Features
Over-fed and Malnourished
The soils of the world are either being worn out and left in ruins, or are being slowly poisoned. All over the world our soil fertility is being squandered. The restoration and maintenance of soil fertility has become a universal problem.
An Agricultural Testament, by Sir Albert Howard.
This was written in the 1940's and continues today as 85% of the world's agricultural land contains areas degraded by erosion, salinization, compaction, nutrient depletion, biological degradation, or pollution. The extent of agricultural soil degradation raises questions about the long-term capacity to produce food.
Diminishing nutrients
Our planet is roughly three fifths covered in water. Of the remaining two fifths a quarter is agricultural grade but three quarters of this land has poor soil fertility and about half has steep terrain. In recent decades there has been modest expansion of the global agricultural area but this is mainly due to removal of the rainforest. Intensification has been rapid, as irrigated area increased and fallow time decreased to produce more output per hectare. Agriculture faces an enormous challenge to meet the food needs of the current world population of approximately six billon and an additional 1.7 billion people over the next twenty years.
Most of the fresh produce you buy does not have anything close to the mineral profile it is supposed to have according to nutritional textbooks. This is because minerals are not manufactured by plants, whereas vitamins and phytonutrients are. Minerals have to be absorbed through the soil, and if they are not present in the soil, then the plant's roots cannot take them up, and therefore they will not be present in the plant or in the animals that graze the plants. The 'raw materials' from which foods have been manufactured are themselves often contaminated by herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, antibiotics and hormones. There has been a significant deterioration in the mineral content of foods - vegetables, fruit and meat - that may be considered the foundation of a 'good diet'. Is it being really radical to suggest there is a link between this circumstance and the rise in chronic disease conditions? In effect you can eat it but it won't feed you. I believe that in order to produce healthy food you need to have well balanced fertile soil.
So, with a world population of 9.5 billion predicted for 2150 where does this leave us? World wheat reserves are at zero in 2007. Will there be bread?
No cheap food
For my part I do not want to spend my time contributing to the degradation of soil and its food. My job, if I take it seriously, is about producing the best food that my farm can provide in a sustainable way so that the next person after me can continue to do the same. At least it offers food security to a population if all farmers have the same attitude. I believe that modern organic farming, based on sound sustainable principles is the best way to achieve high quality in food (not quality of food).
If we lose the capability of the soil to produce food we are in serious trouble. Conventional agriculture based on unsustainable practises is on the way out for the simple reason that it is not working. The learning curve draws to an end and the litany of problems left behind present themselves.
Rachel Carson remarked, "Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself…(We are) challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves."
The reality, whether we like it or not, is that the profession of farming worldwide is being marginalised by the ever increasing quest to supply food to the population at little or no financial cost. Food in Ireland is treated as a third world product and expected to be supplied at third world costs yet we farm in a first world economy. To do this short cuts have to be applied. Enormous challenges are ahead as we meet the onslaught of climate change (that is undoubtedly going to affect the useable agricultural land mass), reduced biodiversity, peak oil volatility, water shortages and the ever increasing political and commercial nonsense and interference that surrounds food.
Take the challenge
However on the positive side it is great to be involved in a business that people require your services for every single day of their lives. The only matter that remains is to convince people on how important and how fragile this link is in a society that is losing its connection with primary food producers.
My wife Patricia and I farm one hundred and fifty acres at Aughamore Organic Farm in Co. Leitrim and produce forage crops, grain (oats), lamb, beef, chicken, fruit and vegetables.
I sell produce directly from the farm to offer the best value and give me the opportunity to meet customers. I enjoy what I do and challenge you as a food producer to come join with me in helping to sustain the future of food production by becoming an organic farmer or why not start by adding organic produce to your shopping list.
