A mixed farming model for sustainable food production

[bower]

I thought this was interesting, as an alternative model of how to produce food while balancing agricultural emissions.
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-farming-m ... ivity.html
According to the research, mixed farming that includes fruit, nuts, vegetables, grain, cattle and feed for the cattle, and uses manure instead of chemical ferts, could produce all the food needed in the USA with zero emissions and just a 20% reduction in the amount of beef in the diet.
Not saying that this will actually happen but it's nice to see someone thinking the alternatives through.
Some advocates would like to see zero animals in agriculture, and mass production of soy protein with chemical ferts somehow being a better way to address our food footprint. I definitely like the mixed model better. What do you think.

[Amateurinawe]

Farming differently seems to be a theme for the future. The British government is said to be offering a scheme to help some older farmers retire and as a response to the withdrawal from the EU and subsidies. I think the hope is that also a newer generation of farmers will come along embracing newer more green agricultural methods and enable older farmers to retire and sell up if they choose to.

[Cole_Robbie]

One acre of hemp takes 40,000 pounds of co2 out of the air.

[bower]

[mention]Cole_Robbie[/mention] there may be someone out there willing to pay you for the carbon you can store in the soil. IDK if or when this will be the norm, a second paycheck for your 'carbon' crop. Saw this article today, which doesn't say a lot new since the last time I saw it discussed.
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-carbon-crop-future.html
There are still some mysteries to me, the amount of C storeable depending on the existing soil, depth, other variables. not even sure how sequestered carbon is measured. But there is the 4 per mille movement, which afaict on my math, amounted to adding about 1/2 inch of compost to the upper 30 cm of cultivated soil.

[karstopography]

Small scale, mixed use sounds attractive anyway with or without any Carbon benefits but all the better if it is a benefit. Sounds more in line with perhaps how farming was generally conducted centuries before this more recent era.

But, it also strikes me as interesting that agriculture gets the amount of attention it does in relation to the mitigation of greenhouse gases as agricultural activity is only accountable for 10% of the pie of the total anthropogenic greenhouse emissions, in the USA anyway. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/source ... -emissions

Why put the focus and onus on the 10% when so much can be done to improve the other 90%? So much could be accomplished simply without destroying general wealth, health and prosperity, but I digress.

Sure, make improvements on agriculture, I suppose it can’t hurt. The price of beef these days all by itself reduces my consumption by way more than 20%. I’m not married to beef or any of it. I’m married to quality and price. Great quality and low cost, motivates my food purchases.

Do people shop such as “I must make steak tonight because it’s Tuesday and we always have steak on Tuesday” and basically either disregard the increased price or just grumble about it and buy it anyway? Or do they shop based on seasonality, quality, price, availability?

I guess if such and such vegetables or meat gets more expensive based on changes in farming, I’m going to alter what I eat or find cheaper or better alternatives. Maybe this isn’t so for others? Maybe some people food choices and food purchases are set in rock hard stone, is that the case do you think?

If wheat gets more expensive based on wholesale changes in agriculture to help mitigate greenhouse gases, I’ll eat less wheat based bread products. If beef gets more expensive, I’ll eat less of that. Do most people behave similarly or is this not the case? Seriously, I wonder how people in general are. I know my wife had a coworker that had the same menu and routine on food week after week with virtually zero deviation. Is that scenario more common than I suppose?

[Paulf]

No matter what some writers, activists or bureaucrats think this country is way too large with wide ranging geographical and climate differences for a cookie cutter, one size fits all solution. It seems that our agricultural professionals...i.e. farmers and ranchers, specialize in what works best for them in their area. Some do meat, some grains, some fruits and vegetables, some raise crops not aligned with food production. A vast majority of farmers and ranchers are so far ahead of the sustainable curve for their specific crops and areas this kind of topic is basically a joke. I can specifically say this for the midwest farmer, they are far more the conservationists than the media portrays.

Yes, chemical runoffs have an effect on our lands and waters, but these guys have been working to reduce problems for years while keeping production up to feed the country. It has taken generations to get where we are and most likely more time and effort is needed, but none work harder to fix the problems than the agricultural professionals.

