Providing food and energy, mostly energy for heat and on-farm motive power, were my primary focus for years of thinking. Having read The Have-More Plan and having worked on Rawl's farm, my thoughts turned to growing food and the inputs required to grow it and cook it. Also, living in Utah, with the cold winters, the idea of keeping warm was high on my list.
Rawl was an innovative farmer for his time. It would take me many years to figure out just how innovative he was. That said, he farmed conventionally at the core. He imported a fair amount of fertility. His primary fertility imports were nitrogen in the forms of ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. He used these inputs for both corn and pasture, as well as for grass fields that he harvested as hay. He didn't use those inputs on the alfalfa hay fields because alfalfa was a legume that had the capability of fixing its own nitrogen. Rawl actually limited the importation of nitrogen because he regularly used the manure of his 40-50 cows on his corn, hay, and pasture fields. Rawl effectively used his on farm resources. As a young lad, I saw Rawl importing fertility and wondered what one would have to do so that it was unnecessary to import fertility.
I also saw Rawl use biocides (herbicides and pesticides) on a limited basis. I saw him use herbicides on a limited basis in his corn fields to limit weed competition beyond what basic cultivation was capable of doing. I also recall one time when he used pesticides on his corn field. He had planted corn in one of his lower fields. The corn emerged normally. When it was between six and twelve inches tall, corn borer went through the field and ate of almost all of the little corn stalks just below the surface. I recall looking at the field, seeing all of the little corn stalks falling over. When I picked up the little corn stalks to see what was wrong, there were no roots attached. Rawl used a corn borer pesticide on the field and replanted the corn. Additionally in very limited places in the pastures, Rawl used the ubiquitous 2-4-D (non-selective broadleaf plant killer) to kill of primarily cockleburs and wild roses. It did not kill the grass in the pastures, only the broadleaf weeds. I believe in the eight years I worked for him, he used 2-4-D three or four times in one pasture. As I saw this, my mind went to the idea of how one could farm without the use of these off-farm inputs, biocides. Only later in life would I begin to question the harm that biocides could have on humans, domesticated animal (farm stock like cows), and the food/soil web on the farm.
I wondered if it were possible to grow food without bringing in fertilizer. Could a family just use manure? Could you raise enough feed for livestock without importing fertilizer? What about compost? Did that somehow magically create fertility that wasn't already there? Could you grow your own fertilizer? Could you raise food that didn't need biocides? I recalled the Hughs family down the road. They had an apple orchard. They sprayed their apples on a regular schedule. Was it possible to grow apples without biocides. I liked apples and applesauce. I thought farmers of 100 years prior did not have ammonium sulfate or biocides. How did they live? I recall from a junior high history class that one of the reasons why farmers kept moving west from the east coast was because they kept using up or burning up the soil. They would use all of the fertility. Yet somehow that land grew trees, nuts, berries, and grass for thousands of years without any ammonium sulfate or 2-4-D. I wondered how that could be.
Also, I thought if a family was going to raise food, they would need to plow the land and haul stuff. I reasoned that a family would need horses to do that work. Horses ate pasture, hay, and grain. Pasture and hay were relatively straight forward to grow with horse motive power, but grain was not. You needed specialized equipment to harvest grain. I reasoned that perhaps we could use a scythe to reap the grain, but was about threshing it? I wondered if horses really needed grain, or if they could just eat really good hay and pasture. The wild horses didn't eat any grain. Why would a farm horse have to eat grain if they had good hay and pasture?
Foods matured in season. In Utah, there was a long, cold winter where no food was produced. I saw my Mom can fruits and put away grains for storage. We froze meat and vegetables for storage. We even canned green beans for storage and made pickles. My Dad put in a small root cellar on the south west side of the house to store potatoes and carrots for winter. Working on the farm, I imagined having a milk cow. I raised chickens. We raised hogs. We raised a big garden at times as well. We did these things, yet we still went to the store. We still had to go get food from elsewhere. How could a family raise all of its own food, inside the boundaries of the place where they lived?
We didn't raise our own firewood. We would buy it. That bothered me. How could a family raise its own firewood to keep warm during the winter and cook with year around? I decided a family would have to dedicate part of its land to growing firewood. One of the questions was how much land it would take to grown enough firewood for the family energy needs.
Over the years, the questions would pile up, becoming more and more complicated and esoteric. Questions would arise about building materials, electricity, transportation, clothing, household chemicals, manufactured consumer goods, etc. Was it sensible to raise extra food and export it outside of the boundaries of the family property to obtain other goods not easily derived from the family farm? If you exported food and its associated nutrients and fertility, would you have to import the same amount of nutrients in another form to replace them? What about water for both domestic and farm use? The list of questions would go on and on... Gradually, sensible answers started to come into place. Those questions and answers have helped me frame a conceptual design for a farm that would provide for my family in a relatively closed-loop fashion, inside the boundaries of where we live.
The idea of living inside of a defined boundary and providing for all of ones needs is an ideal. It is a direction. I think that a large percentage of what a family needs can be provided within a defined boundary. I am also quite convinced that the quality of what a family can provide for itself is potentially much higher than like commodity offerings from the lowest cost modes of production. I also think that humans have used barter and trade to create much enhanced lives. The questions evolve to how does a family utilize the resources inside of the boundaries of its space to be as self-sufficient as possible and to live the healthiest, most joyful life possible?
The web of considerations have grown exponentially over the years, providing fodder for thought, design, development of ideals, and ultimately pragmatism. I still have much to learn through experience that will help me move directionally towards answers that make sense.
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