.jpg)
Living Arts
Agroecology:
Sustainable Food for a Sustainable Future
by Doug Zilm
*Photos by San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project
I grew up around farming. It’s hard for most people raised in Iowa not to be. For the better part of my childhood, my backyard ended in a field—corn one year and soybeans the next. I “walked beans,” which is a term used for weeding soybean fields, and I detasseled corn for a seed company. This is farming in the Midwest. What I didn’t know then is that these farms weren’t growing food; they were farming ingredients. We were no longer cultivating food to feed ourselves, but making cogs for the industrialized food machine.
That was a strange time for agriculture. Rural culture was disappearing, along with each family farm that went under due to the burgeoning agribusiness of large scale farms. The sustainable concept of growing food for your family was being replaced with the business venture of growing commodities. The land was becoming a tool for corporate profits and big biotech companies like Monsanto were rounding up a new market with the beginnings of the genetic engineering of crops.
For most of my life until my early 30s, this is what I thought farming was about. You work hard to grow corn and soybeans to sell at the elevator and hope that the price and government subsidies are enough to make it another year.
Then I was introduced to the idea of organic farming. This was the beginning of my journey into the world of farming as it once was—and needs to once again become.
The concept of agroecology brings farming to the next level, taking into account the farm’s relationship to the environment as an integral part of an ecosystem. Dr. Stephen R. Gliessman, longtime director of the Agroecology program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, defined the idea as “a whole-systems approach to food, feed, and fiber production that balances environmental soundness, social equity, and economic viability among all sectors of the public.” This is not just a system of growing food but a return to the culture in agriculture.
To understand agroecology as a whole, you must first look at its parts, which include using renewable resources, decreasing the use of toxics, conserving resources, managing ecological relationships, and adjusting to the local environment while maintaining diversity.
While these ideas may seem separate, they continually intertwine. For example, you could use legumes to fix nitrogen in the soil. This renewable resource allows you to avoid using a chemical fixer, which in turn, helps to conserve the soil. In one small act, you have upheld three basic ideas of agroecology.
Relationships are what really make agroecology something unique in the world of farming. Most conventional farming (a strange term considering that our modern farming techniques are barely older than my grandparents) is about controlling the natural surroundings so that something foreign can be introduced. This can take shape in the form of killing native grasses and “weeds,” killing all insects, and chasing away or even killing native animal species. On the other hand, agroecology strives to work in unison with what nature and evolution have put into place in each particular area. Agroecologists may face the same issues as any farmer, but they adapt to the obstacles instead of just tearing them down. A farm only becomes stronger when it interacts symbiotically with native surroundings.
These concepts can be applied in any home garden. For example, instead of killing weeds, surround them with taller plants (to receive more of the sun’s rays), that have a deeper roots system (to better absorb water and nutrients). Also, plants can be grown that will attract more local beneficial insects, which will not only promote the growth of some plants, but keep less beneficial insects at bay. Some weeds will even attract parasitic insects away from other food crops.
Another important relationship in agroecology involves crop rotation. Selecting certain crops to be planted in the same area after another crop has been harvested can build stronger soil. When the same crops are planted season after season and year after year, the soil becomes depleted and barren. This is why many farmers use chemical fertilizers. This quick-fix attempt to solve a long evolving problem demonstrates the current fast food culture that has taken over much of the world. Unfortunately, chemical fertilizers do not rebuild the soil; the next monocrop that is planted only recreates the damage.
A key issue for everyone in California right now is water. Agroecology answers the call by relying on efficient irrigation systems and dry farming. Dry farming is mostly used in areas receiving less than 20 inches of rainfall per year. It normally involves planting drought tolerant or drought evasive crops, combined with a fine surface tilth or mulching to preserve as much moisture in the ground as possible.
