Perhaps agriculture itself is the problem

Stock photo of industrial agriculture. I will admit it’s a beautiful depiction of a wheat harvest. This is truly a degenerative farming system. It provides no ecosystem services and only cheap “food.” Very easy to control nature, valuate the land for taxation, etc.

A food forest. Primarily consisting of perennial, edible plants. Mimicking nature to it’s greatest extent possible. Annual plants and domestic animals can easily be integrated into this system. This truly mimics nature. Very hard for governments and corporations to attach a value to such a system.

“Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago.” This is the common definition of agriculture. Agriculture has existed for about ten thousand years. We, Homo sapiens, have been around for somewhere between one and two million years according to archeologist. Let’s settle on a million years just to be conservative. That means for a minute portion of our existence we have practiced agriculture and for the remainder of our existence we were primarily hunter/gatherer societies (foragers).

I think that we can all agree that the focus of agriculture is to eliminate the wild and domesticate us. One could argue that regenerative agriculture is the solution to agriculture with an ecological balance. I’m not entirely certain that’s true. We practice what I consider “regenerative agriculture” here at Parker Creek Ranch that primarily focuses on animal production systems. We do our best to mimic nature and the natural cycles of life. I could poke holes in it all day long about why it’s not truly regenerative by definition. Our system is still highly dependent on fossil fuels and taming the landscape. Our flock of laying hens still relies heavily on grain that is grown on industrial farms, milled and transported via fossil fuels. Our cattle, though grass-fed and foraging on the natural landscape, still must be hauled a hundred miles to be processed at a USDA facility so that I am allowed to sell individual cuts of beef to customers. Though we try our best to minimize it there is a lot of waste within our system. A small town of five hundred people is only a few miles from the farm and another of more than five thousand is less than 15 miles, yet I can count on one hand how many people within the community purchase their food from us. 99% of our market is in the greater San Antonio area that requires traveling to and from a distance of 50 plus miles each direction. Due to our fast-paced modern lifestyles it is simply inconvenient and much easier to simply visit a one-stop-shop grocery store. I am not blaming or pointing fingers at anyone. We still shop at HEB for a good portion of our grocery needs. Does our farm regenerate the soil? I can without a doubt answer yes, but is that all that regenerative agriculture encompasses? I don’t think it is or should be, but that is the primary focus of regenerative agriculture. And if it is then we have failed to acknowledge the other fundamental aspects of our existence. To be clear, I am not attacking farmers. For goodness sake I am one and I have many friends that are farmers. My aim is to simply have a discussion about the existence of agriculture and what that means to our modern culture and society. Ultimately I might offer some solutions to the dilemma.

I recently listened to a talk given by Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden and Permaculture City, gave at the Permaculture Voice’s Conference from March of 2015 titled Liberation Permaculture. I have listened to this talk at least ten times. There is a ton of information to divulge. I really believe he was onto something big and I think it’s information worth sharing. I hope that you take the time to listen to his talk and study his books. The following is a summary of Toby’s talk as well as my own commentary.

According to anthropologists there are three primary degrees of human culture based on domestication: 1) Foraging or hunter/gatherer cultures, 2. The intermediate often defined as horticultural peoples. These were gardeners rather than farmers, tending plants and animals, but not fully domesticating them, and 3. agricultural peoples who fully domesticated the landscape, plants, animals and themselves.

Since our discussion for the day is focused on agricultural peoples let’s dive in a little deeper. Most agricultural societies have focused on grain agriculture and livestock production because it creates a storable surplus. Think about wheat, barley, rice, corn and so many more can be planted, harvested and then stored for very long periods of time compared to other food sources. The production of herds of cattle numbering in the dozens to thousands all controlled by one owner. This stored surplus allows you to get through the hard times. When drought or other environmental factors destroy your crop there is a surplus from the previous harvest year to fulfill your needs. Because of this you need technology to store the surplus and them process it. This storage makes us sedentary. I have seen corn stored in thatch grain bins in India that store only a hundred bushels or so and corn stored in massive steel bins holding tens of thousands of bushels in the Midwest. When we go to the effort to grow, harvest and store such massive amounts of food it gives the food source a perceived value. Because of it’s perceived value it needs protection from rodents that might damage it and less fortunate people who might steal it. You need a police force to protect the grain from being stole. You also need a person in charge to decide who gets it. In our modern world this is the government. In early agricultural societies of Europe these were Lords. Agricultural societies are almost always hierarchical. Lord is contraction of two old English words - loaf lord - which literally means the person who keeps the grain. There is a lot of power in the word “Lord,” keeper of the grains. The list goes on because you need accountants to regulate how much is distributed, the price and who gets it. Laws to define these terms and once again someone to enforce those laws. Because agriculture lends itself to a hierarchical system almost all States up until the Industrial Revolution have been slave or serf based societies. There are the “haves and have nots.” Look back at the past ten thousand years or so of agriculture and it’s not a pretty history. It requires cheap labor to plant, tend and harvest crops. Slaves and serfs were once the backbone of agriculture and now it is fossil fuels. What happens next when fossil fuels are no longer viable is uncertain. Most likely new “fuels” and technology will emerge. Agriculture inevitably eliminates functional ecosystems and makes Nature the enemy. The “wild” is where animals that want to eat your crops come from and the “wild” people who want to take your stuff. In ten thousand years name me one ecosystem that is better off with agriculture? There isn’t one. Agriculture has allowed us to build cities where people are concentrated and all of the food is transported in from thousands of miles. It has allowed us to be sedentary in places that would have otherwise been occupied by nomadic peoples due to the seasonality of environmental extremes.

The bigger questions is how do we find balance with the natural world? This is a really complex question and the answers are equally as complex. We can’t just go backwards to a foraging society without real consequences. Our species only seems to change and evolve during true hardships. Though I would like to think that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of these times, I don’t believe it is. I’m thinking about circumstances that are much more catastrophic such as economic or political collapse. I think the answer is defined somewhere between horticultural societies and agricultural societies. Regenerative agriculture is sort of that. Like other terms, regenerative agriculture could easily get “greenwashed” and commoditized by massive corporations and big government. It’s hard to wrap your head around something that doesn’t have a clear definition, but that’s sort of the point. We don’t want it to be clearly defined. Without clear definition it’s hard for corporations and the government to put a valuation on it. Regenerative agriculture gives the power to the people, both producers and consumers.

Reading this hopefully gets you thinking outside the proverbial box. You might be thinking that I am being unreasonable. There is a lot of dark stuff within the history of agriculture. I participate in that system on a daily basis and try to create positive change, but I have my concerns. I truly believe that agriculture may very well be the problem and a “new” type of agriculture, defined as regenerative is also the solution.