Sustainable Agriculture Across the World and For the World
With the rising temperatures around the world due to climate change, agriculture must evolve. But how? Today is Inspiration Monday – “Sustainable Agriculture Across the World and for the World.” Your Positive Imprint Inspirations.
Guests:
Master gardener and composter Marion Owen who’s also a gardening author, blog writer and gardening columnist. Ep. 4.
Andrew Bracken creates public and private partnerships to invest in sustainable agriculture for small farmers across the globe. Eps. 50 and 88.
Sigrid Drage of Ep. 52 is a permaculture farmer in Austria. She applies ecological principles found in nature.
Christine Deck of Deck family farms- Deck Family Farms practices a long-term approach in developing a sustainable livestock operation. Ep. 53.
This is global food security on a planet where climate change is affecting food supplies. Sustainable agriculture across the world and for the world.
Transcript
We don't just garden for us.
Marion Owen:We garden for birds, we garden for other people, we garden for insects.
Marion Owen:It's all inclusive.
Andrew Bracken:Our goal is to create public private partnerships, to invest in sustainable agriculture,
Andrew Bracken:that benefits small farmers across the world
Andrew Bracken:that are sustainable environmentally and that will provide real incomes to small farmers so
Andrew Bracken:they can have a livelihood out of agriculture.
Catherine:Global food security does it really exist?
Sigrid:So in permaculture, we're talking about the permaculture system and, it should be like
Sigrid:the natural ecosystem, where, for example, the forest, the trees are connected to the soil and the
Sigrid:animals are connected to the plants and they share a lot of knowledge and also, nutrients and water
Sigrid:and together they can function as this whole system.
Andrew Bracken:From the moment you pick a tomato, for example, that tomato is starting to
Andrew Bracken:degrade because it's no longer really living.
Andrew Bracken:It's important to keep that tomato in the best conditions possible- to keep it out
Andrew Bracken:of dust, to keep it out of the sunlight.
Andrew Bracken:And so that might involve, improving transportation or packaging it in better crates
Andrew Bracken:. Marion Owen: It's like having money in the bank
Andrew Bracken:or go to a local market and support the farmers.
Sigrid:Gardening.
Sigrid:I think it's a very inspiring thing to do.
Deck Farms:You want to come to work and feel good about what you're doing.
Deck Farms:So we hope that the animals are comfortable.
Deck Farms:Healthy.
Marion Owen:As we become more concerned about food security, where it comes from the inputs,
Marion Owen:GMO processing, et cetera, I think it's more important to learn where your food comes from.
Deck Farms:Environmental stewardship, humane handling, transparency and sustainability,
Deck Farms:both environmentally and monetarily.
Sigrid:We also have losses to different kinds of insects but then I think we just accept it.
Sigrid:It's sometimes it's not so easy now because there's, insect they also belong to this
Sigrid:ecosystem and it's normal in our fruit garden.
Sigrid:The chicken, they really have an important job.
Deck Farms:Our biggest defense around predation is just putting animals away.
Deck Farms:That's how we try to not have those losses.
Deck Farms:As we just try to work with the natural wildlife.
Andrew Bracken:We're trying to provide farmers with tools to mitigate the impact of climate change because
Andrew Bracken:the changes are happening, happening so rapidly.
Catherine:It's about global food security on a planet where climate change is affecting food supplies
Sigrid:We really try to, to figure out climate friendly ways of, of cultivation and also,
Sigrid:try to prepare our farm for these changes.
Catherine:What seed can we use that's going to grow in these changing climates and it is rapid.
Andrew Bracken:In recent centuries, Kenyan farmers have planted maze corn . But with
Andrew Bracken:climate change, the rains are less predictable.
Marion Owen:Everything here is enhanced by a compost, which we make year round from kelp and
Marion Owen:even Buffalo poop kitchen scraps and leaves that we rake up in the fall even Alaska that we can
Marion Owen:then spread all over our lawn and our raised beds.
Sigrid:In the European union, we have, , organic farming law.
Marion Owen:Gardening.
Marion Owen:I'm not the grower.
Marion Owen:I am just the cheerleader.
