This is a letter to Iain Coleman MP of Hammersmith and Fulham who I've been lobbying for over a year.

It's time we discussed the biggest problem the human race faces right now. if you want to understand the implications check out  http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net and  http://dieoff.org

I'm trying to present a possible solution to this impossible nightmare.

Dear Mr Coleman,

It seems to me we have a choice. We follow the American
model and experience collapse, chaos, war, fascism,
brutal repression, starvation and gigadeaths or we adopt
something like the approach suggested in the enclosed
document in a crash program, Europe wide, the moment the
markets start to fail and the general public are finally
aware of the threat.

We don't have to go down the oppressive, failed top down
collectivism of the former Soviet Union, we could
instigate a system of incentives to farmers to change to
the new system and encourage incentives to the new
unemployed to move their careers through training in
wholistic ecological agriculture and maintain
appropriate industries that allow us to keep our
knowledge and infrastructure albeit in a changed form.

The people who work on the systems need a stake in the
output to encourage them to work on it.

We need background work on it to start immediately. We
need massive changes. We also need a crash program in
plant breeding and a change in the legislative structure
to encourage the process of change. We need to start
reforesting the country in the agroforestry model
immediately. Much of this work could be begun in the
name of sustainability without alarming the public in
any way.

Private transport will have to become a thing of the
past, we have no option. In it's place will have to be a
public transport system that is not only beyond compare
but one that allows for shared use of some sort of
transport to allow people to move goods that is easily
accessible, affordable and convenient.

We need vision and hope and an investment equivalent to
that which we would have to deliver to fight a global
war. As soon as the markets slide you need to tell us
the truth and offer us hope and a direction.

I KNOW the British people would pull together to do
this. The obscene power of the global corporates will be
irrelevent soon in any case. The people are scared. They
don't trust you because they know you're lying to them.

You could offer them an option that would sweep you to
power in a huge wave by offering them a vision of the
future that has a rational possibility. We know the
current system is failing you'd be astonished at how
well this would be responded to. Damaging industries
could be limited. Test it in a few focus groups and tell
them the truth about the options. I bet you'd have an
overwhelmingly positive response.

We could do the transition in 15 years given the will on
your part and some courage. It needs to be implemented
Europe wide. It could be done with low or no interest
loans from the government. An easily understandable plan
of conversion could be devised.

Your choice. Extinction and all the horrors of the
apocalypse or some hope and a different way that would
lead to a slower and more human pace of life, and a
future.

You know the facts.

Choose.

And if you do choose the path of life and hope, stop
trying to micromanage our lives. Allow us to find new
paths. Stop fearing the people.

If we go back to a more relaxed way of life all the
pressures that cause the nightmares of our current
society will vanish.

Human societies are well able to police themselves and
the conversion process in the face of this threat will
rebuild communities that don't need 24 hour surveillance.

You should be giving us guidance and structure not
moment by moment control.

I like order. You are leading us into the most extreme
possible disorder.

Ahmet Djemal, (Joe)



ibd


Greenwood Sustainability Centre

Introduction

Our civilisation is facing an increasing number of challenges as we move into the 21st century.

Climate change, fossil fuel depletion, soil erosion and pollution due to industrial farming practices and species loss in our environment all join in creating some of the greatest threats to our continued well being as a species that we have ever encountered.

At the Greenwood Sustainability Centre we intend to apply a number of non conventional farming systems that will address these issues while simultaneously making the farm much more productive in a sustainable way than it has ever been before. In the process we intend to operate as a training and education centre to pass on knowledge gained at farms and universities around the world in sustainable agriculture.

The project is intended to be either carbon neutral or a carbon sink in its operation. It will, as far as possible utilise heritage varieties of plant and animal and act as a reserve bank for these varieties. It will also act as a research centre, working with local educational establishments to develop new and better ways of producing food without damage to the environment. The project also intends to enrich the diversity of wildlife on its land by producing a richer environment on the farm.

The main technique used on the farm will be Integrated Biological Systems Microfarming.
This technique produces crops and a high diversity of other useful byproducts by emulating the processes in natural ecosystems. The output of one cycle becomes the input to the next and in a properly designed and run system there are no waste products produced that leave the farm. The central precept of the technique is to increase the number of ecological niches on the farm to increase the number of potential crops. It will produce a large diversity of high value crops in relatively small amounts as opposed to a limited diversity of lower value crops in higher volumes.
The more complex the designed ecosystem is, the less vulnerable it is to losses in production due to disease or climatic problems.

An example of one of the cycles on the farm would be: 1 Ha. alfalfa > rabbits (Heating greenhouses in winter) > manure processed by vermiculture > worms to chickens and fish and worm casting compost to fertilise raised vegetable beds and greenhouses (Up to 7.5 Ha. fertilised from 1 Ha. of alfalfa and 0.1 Ha of energy crops) > excess vegetable matter to rabbits and chickens. Salable products would be rabbit meat and fur, chicken meat and eggs, high quality organic vegetables and herbs and medicinal herbs from this cycle alone.

