Food Forests – A Resilient Solution for People and Wildlife
One of our Rangers, Daniel Holm, has been working on his own food forest, creating a resilient and biodiverse food source that could provide a solution for many of the problems we are facing today. Now implementing this strategy at Bunloit, Daniel talks us through this relatively unknown way of food production.
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Of all the habitable land on earth, modern agriculture both arable and pasture use by far the largest proportion. Most of this area is farmed in a way which gives little consideration to the natural world that provides the resources needed to produce the food being grown. This has resulted in much of this land becoming seriously degraded with compacted and eroded soils, accumulations of toxic levels of salts from repeated use of synthetic fertilizers, massive loss of biodiversity through repeated applications of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides and the expansion of farm land at the expense of wilderness.
The reliance within modern agriculture on just a handful of crops also leaves world food security perilously exposed to extreme weather events and diseases. The old saying about having all your eggs in one basket being a good analogy.
Modern agriculture is also very heavily dependent on carbon hungry machinery and inputs such as synthetic fertilizers, relying on global transport so that you can buy fruits, vegetables, and meat from almost any country in the world at any time of the year.
A method of food production is required which strengthens ecosystem services instead of degrading them. A system which actively builds and prevents soil erosion. Storing carbon and boosting soil health and biodiversity. One such method of food production which we have begun to implement at Bunloit with the help of local school children, and which addresses many of the issues with modern agriculture, is agroforestry, particularly a food forest.
Daniel’s food forest
The idea for the food forest came most likely from my granny Jane Holm, who had grown up on the frontier in Canada, very much living off the land and making the most of anything it could produce. She brought this way of life with her to Scotland (Rosemarkie on the Black Isle to be specific) where she created an incredible garden full of edible things. Spending my early years playing in this garden definitely planted the seed.
A food forest is a perennial intercropping system using a diverse mix of trees, shrubs, vines, herbs, tubers, mushrooms and annuals and once mature can also incorporate animals. The structure of a food forest with all of these layers simulates that of a natural forest and as such, provides the same ecosystem services as a forest - which is the default habitat for most of Scotland if it was left to its own devices.
The second year of forest gardening - 2018
The fact that the majority of the plants in the garden are perennials means that much less work is required in the garden every year when compared with annual growing. The high diversity in the garden is very beneficial to wildlife since there are flowers or fruits throughout the year and the natural forest structure provides a good habitat for many animals. The diversity also acts to minimize pests since crops are spread about randomly and mixed with other plants, this makes it hard for pests to find the plants they want or for them to become a plague, which can happen in monocultures.
By structuring our crops this way, we have high quality food production from a system which mimics and works with nature. This system actively stores carbon in the woody stems of the perennial trees and shrubs. The soil does not need to be cultivated every year as with the annual crops of modern agriculture and as such it accumulates more carbon, reduces erosion and the all-important soil biome is not disturbed. This is not just a carbon neutral but a carbon negative way of producing food, which is really what we need to be aiming for if we are serious about reducing the impacts of climate change. Some of the major benefits include:
Perennial's with their substantial root systems and stronger stems are much more resilient to extremes of weather such as drought, flooding and high winds than annuals with their small root systems and fragile stems.
The high diversity of plants and the complex structure of the food forest create many micro-climates, habitats and food sources for all sorts of wildlife which then boosts the surrounding lands biodiversity.
Food forests require a relatively small amount of land when compared with monocultural techniques of food production, since many more crops are grown in the same area. This could mean that more land could be left to rewild instead of being used to produce food for humans. Combined with the ecological benefits of a food forest, much of the land would become biologically rich again and step back from the desert of modern agriculture.
All in all food forest agriculture provides many of the solutions in a simple and inexpensive way to our very serious modern problems of climate change, food security and biodiversity loss.
Daniel Holm
Read Daniel’s update on the progress of the food forest at Bunloit and how to set up your own food forest.