Marion Owen:There is something bigger than me, I couldn't create broccoli.
Marion Owen:But I can be a cheerleader to nurture it the best I can.
Marion Owen:And so if I can instill that on somebody else to realize we're just here on the planet for
Marion Owen:a short time, do our best, listen within as much as we can and let the plants talk to us,
Marion Owen:. Deck Farms: Humane certified would vary from
Marion Owen:have the principles of plenty of fresh air, plenty of open area to move about and somewhat
Marion Owen:mimic what would be in a natural environment.
Sigrid:In permaculture, we don't want to use drinking water for irrigation
Sigrid:. So what we do is we collect rainwater falling on
Sigrid:use it for the toilet and dishwasher and so on.
Sigrid:On every side of of the house is a pond where we collect the water.
Marion Owen:There is no such failure in the garden.
Marion Owen:The worst thing that happens is it goes into the compost pile.
Marion Owen:It's not a big deal.
Marion Owen:We learn by experience.
Deck Farms:Humane, certified farm is doing everything they can to make the animal healthy and happy.
Deck Farms:Humane handling the people that work here, really learning about the care of animals.
Deck Farms:Again, they're not production units, they're sentient beings that, have feelings
Deck Farms:and need a level of care and then environmental low environmental impact.
Marion Owen:Let's get out of our boxes and realize that there's more happening.
Marion Owen:I realized I just have to empty out my cup and then fill it with what really matters.
Sigrid:I was very inspired because of permaculture, because it's not mainly the
Sigrid:products it's really the background of nature.
Andrew Bracken:we're working on a tomato seedling project.
Andrew Bracken:Each seed is adapted to the local environment.
Sigrid:The idea of permaculture is to design gardens or farms or cities, in
Sigrid:relation to this whole system thinking.
Sigrid:It's a holistic way of designing.
Deck Farms:What your animals are eating is, has a pretty big impact on what your body's intaking.
Deck Farms:. Andrew Bracken: What unfortunately happens
Deck Farms:don't have the money to move their animals.
Deck Farms:Sadly, they ended up being diseased or ended up dying.
Deck Farms:So what this insurance product does, it uses satellite imagery, to determine if there a
Deck Farms:drought conditions, if it determines drought conditions, it pays out to the farmer.
Deck Farms:And then the farmer is able to use that money to buy feed for their animals to buy water or to herd them
Deck Farms:to a place where there's more pasture and more water
Deck Farms:The point is, is that animals do have another way of communicating.
Deck Farms:And if you can move your body.
Deck Farms:Think about what you want them to do, you're a lot more successful.
Deck Farms:So it doesn't require yelling or hitting or prodding or whoop de whoop.
Deck Farms:It's a very quiet and calm atmosphere.
Deck Farms:There's only one bad day and that's the last day.
Marion Owen:And this is actually mustard, greens I have allowed to go to flower because I want
Marion Owen:to provide some food for the late pollinators.
Sigrid:They pollinate a lot of other trees and wild plants.
Sigrid:Their mission, they do it for the ecosystem.
Deck Farms:Most farmers, or at least the farmers I respect and certainly DECK
Deck Farms:see ourselves as stewards of the land.
Deck Farms:We want all those animals in our ecosystem.
Deck Farms:We know it's healthy when there's Eagles flying and owls at night and there's coyotes and cougars.
Deck Farms:I mean, all those things build a healthy ecosystem.
Deck Farms:So we don't want to eradicate.
Sigrid:So I think that the small holder farming is a small scale farming is a very, a
Sigrid:good way ecological way for, for the future.
Catherine:I know it's a lot of work,
Andrew Bracken:my word or positive imprint is partnership.
Andrew Bracken:It's very meaningful because it means bringing together disparate groups who don't normally work together
Andrew Bracken:and trying to achieve a better, more positive impact.
Sigrid:I think there are a lot of things we could do which can make life easier, also inspiring.
Marion Owen:There's no stopping and starting.
Marion Owen:It's just a continual flow.
Marion Owen:And the more that we as humans realize that we too are a continual flow, we
Marion Owen:don't start and stop with living or dying,
Catherine:You're throwing in your positive imprint.