About a third of the acreage of the land would be devoted to energy crops like Miscanthus or Canary Reed Grass. These crops would provide feed stock for gourmet mushrooms and then be fermented to produce ethanol as a liquid fuel, fed to livestock as feed or burned in a combined heat and power unit to produce heat for the greenhouses and buildings and power for the farm. It can also produce refrigeration by an adsorption method for food storage. Another third of the farm would be devoted to agroforestry. A designed woodland ecosystem would produce nuts, more mushrooms, some wood for construction, fruit and a wide range of other woodland products. This system will take some considerable time to mature but will be a great boost to wildlife. The remaining third of the farm will be devoted to alfalfa, herbal lays, medicinal herbs and other outdoor crops and to greenhouses and other farm buildings. New building will be designed to increase the growing area of the farm and to have as little visual impact as possible. All new buildings will be based on passive solar high thermal mass designs and will be largely buried into south facing slopes. Greenhouses can be built in a similar way to the housing to have south sloping earth roofs on their northern side to prevent loss of gardening area.

We're going to have to spend about £40,000 on prepared topsoil the other alternative
will take us years to get the gardens productive.
That will give us 50 10m by 2m beds that should allow us to grow 50 veg boxes a week and a
similar amount of beds for the medicinal herbs. 50 species of herbs for marketing
we'll use machines to help make the beds.
12 20m earthship greenhouses
6, 4 bed earthship homes
8, 4 bed cabins for guests

12 chicken sheds 100 chickens in each movable for chicken tractor usage with fencing
12 nanny goats + 1 billy for milk and cheese
6 sows 1 boar (pigs)
2 horses
10 rabbit sheds 100 rabbits in each.
Perhaps we could keep some quail for eggs and meat as a high value product.


We would send out compost bins with the veg boxes and pick them up weekly with the delivery to
maintain our fertility.
In the first year much of our veg production will be for seeds.
These can be a major product later

We also intend to act as a communications node for the surrounding area with a wireless network that includes a library on sustainability that all our neighbours can access. Each neighbour can extend the reach of the network by being a node in it as a peer to peer system.

Given enough nodes the whole thing can extend a communications network that becomes more robust as more members join.



Energy

This project is designed to function without fossil fuel utilisation. The proposed site is part arable and part grazing land. At best it can be described as marginal. It's main advantage is a south facing aspect. It has a couple of spring fed streams that have too low a flow rate to permit micro hydro power but may be enough to supply the farm's water needs. As the land is too marginal for many applications it seems appropriate to use greenhouses there. With year round heating it would be possible to sustainably produce enough to make the farm profitable with little external input of resources. On examination of the site it was decided that the most appropriate energy technology would be a biomass fed Combined Heat and Power unit (CHP). On consultation with Bioenergy Technology Limited they responded with the following:



“Thank you for your enquiry regarding Combined Heat and Power, please find
attached more information on this subject.

Unfortunately we have no figures on Canary Reed grass, however, Miscanthus
is 4-5 hectares per megaWatt

A total energy output of 1000kW (from which electrical energy derived from
Spilling Engine would be , maybe, 50kW although turbines can be used at a
higher level of boiler output.  To cope with wood chip you would need a
moving grate burner/steam boiler and this, together with the Spilling unit
would comprise the major cost elements. The steam pressure would be up to
15bar.

I would suggest ballpark pricing between £350 -£450,000 depending on storage
requirements. “

This represents about a third of the acreage of the proposed site.

The system we have in mind is described in their brochures as follows:

“include Bioenergy PDFs”

This system would output 1Mw of heat and 50Kw of electricity. It would be supplemented by some solar water heating and a couple of 25Kw wind generators with a battery bank for summer requirements and that should theoretically reduce the acreage required for running the CHP or allow some of the energy crops to be diverted to other use. Growing mushrooms on the energy crop would break down some of the cellulose and lignin content of the crop and increase the amount of ethanol that could be produced by fermentation of the crop. This process would also make the residue palatable to animals as feed. The ethanol would be denatured and used as a liquid fuel for farm machinery. Another source of energy for vehicles would be methane produced by an on farm manure digester. In the event of there being an energy shortfall on the farm, wood chips and biodiesel bought off farm would remedy the shortage. With time we would fine tune the process and eventually would expect to be a net producer of electricity for sale to the national grid.

We intend to use computerised climate control in all the buildings on site to maximise efficiency and provide a farm wide wireless network to facilitate this.

Human manure could be composted using composting toilets and used on energy crops. (Careful monitoring of this process would ensure the prevention of pathogen transmission, this technology is well established.)










