A summary of this documentary!
In her auto-biographical documentary of 2009 Rebecca Hosking tells about her search for the possibilities to make the farm she inherits from her father and uncle ready for the future. A remarkable story...
Zie voor een korte samenvatting "Een boerderij voor de toekomst"....
#00:00:10.5#
Introduction
Rebecca Hosking introduces herself, showing the Devon landscape where she grew up. She started her professional life as a wildlife film maker. She is now back to become a farmer.
In her own words:
#00:00:57.8# "But now I'm back to be a farmer, and in very interesting times. An approaching energy crisis will likely force a revolution in farming, and change the British country side for ever. It will effect what we eat, where it comes from, and even the alarming question of whether there will be enough food to keep us fed. If our farm is to survive, it will have to change. In this film I'm going to find out how to make my family farm in Devon, a farm that's fit for the future"
#00:01:53.5# She continues to describe her childhood on the farm, and how her parents encouraged her to go and find a job, and make descent living... so she did as a film maker. "But now it's time for me to come back!"
#00:03:13.3#
Her father enters the scene, saying his brother and he are well beyond the retiring age. He is happy to see that someone will continue, although he realizes it is not going to be easy.
#00:03:52.0#
Rebecca: "Many would say 'Just sell it!' That would make more money in a heartbeat, than a life time of working the land. But how can I turn my back on somewhere so beautiful? ..."
#00:04:22.1#
Farming will be a major challenge, because "the inconvenient truth is", that her farm - like all the others she knows - are "utterly dependent" on fossil fuel. This dependence is dangerous for two reasons: climate change, and the growing evidence that oil will become scarce in the near future.
Searching for answers
#00:05:21.2#
She decides to learn more from one of the most respected authorities on this subject: dr Colin Campbell, who founded the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas in 2000. In the interview he explains to Rebecca what the term "peak oil" means, and how the debate amongst experts misses the point.
He says that the vision of declining oil production in the next century - as opposed to increase in the last 150 years - is a turning point in our history.
#00:06:58.6#
With an oil refinery in the background, Rebecca realizes how much oil is needed to produce our food. She goes through the ingredients of a "garage sandwich" as a typical example, and concludes: "Basically this sandwich - like most of the food that we're eating today - is absolutely dripping in oil!"
#00:09:29.8#
Back on her farm the visit to Colin Campbell gives Rebecca a lot of food for thought. Without oil the farm would "grind to a halt pretty quickly, and we would be left with - well - a nature reserve. And nature reserves don't feed people."
#00:09:47.8#
Such a serious issue must be a concern to other farmers. At a Soil Association conference she learns that indeed other farmers are worried too.
#00:10:51.5#
At this conference Peter Melchett sums it up: "Farmers are going to have to move from ancient sunlight - using oil and gas - to using current sunlight."
#00:11:21.8#
What Rebecca hears at this farmers conference makes it clear to her, there are no easy answers. What alternatives are there? She arranges an interview via the internet with Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute.
In this interview he explains how our way of life is "fundamentally unsustainable", and just can't continue. He urges to transform farming systems quickly to avert a global catastrophe.
#00:14:45.8#
After the interview with Richard, Rebecca wonders if this means going back to hand tools and (literal) horse power... she walks over to her neighbor who knows a thing or two about that.
During this part of the film, her visit to Pearl is mixed with quotes from Colin, to show how much oil is used in producing our food. She also explains how much energy is needed on her mixed dairy- beef farm to bring in the hay for the winter.
Taking everything into account, going back to the "old ways" is not an option...
#00:20:47.3#
That's why Rebecca is fascinated to hear about Fordhall Farm, run by Charlotte and Ben Hollins. On this farm the cattle and sheep graze outside all year round, and the only machine is a quad. Charlotte explains how their cattle can live on the pasture even in winter: a result of the life time research project her father did. To her late father Arthur it came down to patient, and careful observation of natural processes.
Taking lessons from the woodland around his farm, Arthur comes to the conclusion that plowing is like ripping of your skin: it destroys life in the top layer of the soil. Rebecca realizes that footage from the nineteen-eighties confirms this: plowing then was a feast for the birds. Now the soil is dead...
#00:26:19.6#
Rebecca continues her documentary: "The only reason why modern agriculture can get away with killing the life in the soil, is through another use of fossil fuel". Colin explains how the use of synthetic fertilizer keeps the current system going, but once fossil fuel will be in short supply "we will need living soil once again. And that living soil requires time and care to build..."
#00:27:28.2#
Walking through "Orchid Meadow" Rebecca shows how this field - which has never been plowed - is "buzzing with life... built on a foundation of healthy living soil...". She can see now how this field could be cultivated to reduce their dependence on oil.
