Farming methods and the ethos of OurField Weston

@stevenjacobs Over to you here, Steve..

Thanks, yes I'm writing it now. I hope to get it posted here this weekend. Scribble Scribble smiley bespectacled face.

Steve Jacobs writes

Good morning.

Here is a sort of rough intro to farming methodology. Its really just a way to introduce the topic, and the context. A starter for ten and then hopefully will help stimulate discussion.

We can approach food production as a way to get calories and nutrients or as a way to enhance and enrich our lives and the landscape we live within or a myriad of ways in between.

We can see food production as a part of the whole, the whole being, the whole existence, the entire life cycle. Things grow, they die, then the dead feeds new life and so it goes. This starts with microorganisms and as far as we know it never ends. Things eat things then die and are, in turn, eaten. Energy is cycled again, and again. Transformative processes cycling and evolving.

How to grow food is one part of the story. And a complex one too. Then there’s harvesting, transport, storage, processing, preparing, packaging, retailing and all along the way is the grading and sorting and regrading. And there’s the cooking, baking, brewing, preserving, and of course there is the consumption and in time there is the decomposition and the composting.

Farming practices are intrinsically linked with all of this. And all of this is intrinsically linked to and from farming. Before the turning of a single sod of earth, before a seed is purchased it can be helpful to properly consider the details of how the resulting crop is going to grow, be harvested and so on, then there’s market availability, market demand, logistics and so it goes.

Tillage refers to the preparation and maintenance of the ground. Tillage covers everything from deep mouldboard ploughing to light harrowing. All the tools have their specialist function, some are multifunctional. Ploughing is a way to reduce weed burden and by changing soil particle size and relationship to a more homogeneous state the aim is to improve the condition of the ground to aid food production.

Reducing tillage helps to ameliorate some of the negative effects that result from using the plough. Soil disturbance is not all bad, but there is, as always, a balance to be struck.

No tillage is a method with a number of different versions but in essence it involves sowing the seed directly into the ground through the layer of previous plant material that must now be dead. This approach has its challenges. How to ensure the plant matter of the preceding crop is dead and doesn’t regrow to compete with the new food crop and how to ensure seed is delivered carefully and successfully into the soil.

Also available for farmers are other tools and techniques. Crop rotation is a topic all of its own. Inputs such as manures, minerals, artificial and natural fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. These range from animal waste to beetle banks to potash to soft soap, to ammonium nitrate to glyphosate and so on. Then there’s mono-cropping, multi-cropping, inter-cropping. Agroforestry is becoming better known now with people starting to look in increasing detail at ways to better work with crops and with trees.

It is fair to say that all approaches to food production have positives and negatives.

A big question also is how food production practices and the resulting food operates also within the wider food paradigm. Do we grow tomatoes under glass or import from southern Spain? Do we have the equipment and the knowledge to grow and roll our own oats, considering that oats need heat treatment to stabilise the natural enzyme or the fat in the oat will turn rancid very quickly once rolled. Can we de-hull the spelt, or do we have a de-huller within reach?

A lot of things to consider.

A good starting point, as we have done, is to find a friendly and experienced grower. John is on his own journey and we are a part of that and the of our journey.

I’ve not here yet gone into any detail on soils and soil borne organisms, plant soil and organism relationships, the benefits of encouraging biodiversity, permacultural techniques including edge design, zoning and multifunctional elements. And there is so much more. Lets discuss what we each of us has come across or are curious about.

I’m very happy to discuss all of the above. In great detail.

Cheers, Steven

Tony Allen replies

Dear Steven Very many thanks for starting the discussion. You have very usefully identified the huge scope of the topic. The literature is (too ) rich. We are after all engaging with society's oldest industry and its oldest 'market' system. Unfortunately it turns out that there are some 'failed' markets because the political imperative is to provide under priced food for (some) under paid people. Putting the food system in place has involved many experiments that worked spectacularly well and many that did not. We have a food system that has locked in many bad practices that are currently held in place by corporate interests that are hard to contend with. A number of them are on the farm but most are in the political economy of the food system and its supply chains.

A very important feature of the OurField Weston project is that it has become part of a global farmer led initiative that is bringing back practices that are consistent with sustainable ecosystems and human health. The other major virtue of the project is the link that has been created between a farmer and some food consumers. I could provide a analytical structure that would help in the discussion of farming and food supply chain issues. And I could also suggest some key publications. However, as an author of chapters and articles on the subject I am very aware that people are too busy to read much.

