(0) Seventh-Generation Countryside
A picture illustrating the pattern
While this pattern language does not include any patterns
larger than this one, this pattern is certainly part of a
larger, yet-to-be-written pattern language. Within this
greater pattern language, this pattern and its smaller
component patterns form only a small, but important, part. A
larger patter that includes this one might be titled Seventh-Generation Region,
including similar concepts on a larger scale.
Unsustainable
land, energy, natural resources, and labor use/consumption
practices are still the norm in the United States, even in
environmentally-aware states like Oregon.
Let's examine these four areas of unsustainable use and
consumption one by one.
There is a finite supply of land, especially
arable land. We all live on one increasingly small
planet, which is two-thirds covered by water.
In the United States, we have an unfortunately
backwards desire to build towns and cities on
farmland, especially here in the Willamette Valley.
During the 20th century, we have become so
disconnected from our agrarian roots that most city
dwellers seem to be of the opinion that food comes
from a box, a can, a freezer, a factory, or the
grocery store -- not a farm. Many urban dwellers do
not recognize corn or wheat growing in a field.
Is it any wonder that we foolishly allow the
destruction of our own food supply? Perhaps people
think that you can just tear down the buildings or
rip up the roads and reverse the process if we get
into trouble. It doesn't work that way. Farmland that
is covered by development is essentially destroyed
due to topsoil loss, compaction, and ground
contamination.
The trend toward larger and larger farms only
increases the dependence on fossil-fuel and forces
more and more people into urban areas. In some cases,
larger farms result in marginal farmland being
abandoned as "unprofitable" because it is
not well-suited to mechanized farming. This
marginalization of farmland shrinks our supply of
arable land, too.
Furthermore, just as with student-teacher ratios
in classrooms, the larger the farm, the less
attention the farmer can give to individual acres. In
the first century, Pliny the Elder wrote, "The
master's eye is the best fertilizer." The saying
is still true today. Careful attention to the land is
not possible on thousand-acre farms.
As our population grows and our farmland shrinks,
we get closer and closer to not being able to produce
enough food to feed our own country. No nation can
remain strong and healthy if it must import food to
feed its people. So, we are consuming farmland in an
unsustainable manner.
Most farms are far more dependent on fossil fuels
than people realize.
- Fuel for mechanized equipment. Most farm
equipment requires diesel, gasoline, or
natural gas: tractors, combines, pumps,
trucks, elevators, generators, and dryers are
just a few examples.
- Chemical fertilizers. The production process
for virtually all chemical fertilizers
requires the burning of substantial amounts
of fossil fuel. The application process
cannot be accomplished without using more fossil fuel.
- Chemical pesticides and herbicides. The
production process for virtually all
herbicides and pesticides requires the
burning of substantial amounts of fossil
fuel. The application process cannot be
accomplished without using more fossil fuel.
- Equipment and buildings. Still more fossil
fuel is required to manufacture the large
quantities of specialized equipment used on
modern farms, such as large tractors and
combines. This comes from energy required for
making the steel and petroleum required for
making the many plastic parts and paint.
Modern farm buildings are increasingly made
from metal, which consumes a great deal of
energy during manufacture.
There is no question that fossil fuels are finite
in supply. They take millions of years to form, yet
we have already consumed large portions of the global
supply in less than 100 years. Once the global
supplies are gone, they will not even begin to be
replenished for thousands of generations. So, we are
consuming our primary global energy reserve in an
unsustainable manner.
For this discussion, we will limit our discussion
of natural resources to water, trees, and wildlife.
- In rural areas we draw water (primarily for
irrigation) from two primary types of
sources: ground water and surface water.
- Surface water (in the form of shallow
wells, springs, streams, ponds,
lakes, and rivers) is renewed each
and every time it rains. Whenever we
use this water, we are taking water
away from something downstream,
whether it be another farmer, a
salmon run, or a municipal water
supply. The ultimate example of abuse
of surface water is the Colorado
River, which is so heavily used that
it no longer reaches the ocean. Such
abuse is also unsustainable in that
it destroys large amounts of life.
- Ground water (in the form of water
drawn from deep wells) is renewed
much more slowly. The deeper the
well, the longer it has taken the
water to percolate down to the
aquifer. Some aquifers require
thousands of years for water from the
surface to reach them, but even
shallower aquifers take decades to
replenish. An excellent example of
unsustainable ground water
consumption is in California's
Central Valley, where a few short
decades of deep ground water pumping
have so depleted the enormous aquifer
that the land has actually subsided
several feet. This aquifer will take
thousands of years to replenish
itself.
- Forests in rural areas are often viewed as
"free" wood. All one needs to do is
harvest the trees and replant. Keep the other
competing plants from interfering in the
meanwhile and in 30-50 years you'll be able
to harvest again -- and over and over. Unfortunately this idea does not produce a
forest: it produces a tree farm, and a poorly
managed one at that. Trees need rainfall,
sunlight, and soil. The rainfall and sunlight
are going to happen. The soil, however, is
being robbed of nutrients and organic matter
that are removed with every harvest and not
replaced. This practice is also
unsustainable, because eventually the soil
will wear out and not grown much of anything,
setting the stage for erosion and loss of
topsoil.
- Wildlife in rural areas is often ignored or
worse. Healthy wildlife means that there is a
balance of predator and prey species, as well
as a diversity of species. Wildlife,
especially predator species, can be thought
of as part of the land's immune system: they
help prevent the runaway growth of any other
species, with the exception of Man. A healthy
wildlife population will help to moderate
pest problems for farms and forests. A
wildlife population that is missing or
weakened leaves an area wide open for pest
problems, with only the farmer's
unsustainable chemicals to stop them. Thus,
destruction of wildlife is also an
unsustainable practice.
Unsustainable labor practices form the foundation
for our modern industrialized economy. The common
wisdom holds that mechanization is always good. This
common wisdom is felt to be especially true when it
comes to food production. The twentieth century has
witnessed massive mechanization of agriculture, with
enormous numbers of people being shifted from food
production to factory jobs using resources at an
unsustainable rate to do the same job that they used
to do sustainably. This is obviously not sustainable,
either.
So...
In all things, think about how your actions will
affect the countryside and its population for the next seven
generations of humanity. Specifically:
- Support right-to-farm laws and discourage
"country squire" estates and urban sprawl
so that irreplaceable farmland is conserved and our
food supply is protected.
- Encourage smaller farms (less than 200 acres)
so that farmers do not become land managers of
thousand-acre parcels.
- Implement and encourage "new" forms
of agriculture that are not fossil fuel-dependent,
such as combining draft horses with modern plowing
techniques, diversified crops, and alternative energy
programs, so that our food production capacity is not
held hostage by the global petroleum markets.
- Demand (from policy-makers) and implement
(yourself) long-term planning with regard to natural
resources so that we don't industrialize ourselves
into a desert.
- Support "intelligent"
industrialization, buy quality products, and
discourage junk marketing. While some good and useful
things can only be using factory-style production
methods, many factory-made products can be better
made on a smaller scale or with less processing or
mechanization. Do not purchase junk products such as
convenience foods and throw-away goods that last only
a very short time.
A diagram showing the solution, with
labels to indicate it main components.
As
individuals and as a group, Small Community
Farm is our contribution to the completion of this
pattern in our rural area. We believe that there are other,
yet-to-be-written patterns that can also help complete Seventh-Generation Countryside,
but those are left for others to write.
Created July 27, 1997.
Updated March 17, 2003 at 14:37.
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