Growing Transition Solutions
Food Security Solutions
The Primrose Model arguably exhibits the highest productivity of food from any piece of land in the UK. This together with the Cuban model must contribute towards providing a solution to future food security.
Food security in less industrialized nations
Incongruously many of the teachings towards creating the Primrose model have been learnt from the traditional sustainable farming systems in the ‘two-thirds world’. Now these have often been replaced by western agriculture practices, which are particularly inappropriate for these situations of poor soils and extremes of climate.
For example the Rift valley in Kenya used to be one of the most beautiful ecosystems in the world containing small sustainable farming units, however these have now been replaced by giant companies such as Homegrown. These provide UK supermarkets with all the beans, mange-touts etc and now more staple foods have to be imported into Kenya. The result is that the poorer people in many parts of Africa are heading towards starvation with the escalating prices that are a result of global climate and Peak Oil. Also through these highly industrialized practices the area is now a predicted ecological disaster. In order to avert mass starvation there must be a replacement of the globalised agricultural practices with the more traditional sustainable systems.
You may find the following links of interest:
Food, Finance & Climate by Vandana Shiva
Poverty & Globalisation by Vandana Shiva
Future Food Security for UK Urban Populations
UK imports 40% of its food and much is distributed via airfreight. Also 40% of the lorries on our roads are carrying food. At present there is an apparent abundance of food available to consumers. However supermarkets only have at most a few days worth of food on their shelves and when panic occurs this can disappear very rapidly. In previous times food for the cities would have been grown within or close to the cities. The Primrose Transition Model provides a solution in the blueprint for incorporation into the Transition Towns initiative.
GM is not the solution
There is now gathering evidence that GM crop productivity is no higher and can be less even than conventional crops and would be much less than transition farming. Also wildlife is diminished in GM areas compared with conventional crops and evidence suggests that human digestive microorganisms are negatively affected by consuming GM foods.
Click here to see information that demonstrates that GM is not the solution.
The English government however still considers GM a solution.
Click here to download a copy of the letter sent to all English MPs.
August 08
Dear MP,
GM Crops or The Sustainable Transition Farming Solution
We have reached a point where we must decide whether we address the present world food crisis with the vested interest Agri-Business GM option, or look for new Sustainable Food Production options such as demonstrated by the Cuban Model and the Primrose Transition Farming Model. The latter produces excellent quality food very intensively but with minimal fossil fuel inputs and it considerably enhances the natural eco-system. Also this system produces a much higher output of food per hectare than is possible with a monoculture of GM crops.
During the last 6 decades, Agri-Business has been highly supported through the existence of cheap fossil fuel and in Britain, very heavily subsidised. The cost to the Earth has also been massive, first directly through worldwide pollution, destruction of natural eco-systems and large-scale soil degradation. Secondly, indirectly through increased carbon dioxide emissions contributing towards global warming. This has been not only from increased fossil fuel use in diesel, making high-energy, consumptive fertilizers and sprays and the embodied energy of building tractors etc., but also through carbon loss from soils. It is estimated that 50% of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions over the last 100 years has been due to the mechanization and intensification of agricultural systems. The dust bowl in America has lost at least 99% of its organic matter, which has resulted in the carbon content being oxidized and entering the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. For example, soil scientists know that organic matter in soil is highly successful at holding minerals in the soil. This depletion of soil minerals will be an important contributor to the reduction of minerals that has been determined in fresh fruit and vegetables over 5 decades. Thus the real quality of food is affected.
In Third World countries, the introduction of Western Agri-Business practices has seriously reduced food security for the peoples within countries such as Africa. These environments have very extreme climatic conditions and fragile soil structures and so are very vulnerable to high chemical input and mechanized farming systems. The traditional small, sustainable farming units, which often incorporated Agroforestry practices (productive trees amongst annual and perennial food crops), provided food for communities and maintained balanced eco-systems. For example the Rift Valley in Kenya, which used to be one of the most beautiful and productive areas in the world, is now predicted to be an ecological disaster in 10-15 years through growing cash crops for the Western supermarkets. Currently, at ever-increasing cost, more food has to be imported into Kenya to feed the population. The export ‘cut-flower’ industry in Northern Africa is even worse as it is highly reliant on chemicals and vulnerable to a very fluctuated market.
In the approach that we take to address the world food shortages, it is absolutely vital, for the future health of the planet and the survival of the human race and other life forms that we also look for solutions that aim to improve the problems of global warming. This can only possibly be achieved through creating highly productive systems that work with nature. Recently, eminent scientists have stated that they have had to revise estimates as global warming is escalating at an unpredicted fast rate. Now predictions forecast our having no Arctic ice in 5 years’ time and a catastrophic global temperature rise of 40C. Even in our ‘moderate’ British climate, people who work the land can feel large and fast changes occurring in the weather patterns that will make food production increasingly more difficult ie the present monsoon-type conditions that are affecting the corn harvest.
In the Independent 19th June ‘The Minister says Britain needs GM crops’. On page 2 the environment editor highlights the scenario of this approach covering our land with ‘green concrete’ devoid of most life forms. There is a cry out for the need for scientific evidence to prove that GM crops will be massively detrimental both to the remainder of our Earth’s eco-systems and global warming. However, there is absolutely no question that in the last 6 decades, Agri-Business methods have contributed greatly to both of these. Can anyone truly say that the introduction of the GM more extreme Agri-Business practice, which is totally reliant on increasingly powerful, broad-spectrum herbicides that kill all life except the crop, will not be catastrophic to natural eco-systems and eventually to the human race? Just for example, it is predicted that when the bees are gone, the human race could die out within 4 years.