Grahame, could we start a segment of our Loomio pages entitled something such as - Sustainable farming and the food system. Those who want to contribute on this topic could do so and those who don't, need not open the string. Tony

Lets keep it in this thread; I can change the name if it proves inaccurate for what is being discussed. g

Thank you @johnanthonyallan and yes I agree there is a rising tide that we are a part of and the links from farmer or producer to the consumer or 'citizen consumer' or just ‘people’ (as in people who are not paid by the food industry) are key points. And critical to the growth of good food is a better understanding among us all what each of us has as sets of challenges and opportunities.

And your work, Tony, on water is one very good way to look look at how the strings run through the whole system. Another string that runs through it all can include soils.

I think that the myth of specialisation must be exploded. It is not an efficient way to proceed. Specialisation is inefficient. It is wasteful to fragmentise like is currently the practice in large scale food systems. The benefit is short term and restricted to a few who have an amount of financial independence. The rest of us end up with a seriously restricted set of choices. A choice editing not of our own design. And of course the impact on environmental resources that results from ‘specialisation’ and its inherent disconnecting approach is terrible and causes much misery.

By uncoupling food from this is how commodification is justified, but of course only in economic terms as outlined above.

And its a busy and complex story. By its very existence OurField challenges this model. And offers an alternative.

So, yes, I think an analytical discussion on these topics would be good for us here. Not sure how to break it all down. Do you have thoughts on this? Start with soil? Or with nutrition? Or…?

Happy to have your thoughts on this and very happy to speak with you about these things whenever convenient. In case is of use to you my email address - [email protected]

Cheers,
Steven

Dear Steven

Farming methods and the ethos of OurField Weston

Thank you Syeven for your comments.

The great thing about being associated with farming is that it is can only be interdisciplinary with farmers providing productive services and ecosystem services and nutritional services. They also need to make a livelihood. The [failed] market in which they operate in the UK and similar economies have prices that only cover about 70% of the costs of production. We are only at the beginning of having a system that pays farmers for stewardship services of water, soil, biodiversity, the atmosphere and animal welfare. The nutritional services are also not captured.

My entry point is water. I recognise that it is only one of the inputs that farmers manage. In practice farmers, food consumers and legislators are all unaware of the high proportion of our water consumption that is managed by farmers. They manage about 92% of it. Only about 8% of the water consumed by society is domestic and industrial water.

How do we help put in place a food system that:

1 Provides food production services that sustainably manage the ecosystems on which they depend?

2 That provides farmers - land owners, tenants and farm labour - with sustainable livelihoods?

The food system and ethics
Food production is the first of three parts of the system. The second is food commodity trading, processing, manufacturing, and [super]marketing. The third is food consumption. The members of the OurFieldWeston2 activity are part of the system as food consumers making food choices and wasting - or not - food. John and a few others are food producers. It would be useful to have a better sense of those who make inputs to the system beyond the farm gate.

My contention is that society and the environment pays a price for our food system that delivers under priced food to under paid people. For politicians it is an imperative to do have affordable food on the shelves. The system is, however, proving to be very bad for Natures' ecosystems and for human health. It is also bad for animal welfare and many under paid people that work on farms.

Many thanks for your email. Mine is [email protected]. It would be good to speak. I am based in north-west London. Where are you based?

Best

TonyA

Hello all,

Thanks for the discussion about what to plant. I found it really interesting and it raised several areas for me to think more about over the coming months/season.

I’d like to understand more about the soil and it's condition in OurField. The type of soil a variety is suited to keeps cropping up as I read, so some more info on this would be very helpful. @abbyrose how did the soil tests go? Do you have any results in yet that you could share :)

I’ve seen heritage/landrace grains mentioned by a few other people too in the discussion about what to plant (perhaps @bench). I’m also interested in this idea although I don’t know a great deal about this. Generally speaking there seem to be interesting benefits of these - don’t require fertiliser/ herbicides/ are hardier /better flavour/nutrition…

This then feed in to me thinking about the connection between the ‘treatments’ we expose the field to and how this is likely to impact on the market for our crop. Using heritage grain as an example, is the market looking for organic? I can't find the thread, but someone already advised having a market in mind before deciding the crop, which makes a lot of sense, and this should help steer the conversation about what inputs are viable.

Terminating weeds - it was interesting to read about the different options for removing unwanted plants in the field and that there are non-chemical options. Thanks for the lo-down @johncherry and @stevenjacobs additional info & links to crimping videos

@grahamehunter is it possible to keep the 'What shall we plant' thread open so we can continue to share research and ideas for the 2018 autumn crop?

Lucy thanks for all your thoughts! Unfortunately we didn't get round to doing OurField that day as we started on some other fields. But I do intend to go back in the next few weekends and help John do the OurField soil tests. They are pretty easy to do so if any of you wanted to come along we could do them together. I will have to check with @johncherry to see when is a good time for us to help him with this.

Hey @abbyrose thanks for the update. I’d be very happy to come help with the soil tests so hope to be available on the date that’s decided :)