One of the most efficient irrigation systems used is drip irrigation. This technique has been around for hundreds of years. Its origins are in the use of clay pots filled with water that would slowly seep into the ground. Today’s methods can involve drip tape, tubes, and pipes with valves. The idea is to get water directly to the root zone by decreasing the evaporation of surface water. This technique is in direct opposition to the sprinkler irrigation systems found on most conventional monocrop farms. Large sprinklers are less efficient at getting water to the root zones—and this translates into wasting a vital resource.
Gary Paul Nabhan, writer, ethnobotanist, and professor, best described what the science of agroecology is at the 2009 Ecological Farming Conference, when he said that we should use the “cultural wisdom of time-tried local knowledge infused with scale appropriate scientific methods.” This is what agroecology is all about: using techniques that have evolved in nature combined with what we have learned in creating a symbiotic relationship.
The concept of sustainability must also be applied economically in today’s world of bottom lines. The farmer needs to be able to survive. Agroecology encompasses an overall ideal of maximizing long term benefits. Today’s prevalence of quick profits gained through unsustainable means does not fit the vision of the system. This is an updated rural tale of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” The slow and steady use of natural techniques will bring more profits over a longer period, as most costs are incurred in the initial stages in an agroecological system.
Conversely, large scale monocrop systems never see the costs go down. There are always fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to buy—let alone buying seed. The agroecological method requires the saving of seed as varieties continue to adapt with each generation.
The development of alternative markets is a key element of agroecology. This involves farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), selling value added products such as jams and sauerkraut, and even holding classes on farms so others may learn. The locavore movement is gaining popularity as many more restaurants and schools are discovering the advantages of local produce. Less energy, fresher products, and better taste make local food a winning solution for everyone. Eating within one’s bioregion was the most common way to eat for millennia.
The concept of eating local food has also tied in nicely with the social ideal of agroecology. There is more connection between the farmer and the consumer as they meet each other in alternative markets. Both sides are empowered; the consumer can actually meet the people who have spent several months growing the food they are about to eat and the farmer gets the opportunity to see firsthand what the market wants—rather than depending on a price set in some city far removed from the field. Believe it or not, the industrialized food system has made it common for food grown in one community to be sold at a market hundreds of miles away, and then re-imported back into the original community. Is this really a good use of dwindling resources?
Agroecology is attempting to reconnect a population with both its food and the natural environment. It is seeking not only to create a holistic food system that works in natural patterns, but one that maintains the bioregions that political maps have dissected. If society continues down the path of factory-made foods, we will become increasingly dependent on the revelations of mechanization, moving further and further away from our historic roots upon the land.
If we are to have a sustainable food system, we must help to further this culture of agroecology. Fortunately, the trend of farmers markets is on the rise and has nearly doubled in number over the last 10 years. We need more regional outlets for locally produced items, such as restaurants and grocery stores, to take hold of this ideal and help further the movement. As the price of farmland has almost tripled in the past 10 years due to the value of development, less and less acres are being farmed. Without local markets that make it worthwhile, it’s no wonder that so many of these farmers have sold their land.
Barely half of all organic farmers in California are able to live on farm earnings alone. More organic farmers have second jobs than those that don’t. If farmers are unable to live off what the farm can produce, how is that sustainable?
It’s time that we show agroecologists that we respect what they do and appreciate the quality foods they provide. Let’s start having a relationship with our farmers again. Find the sustainable farmers in your area and support them with your dollars. Frequent local farmers markets. Take part in a CSA. Shop at a local independent food store or cooperative. Get to know where your food really comes from. Or take the next step to empower yourself—get your hands in the soil and plant a seed. Nothing tastes sweeter than food that’s grown in your own backyard.
Explore the educational resources available at www.eco-farm.org and www.agroecology.org. Check out such grassroots organizations as www.sandiegoroots.org and www.sdfoodnotlawns.com. Doug Zilm is on the Board of Directors for San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project, as well as a worker member of Ocean Beach People’s Organic Foods Market. He can be reached at doug@sandiegoroots.org.