculture happens on all scales. There are heavily industrialized organic farms that grow thousands of acres of monoculture (single species) crops and there are also small family-run organic farms that produce a wide variety of products. Large-scale farms typically produce products that are sold in large grocery stores and commercial chains while smaller-scale organic farmers sell to restaurants, individuals, or local farmer’s markets. You can easily identify an organic farm by the presence of weeds. In conventional agriculture, these would be eliminated with the use of herbicides, but here they are believed to help repel noxious pest species. While purchasing organic food ensures you and your loved ones will not consume potentially harmful chemicals, large scale organic farms may not necessarily have significantly lower environmental impacts than conventional ones. Some organic farms for example use large quantities of single-use plastic to cover their soil and prevent the growth of weeds. Others may need energy-intensive natural fertilizers that may have high carbon emissions. Another issue with the Organic Farming system is that the certification may be difficult and expensive to obtain for some farmers. Many small farmers may practice organic techniques but are unable to sell their products as organic due to the lack of certification. In reality, many of these small farmers who remain uncertified maybe some of the most sustainable options out there.

Pros and Cons of Organic Agriculture

Pros

1. Generally has Lower Environmental Impacts than Conventional Agriculture.
2. Can produce similar yields or greater to Conventional Agriculture
3. Generally produces higher-quality produce
4. Products are free of potentially harmful chemicals
5. Farm Workers Are Exposed to Less Toxic Chemicals
6. Employs Larger Quantity of People
7. May Sequester Carbon and lead to Improved Soil Quality

Cons

1. Generally more expensive to produce the same quantity of food as Conventional Agriculture
2. Certification can be tricky and cost-prohibitive to otherwise “organic farmers”
3. Often still practiced on large scales with environmental impacts compared to conventional agriculture.
4. Final products are less accessible to the general public due to higher costs
5. Land requires a 4-5 year transition period from conventional to organic to bring health back to the soil.

Permaculture

While Permaculture has its roots in food production, permaculture is a concept that expands into every avenue of life. It is a lifestyle and philosophy that embodies every aspect of production and consumption, aiming to create a way of living that has a positive impact on the environment and society. Acknowledging the fundamental unsustainability of modern systems, the name permaculture was developed to represent a “Permanent Culture”. Its basis suggests that if permaculture were adopted on a global scale, it is a system that could exist indefinitely without exhausting natural resources or creating social crises. The guidelines of permaculture are based on 3 ethics and 12 principles. Small permaculture gardens may employ raised beds to make weeding, planting, and other garden work easier. Natural materials like bamboo may also be employed.

Three Permaculture Ethics

1. Care of the Earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. ●
2. Care of People: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence
3. Return of Surplus: Create no waste and utilize everything as a valued resource.

Twelve Permaculture Principles

Observe and interact: Take time to engage with nature to design solutions that suit a particular situation.

1. Catch and store energy: Develop systems that collect resources at peak abundance for use in times of need.
2. Obtain a yield: Emphasize projects that generate meaningful rewards.
3. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: Discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems function well.
4. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance: reduce consumption and dependence on non-renewable resources.
5. Produce no waste: Value and employ all available resources: waste nothing.
6. Design from patterns to details: Observe patterns in nature and society and use them to inform designs, later adding details.
7. Integrate rather than segregate: Proper designs allow relationships to develop between design elements, allowing them to work together to support each other.
8. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain, make better use of local resources, and produce more sustainable outcomes.
9. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces system-level vulnerability to threats and fully exploits its environment.
10. Use edges and value the marginal: The border between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most system's valuable, diverse and productive elements.
11. Creatively use and respond to change: A positive impact on inevitable change comes from careful observation, followed by a well-timed intervention.

Permaculture practitioners use these three ethics and twelve principles as a guide for design and decision making. While largely applied to the cultivation of food, these can be applied to a wide range of subjects on any scale. They may apply to the design of a home, management of a community, the workings of a business, and a wide range of human activities. Ultimately the goal is to create a sustainable and extremely efficient system that brings benefit to the practitioner, planet, and all of society. When it comes to growing food, permaculture uses a wide range of alternative techniques and designs. In general, these techniques are intended to make efficient systems, require minimal labor, increase soil organic matter, reduce the prevalence of weeds, have a low environmental impact, and require minimal to no inputs. Permaculture designs promote biological and structural diversity by emphasizing the cultivation of many different plant species. For example, Food Forests are multi-storied systems where you may have several plants in cultivation occupying the same space. You may have large perennial trees with an understory of shrubs and shade-loving plants, allowing you to maximize the production within a small area. A tropical permaculture garden that includes Bananas, Corn, Beans, Squash. These are planted on a raised Hugulkulture style bed with leaf mulch.

Techniques Employed in Permaculture

1. Renewable Energies
2. Water Harvesting and Storage
3. Hugulkulture
4. Polyculture and Plant Guilds
5. Food Forest Systems
6. Ground Cover
7. Pest Repellent Plants
8. Biochar
9. Earthworks like Berms, Swales, Ponds, Ect.
10. Perennial Production
11. Keyhole Gardens
12. Composting, Bokashi, Vermiculture and other methods of processing biomass
13. Fermented Plant Juices
14. Mulching, Green Manure, and Cover Crops
15. Plant-Based Pesticides
16. Beneficial insects and microorganisms

While Permaculture can be applied on any scale, and the philosophies can be applied to any form of agriculture, they are traditionally used in small-scale systems for home or community gardens. This being said it is important to note that permaculture and organic farming may overlap in many situations. Many small farms can be both certified organic farm and practice permaculture. Conclusion Food production systems are extremely diverse and employ many different techniques and resources to work. Conventional agriculture has made feeding our world possible with minimal need for human labor but is quickly deteriorating our environment and the agricultural lands themselves. This not only threatens the future of food production in these regions but also poses great health and environmental risks. Organic agriculture is a great alternative and generally has a much lower environmental impact and fewer health risks when compared to conventional agriculture. Unfortunately many industrial organic farms also have relatively high environmental impacts and the certification system may be prohibitive to some small farms. A transition to organic agriculture is also difficult because agricultural lands are already highly degraded and contaminated with agricultural chemicals. Permaculture is a philosophy that can be employed in organic agriculture, small farms, or gardens of any scale. Permaculture extends to every avenue of life and aims to create a culture that lives in harmony with our planet. Permaculture is guided by 3 ethics and 12 principles that help practitioners with design and decision making. While there isn’t a right and a wrong, it’s clear that conventional agriculture as it works today is unsustainable. Our planet is suffering from environmental catastrophes and is threatened by a changing climate. Transitioning to organic farming and applying permaculture practices to our food production system is an option to feed the world while avoiding a catastrophic environmental disaster that threatens the lives of everyone on this planet.