Can we in the West with our ‘civilised’ mindset say what is best for Third World countries? Should we not be working with these countries, discovering the real priority needs from the people themselves and helping them to become more self-reliant using appropriate technologies and having sustainable farming practices and being able to save their own seeds for planting, which is not possible with GM crops? We need to be consulting with people such as India’s Vandana Shiva, eminent scientist and highly respected environmental agriculture expert and Wangari Maathai, the scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner from Kenya. We should also be asking our children who I’m sure would be undoubtedly relieved and reassured, if they new that we were doing our utmost best at this moment in time, to leave them with a legacy of at least some remains of our precious Earth, with its beautiful, natural eco-systems, rather than ‘green, lifeless concrete’ that will exacerbate the present global problems at an increasingly faster rate. We will be answerable to them within 5 years.
Enclosed is the insert dealing with ‘Growing Sustainable Solutions’ from our Marketing Package for the Centre for Sustainable Food. Please read this and try to visualize the way that these Transition Farming practices that have been proved in Cuba and with the Primrose Farm model can be used to provide food in large quantities and of high quality in places where it will be needed and particularly in urban situations in a post-peak oil world. This could create a land where food is grown in healthy balance with nature and actually producing a greater output of food per hectare than is possible with GM cropping. Various types of this sustainable farming model have been tried and tested over hundreds of years in many countries and the aim is to document the Primrose Transition Farm model and create a plan of the way that this type of system can be brought into full production from a bare field within a 5 year period. Support needs to be invested in these sustainable farming systems, which can also be incorporated into community projects such as the Transition Towns’ movement.
Please make a request if you are interested to view a complete marketing package for the Centre for Sustainable Food.
Yours sincerely
Dr. Paul Benham
Project Director, Primrose Earth Awareness Trust
You may also find the following of interest:
The Green Belt Movement – Dr. Wangarai Mathai
HRH Prince Charles delivers the Sir Albert Howard Memorial Lecture
Peter Melchett: ‘Resurgence journal’ no. 255; p.32
Biofuels and high meat production are not the solution
Biofuels can consume as much energy in their production as they produce and so are not a solution to diminishing fossil fuel reserves. Also they are seriously competing with valuable land for food production.
Ruminant livestock produce high levels of methane gas which has serious consequences for climate change. Also crop production is 10 times more energy efficient than livestock and vast areas of land are taken up growing cereals for livestock feed. Thus crop production has much greater potential for feeding increasing populations from smaller areas of land.
Climate Change Solutions
Global climate change is accelerating at unpredicted fast rates with for example the Greenland and Artic Ice melting incredibly quickly. It is estimated that over the last 100 years 50% of the increase in Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is a direct result of a move towards industrialized agriculture. Now EU reports show that Food is responsible for around 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Globally, Tropical Forest deforestation and air travel are large contributors to global warming. However food also contributes very significantly. The Primrose Transition model provides a solution in 2 ways. First by having very low direct emissions (see Primrose Farm energy audit: www.primroseearthcentre.co.uk). Secondly by growing food in a way that co-exists in balance with nature, creating a beneficial natural ecosystem, positively encouraging wildlife. Thus there are a number of carbon sinks that have been developed both within and around the productive system and these help to create a very positive carbon footprint.
Peak Oil Solutions
Peak oil is now a reality and even with the current recession there are likely to be severe shortages of oil within at least 5 years. UK agriculture has been developed to be dependant on large volumes of cheap oil and 10 units of energy need to be invested to yield 1 unit of energy in the food. Already artificial fertilizer costs are becoming prohibitive. The production side is responsible for half of the food greenhouse gas emissions and industrialized farming is still heavily subsidized with eg very high tax relief for machinery purchase. Food distribution is also a great concern since the supermarkets only have a few days supply on their shelves and oil shortages will have very severe consequences.
The Primrose model provides a solution to the diminishing oil reserves, since minimal fossil fuels are used in both production and distribution and must have one of the shortest supply chains. Probably around 85% of the produce is sold to the consumer within 24hours and within 5 miles and all within 15 miles.
Health and Well-Being Solutions
Wholesome healing work
The therapeutic value of tending the land and experiencing Nature is well documented, and Care Farming has proven therapeutic benefits on many levels, and is used by some local authorities as a way of supporting community mental health. Care Farming clients not only gain practical growing experience, but have the opportunity to experience working on a holding where all processes are integrated and truly sustainable, genuinely feeding body, mind and spirit. This therapeutic value of nature and the benefit of working within sound ecological systems will appear indirectly through all education programmes. For the survival of the human race we need to learn to appreciate the inter-connectedness of all life and the supreme importance of maintaining healthy ecological systems on the planet.
The real value of food
The real quality of food has deteriorated in conventional production, since regular testing has shown reduction of mineral content in crops and presence of toxic chemicals. It has been demonstrated that physical and mental health and antisocial behaviour can be improved with a better diet, which would be available from a Transition Farming system in which the plants are able to take up plentiful nutrients and minerals from the rich fertile soil. In industrial farming systems soils have become degraded through mechanical damage and the over dependence on the artificial fertilizers N, P, & K. We encourage people to reflect on the saying that ‘We are what we eat’ and the thoughts of Hippocrates the father of medicine ‘Let food be your medicine and medicine your food.’
Community Regeneration Solutions
The Transition Farming Model involves people and not machines to produce the food. It is a good holistic way to reconnect people with land and food and is very relevant to Transition Towns and CSA’s. The benefits to people involved in the Transition Towns movement have been cited partly around introducing a common aim into the community and revitalizing its social cohesion. Many of the old annual festivals and celebrations revolved around food production and food consumption. Transition Farming calls people back to being involved with the land and growing food and this solution would have wide reaching benefits to some of the developing problems within our society.
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