Restoration Agriculture
Several of you recommended that I check out Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers
by Mark Shepard, and I can see why since the book documents the rare
example of an extensive food-forest system in its prime.
Unfortunately, the gems are deeply buried --- I barely found anything
worth noting down until I was halfway through the book. There are
also lots of typos, and several glaring mis-statements that put the rest
of his facts in question, along with pages of rants and regurgitation
of other books. So, I can't entirely recommend Restoration Agriculture, but if you're willing to skim and think critically, it can be a handy addition to your permaculture education.
I'll post more about the
nitty-gritty of Mark Shepard's system later in the week, but for now,
let me give you a quick run-down on his farm and vision. Shepard's
parents were hobby farmers, so he soon became familiar with the basics
of growing his own vegetables. However, as an adult, he rejected
the conventional backyard system, realizing that most of us aren't
growing anywhere near all of our own food since we continue buying
staples from the grocery store (which equates to buying from factory
farms). Could he develop a system in which farmers can grow
perennial staples (preventing erosion, providing wildlife habitat,
etc.), so crops like chestnuts and hazelnuts replace corn and beans in
the average American's diet?
Shepard put his dream to
the test on a 106-acre farm in southwest Wisconsin, on the border
between zone 3 and 4. He developed methods of mixing tree, vine,
and bush crops with livestock in such a way that some of the work could
be done by conventional equipment that most medium-to-large-scale
farmers already have. Stay tuned for more on the design of New
Forest Farm in later posts.
| This post is part of our Restoration Agriculture lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I had the same experience with the book. Everybody kept telling me how great it was, but the first 2/3 conveyed very little useful info. The current system is unsustainable... we get it!
I guess it was aimed at convincing a global audience that his system could work on a large-scale, but all of my interests are pretty small-scale. Besides, what the heck would I do with all those chestnuts?!?!
Glad to hear it wasn't just me.
Anna,
I was wondering what mis-statements you noticed that were so glaring. I heard in a recent talk that Eric Toensmeier did that he highly disagrees with the numbers that Shepard included, saying that they were completely incorrect. I haven't read extensively enough or had enough hands on experience to know what assertions were wildly incorrect.
I thought his bit about using megafauna to build topsoil was interesting... Perhaps there's a permaculture elephant farm in one of your reader's future?
thanks!
Stephen --- I probably should have held onto my copy of the book until after all of my lunchtime posts aired, but I gave it away last week. The mis-statement I remember off the top of my head (hopefully correctly, but I can't look it up now) was when the author asserted that all of our common livestock species evolved in savannah environments. I haven't looked up the other species, but I seem to recall that chickens came from a rainforest-type setting --- much more closed than what you would call a savannah.
I know there were other assertions that set off my "he's repeating things he heard but hasn't fact-checked" detector, but I can't recall them at the moment. None were really big deals, but after a certain point, you start to wonder what he has fact-checked? And how much of what he writes about is pure philosophy, without hands-on experimentation?
Thanks for your kind words about the calendar! Maybe mine's in my mailbox too? I'll have to go check.
On the topic of hands on experience, I had a chance to attend a workshop and on-site consultation with Mark Shepard and I would have to say his level of experience in farming, plant breeding, and business is pretty solid.
In terms of stacked perennial food systems he's very knowledgeable, though Salatin is a better animal husbandry source. What I really enjoyed was how Shepard has moved permaculture ideas to a farm scale enterprise that understands profit and revenue. He's like a "permie" that grew up.
Shepard has a good understanding of keyline and applies it in a practical manner that is less ridged than other practitioners - something I really appreciated. One thing I noticed for sure was that he is VERY business focused, and unlike Salatin he is willing to participate in the commodity food system at commodity food prices. That's something that really seemed to rub some other attendees at the workshop the wrong way.
All and all though I'd agree that "Restoration Agriculture" could have used a bit more editorial polish, but I'll forgive it, Shepard wasn't a journalist in his past life like Salatin and a first edition of "You Can Farm" is pretty rough too.
Hi,
Thanks for the awesome article, I would like to link back from our website http://nourishtheplanet.com/ Please let us know.
Thanks, Mark