She also realizes that raising cattle takes a lot of land. She has seen that every study on this subject concludes, that we have to eat less meat.
#00:28:33.8#
She now realizes that she will have to "diversify": not only changing how to farm, but what to farm. This is where Rebecca gets stuck, because she doesn't see how to go about it. She is going to consult people who have already "grappled with this problem": they have developed a system known as "permaculture", which "seems to challenge all the normal approaches to farming".
#00:29:04.5#
She talks to Britain's leading expert Patrick Whitefield. He starts off by saying, that people often think there are only two ways of farming: by drudgery or using fertilizers. He states that a third way - permaculture - is by conscious design.
He goes on to explain, that the energy we put into farming is to fight against the natural eco-system: without our intervention our farmlands would return to the woodlands they once were. It is a low energy option that will sustain itself without any human effort.
Rebecca continues, that a woodland is the most efficient growing system in our climate. She understand, that... but you can't eat trees!
Patrick helps out: "What we have got to do is to take the principles of this, and see how far we can bend them towards something more edible."
#00:31:06.5#
This approach very much appeals to her naturalist side, but says Rebecca: "But the farmer's daughter in me needs a bit more convincing!"
So she wants to see it in practice, and discovers there is a good example "just around the corner" from where she lives: a small farm in the mountains of Snowdonia. She sees the difference with her own eyes: we're used to seeing fields surrounded by clumps of trees. This small farm is the complete opposite - small clearings in a massive woodland.
"For a few days of work each week, Chris Dixon and his wife Lyn produce all the fruit, veg, and meat they need... and the fuel to cook it"
#00:32:36.0#
Twenty years ago, marginal grassland - fertility has returned. Rebecca observes, that it is a woodland and chaos. Chris: "It is chaos still, but chaos at this stage is very highly ordered...and structured"
How important is bio-diversity in this system? Chris as an example describes how the phospate cycle works in a natural way. And also how Khaki Cambell's are "the best slug control"...
#00:34:56.7#
To the casual observer this garden may look untidy, but every plant has a function in it, examples mentioned are: pest control, drainage, pollination, mineral cycling.
In the largest clearings animals are fed edible tree foliage.
#00:35:47.5#
Back on her farm Rebecca takes the lessons learnt, and starts thinking of ways to change her farm. She now sees the many hedges in a different way. A natural corridor now becomes a wealth of fodder, and fruit...
Realizing this, there appears another insight: growing upwards, and not across - there is a potential for "a much higher yield out of the the same piece of land".
#00:37:27.1#
Visiting Martin Crawford - a pioneer behind "design inspired by nature" - he shows Rebecca the wide variety of crops that come from a woodland garden. He explains some aspects of the way things work: the layering, the functions for example of fungi - every element in the system has a purpose.
#00:40:44.4#
A complex garden with some 550 species of plants will require a lot of work... Martin: "Over a whole year it probably averages out at about a day a week". According to Martin, the yield of a forest garden is double the amount that regular farming produces in the same area.
#00:41:46.1#
Rebecca: "It is an amazing low energy and low maintenance system! But what you can't grow in a forest garden are cereal crops..." She points out that we will "have to broaden our diets, and embrace new foods". Walking through the orchard, Martin explains the need to change our diets towards more nuts and less cereal.
#00:43:03.1#
Martin's experimental forest garden, and nut orchard - even at this stage - demonstrate that a high yield is possible. Chris and Lyn can tell a similar story! Chris points out the difference between gardening and farming: gardening with hand tools is more productive and energy efficient than farming.
Rebecca adds: "A veg garden with an experienced gardener can produce up to five times more per square meter, than a large farm...".
#00:44:30.2#
As oil dependent systems decline, small farms like these could make up for their loss, although we will need many more "growers".
Richard thinks the main trend in the 21st century will be a return to rural communities. He refers to the "Victory garden movement" during the Second World War, where "everyone was growing a garden plot".
Conclusions
#00:45:30.9#
Rebecca concludes: "Feeding ourselves as oil goes into decline is clearly going to require a national effort. And in an ideal world a better government leadership. But for my part weaning this farm off fossil fuel is all I can do. And the pioneers I met recently are a big inspiration. Now I have learned to observe the land, and work with it rather than fight against it...."
#00:47:23.8#
Colin puts it this way: "What we can say now without any shadow of doubt, is the petroleum man is just about extinct by the end of this century. That poses the thorny, difficult question: Will Homo Sapiens be as wise as his name implies? And figure out a way to live without oil, which is the bloodstream of virtually everything?"
#00:47:54.1#
Rebecca's parting words in this documentary:
"And it seems to me the sooner we begin that transition to a new, low energy future, the easier the task will be"