A farm for the future

I have recently watched and been inspired by this film by Rebecca Hosking:

http://tinyurl.com/cpfye2

It is a really fascinating film about the future of farming in Britain. Rebecca has inherited a working farm but is struggling against some great obstacles as she tries to make it future proof.
The problem she highlights is absolutely huge. Absolutely all farming in the western world is totally and completely dependent on fossil fuels. Be that tractors for harvesting or the fertilizers that are derived from oil. What do we do as the fossil fuels that we depend on start to dwindle? It is inevitable that food costs will go up and possible that agriculture will have to change completely beyond recognition if we are not to starve.

From reading my description, this film sounds heavy, depressing and scare-mongering. But yet it is none of those things. Instead it is inspiring.

Rebecca chooses to explore new methods of farming and see how possible they are in a real setting on her farm. She investigates using different grasses for cattle that would enable them to stay outside all year: cutting out the need for a hay harvest. And then she talks about permaculture. I had no idea what permaculture was until I saw this. It is, if you didn’t already know, farming or gardening within a natural setting such as woodland.

Things that I found out from this film:

1. farming is the second biggest user of fossil fuels after transport

2. new methods such as GM are as dependent on fossil fuels as the old

3. organic food uses less fossil fuels as it is does not use fertilizers derived from oil, but is equally dependent on heavy machinery

4. permaculture can have a higher yield per acre than conventional farming

5. we’re screwed for cereal crops as you can’t grow them except in vast fields.  So potatoes are the future i’m afraid.

6. that apparently one day I should be retiring to a little wood somewhere.