[Cole_Robbie]

Even better than letting a hemp crop decompose into the soil, which is mostly a temporary sequestration, is to make something out of the material. Then the carbon stays inside. Insulation inside new home construction would be an excellent place to store that carbon, as it also increases efficiency and reduces fuel demand.

Hemp can be made into plastic, too. It does not become profitable until the price of oil hits the level of $4 per gallon gasoline, which is why it isnt common. I think that is probably why we won't see gas get more expensive than that in the us, similar to how it won't ever stay below $2 very long, since at that point fracking becomes unprofitable.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]karstopography[/mention] Actually it's thursday....

[stone]

Do people shop such as “I must make steak tonight because it’s Tuesday and we always have steak on Tuesday” and basically either disregard the increased price or just grumble about it and buy it anyway? Or do they shop based on seasonality, quality, price, availability?

We are creatures of habit...
Remember all those people working in those animal processing plants being declared "essential workers" And required to work covid or not?

Or how news worthy it was when the meat industry got Ransomware attacked... People were worried about shortages...

Nuts! I have a vegetarian cookbook... I don't have to eat other animals...

I do have chickens...They help in the rotation... They also figure in my diet... But... I apologize to the animal before eating it...
The coolest story I ever heard concerned a vegetarian that turned up his nose at the animal offering, but went out in the garden and started yanking stuff out of the ground without even a thought toward offering a prayer for those being sacrificed...

In The Restaurant at the end of the Universe... We had a conversation with the critter that we were about to consume... A little more awareness of where that meat comes from would do us all a lot of good...

Food shouldn't come wrapped in plastic...

[stone]

While we are studying on new (old) models of increasing the productivity of the land, while avoiding further degradation...

Maybe reconsider whether those pristine gardens and fields are appropriate?
Here's a missive from 1950... Already recognizing that chem farming was leaving a lot to be desired...

http://www.naturalsequencefarming.com/p ... 283%29.pdf

God didn't make weeds...

[Growing Coastal]

Interesting reading, Stone.

[Donnyboy]

My wife and I have not eaten a steak in a year. It isn't a moral decision or a health decision. I simply feel we must draw the line somewhere. I draw the line at fake shortages to cause prices to increase. I live in cattle and horse country. I see the beef cattle crowding the farms and ranches awaiting the trip to the slaughter houses or the feed lots for additional fattening before slaughter. Many horses are awaiting a trip south to the slaughter houses in Mexico where it is legal. It is a cruel, inhumane business.

[Cole_Robbie]

My wife and I have not eaten a steak in a year. It isn't a moral decision or a health decision. I simply feel we must draw the line somewhere. I draw the line at fake shortages to cause prices to increase. I live in cattle and horse country. I see the beef cattle crowding the farms and ranches awaiting the trip to the slaughter houses or the feed lots for additional fattening before slaughter. Many horses are awaiting a trip south to the slaughter houses in Mexico where it is legal. It is a cruel, inhumane business.

There is no shortage of cows. There is a shortage of slaughterhouse workers. My girlfriend has cattle. It is over a one year wait in my area to get a cow slaughtered.

Excessive government regulation under the guise of safety has bottlenecked our meat production. I have to haul a cow one hour if I want to eat it myself, but the nearest slaughterhouse with usda certification is almost three hours away. I have a freezer full of beef right now that is legal to give away, but illegal to sell.

[stone]

There is no shortage of cows. There is a shortage of slaughterhouse workers. My girlfriend has cattle. It is over a one year wait in my area to get a cow slaughtered.

Excessive government regulation under the guise of safety has bottlenecked our meat production.

I suggest reading "Toxin" by Robin Cook...
Might give you a different perspective on those "excessive" regulations...

Might also want to watch "The Poison Squad":
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-poison-squad-5sf93j/
Kind of shocking what the industry has passed off as "food" without those regulations!

