How Can Agriculture Heal Ecosystems?
I recently had the opportunity to host a table at the Changemaker Lunch representing Climate Farm School during The New York Times’ Climate Forward event in New York City. The topic I chose for our conversation was: “How can agriculture heal ecosystems?” In the discussion around climate, we often view agriculture as an inherent problem. While agriculture is currently a problem, the premise that it needs to be is confusing. After all, animals eating other living or once living things - plants, animals, and fungi - is an essential part of ecosystem functioning. Why is it that the way we eat is so destructive while for other species consuming food is a critical part of ecosystem function? One might think that it is because we grow food instead of hunting and gathering? But we aren’t the only species to do that. Ants for example, are well known mushroom farmers. And while beavers don’t exactly farm, they dramatically alter their habitats in ways that increase food available to them. These species are not known to be destroying ecosystems. In fact, the loss of beavers on the landscape is understood to have caused significant problems. The issue is not that we grow food, but how we grow it.
Conventional agriculture (a debatable term given how unconventional it really is in the breadth of human history) has an adversarial relationship with nature. It asks the question: How do we maximize yields in spite of a given ecosystem? It dramatically simplifies landscapes in favor of large scale monocrops that can be easily tended with industrial systems. Those simplified landscapes lose their natural functions, and we attempt to replace them agrochemicals. We use fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides to replace lost fertility and control pest, weed and disease levels that have been pushed out of natural balance. Unfortunately, these agrochemicals degrade environment, particularly the very resources on which we depend to grow food (air, soil, water, biodiversity), making them an unsustainable solution.
Conversely, agriculture based on ecological principles (agroecology, regenerative agriculture, permaculture, etc.) has a collaborative relationship with nature. It asks the question: How can we harness the natural processes of this ecosystem to grow healthy, abundant food? Harnessing natural processes means less simplification on the landscape. Ecosystems function best with a high level of diversity, complexity, and redundancy where many different species of plants, animals, and fungi form symbiotic relationships. Agricultural systems with multiple crops and non-crop species, when properly managed, are much more able to maintain their own fertility, keep populations of weeds and pests in balance, and resist outbreaks of disease.
While we are continually learning how to better do this in practice, the premise is quite simple. When we grow food in this way, we are restoring ecosystem functions and healing them over time.