And.... As the industry is being given permission to increase the speed of those production lines AND self regulate... it gets ever more dire...

Remember chicken poisoning all those people? Put them in the hospital, and the company responsible refused to recall the batch responsible (for 16 months!)?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... edirect=in

[Cole_Robbie]

There is no shortage of cows. There is a shortage of slaughterhouse workers. My girlfriend has cattle. It is over a one year wait in my area to get a cow slaughtered.

Excessive government regulation under the guise of safety has bottlenecked our meat production.

I suggest reading "Toxin" by Robin Cook...
Might give you a different perspective on those "excessive" regulations...

Might also want to watch "The Poison Squad":
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-poison-squad-5sf93j/
Kind of shocking what the industry has passed off as "food" without those regulations!

And.... As the industry is being given permission to increase the speed of those production lines AND self regulate... it gets ever more dire...

Remember chicken poisoning all those people? Put them in the hospital, and the company responsible refused to recall the batch responsible (for 16 months!)?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... edirect=in

The idea of regulations makes the assumption that the government is not corrupt. I think big ag loves regulation, because it is their lobbyists who are writing the rules, and they use that opportunity to squeeze out small producers from the marketplace.

My former wife is from a small island nation and it was very eye opening to spend some time there. Compared to the us, it is a lawless land, at least safety laws. There is no regulation at all. You can have a restaurant in your front yard and a bar in your backyard, no licenses required. There is no food inspection of any kind. And their society gets along just fine, without the thousands of ridiculous safety rules that we have been conditioned to accept.

[bower]

There is something about the due process of law having to be timely. I know a couple of years ago they started throwing criminal cases out of court in my country, due to being held up for so long. IMO it Should be the same for regulations. If they can't provide timely inspectors etc as required by all producers, then the system falls apart.
The food regulations to some extent are required because of big ag. The kind of things that would not happen with a mom and pop business serving local clientele. One bad event, you would be out of business permanently. Mass production, who really cares what they pump out as long as they have a selling machine to move it. They can move enough stuff to write off the fines and settlements if somebody dies....

[Pippin]

A problem with small scale farming is low income and low productivity. Food is simply too cheap if one needs to produce with low tech and labor incentive methods. Even when the price level in farmer’s markets seem high, the farmers themselves makes often very little money. There are not that many people that in long term choose poverty and slavery over easier options to make a living.

One needs to produce more high value produce with less inputs. Often it means industrialized farming with big machinary, large fields with monoculture, other times exploitation of manual labor or other sources of cheap workforce. It is very difficult to see that a mixed small scale farming would provide such a big productivity jump that it would resolve anything in the bigger picture. If such method helps small scale farmers producing high value produce with less costs, then the method has little hope to survive a little longer. Or we need to star paying more from this type of climate friendly food. Philosophy and moral values very rarely fills an empty stomach.

[bower]

Very true Pippin. Farmers shouldn't have to take a vow of poverty to put food on our tables.
A model is just a model. It doesn't account for any of the factors that cause losses in farming. There are a few assumptions given in the summary, such as "ample rainfall". The actual scale of farms and how it would be economically sound isn't specified in the article, but I would not assume that no machinery is used.
I believe there is a middle ground somewhere between monocultures and subsistence with small surpluses, where machines can be used but the diversity of land use is sufficient to support natural pest control. But the consumer will ultimately pay more for sustainably produced food, I think that is inevitable.
Converting farm machinery to electric would be an interesting step to reduce emissions, along with low till and other practices which are becoming commonplace even in bigger farm enterprises, because they benefit the soil health and output too.
I like the idea of incorporating tree crops into the landscape on a regular basis, and this has real benefits for the land as well. Trees can even affect your rainfall although again I'm not sure on what scale that would be the case; all perennials do aid in moisture retention though. And interrupting fields with perennial or tree crops also catches runoff and reduces the N emissions flow if properly designed.
And of course, keeping animals, growing food for them, and having them as an on-farm source of fertilizer is a traditional model that really works. Low output is not a problem when there is enough fertilizer for your crops in organic systems.