Agroforestry

Another third of the farm will be devoted to agroforestry. To best describe this approach I include some text from  http://www.agroforestry.co.uk

We expect to be planting thousands of trees on the site.

Benefits of agroforestry

Research over the past 20 years has confirmed that agroforestry can be more biologically productive, more profitable, and be more sustainable than forestry or agricultural monocultures. Temperate agroforestry systems are already widespread in many parts of the world and are central to production in some regions.

Research has also confirmed that agroforestry systems can include the following benefits:

They can control runoff and soil erosion, thereby reducing losses of water, soil material, organic matter and nutrients.

They can maintain soil organic matter and biological activity at levels satisfactory for soil fertility. This depends on an adequate proportion of trees in the system - normally at least 20% crown cover of trees to maintain organic matter over systems as a whole.

They can maintain more favourable soil physical properties than agriculture, through organic matter maintenance and the effects of tree roots.

They can lead to more closed nutrient cycling than agriculture and hence to more efficient use of nutrients. This is true to an impressive degree for forest garden/farming systems.

They can check the development of soil toxicities, or reduce existing toxicities - both soil acidification and salinization can be checked, and trees can be employed in the reclamation of polluted soils.

They utilise solar energy more efficiently than monocultural systems - different height plants, leaf shapes and alignments all contribute.

They can lead to reduced insect pests and associated diseases.

They can be employed to reclaim eroded and degraded land.

They can create a healthy environment - interactions from agroforestry practices can enhance the soil, water, air, animal and human resources of the farm. Agroforestry practices may use only 5% of the farming land area yet account for over 50% of the biodiversity, improving wildlife habitat and harbouring birds and beneficial insects which feed on crop pests. Tree biodiversity adds variety to the landscape and improves aesthetics.

They can moderate microclimates. Shelter given by trees improves yields of nearby crops and livestock. Shade in summer can be beneficial for livestock, reducing stress.

Agroforestry can augment soil water availability to land-use systems. In dry regions, though, competition between trees and crops is a major problem.

Nitrogen-fixing trees & shrubs can substantially increase nitrogen inputs to agroforestry systems.

Trees can probably increase nutrient inputs to agroforestry systems by retrieval from lower soil horizons and weathering rock. ('Mining' minerals and trace elements)

The decomposition of tree litter and prunings can substantially contribute to maintenance of soil fertility. The addition of high-quality tree prunings (ie high in Nitrogen but which decay rapidly) leads to large increases in crop yields.

The release of nutrients from the decomposition of tree residues can be synchronised with the requirements for nutrient uptake of associated crops. While different trees and crops will all have different requirements, and there will always be some imbalance, the addition of high-quality prunings to the soil at the time of crop planting usually leads to a good degree of synchrony between nutrient release and demand.

In the maintenenace of soil fertility under agroforestry, the role of roots is at least as important as that of above-ground biomass.

Agroforestry can provide a more diverse farm economy and stimulate the whole rural economy, leading to more stable farms and communities. Economic risks are reduced when systems produce multiple products.

Silvoarable - intercropping & alley cropping

Here, agricultural or horticultural crops are grown simultaneously with a long-term tree crop to provide annual income while the tree crop matures. Trees are grown in rows with wide alleys in-between for cultivating crops.

Alley component: Any arable or horticultural crop is possible. Overwintering crops (ie autumn-sown) are very efficient users of the almost full light available over the dormant season of deciduous trees, and may be the best choices for narrow alleys where trees are quite large. It is important that the alleys are physically cultivated (or at least ripped with deep tines) - horticultural no-dig raised beds are likely to fill with fine tree roots.

Tree component: may be timber or fuelwood trees, or a fruit or nut crop. Pollards and coppiced trees are both possible, the former interfering least with arable operations.

For more information on tree species choice in Britain, see Selecting timber tree species.

Fruit crops can be used as the tree component. Apples, cider apples and plums are all possibilities.

Nut crops can include walnuts, chestnuts and hazelnuts.

Design & establishment

Tree rows are spaced at a minimum of 10-14 m apart to allow enough room for cultivation operations. Usually a whole number of cultivation equipment widths is chosen for efficient operations. Rows are best aligned North-South.

Both single and double rows of timber crop trees can be used; a further alternative is a triple row, with high-value timber crop trees sandwiched between rows of nurse trees (usually coniferous) which help train straight crop trees and are themselves thinned at a later stage. Shrubs and other plants can also be planted to the side of main trees for better wind protection and other uses. Trees can be planted in the rows at final spacing or at a closer spacing to allow for thinning at a later date. The latter allows for more selection of good quality timber trees.

Weed control is essential. Black plastic mulches give best tree establishment and growth, and will soon be covered with leaf mold. Cultivations up to a few inches of the plastic edge are possible.

3 row tree strip Single row tree
with training trees strip

Yields (per unit area) of alley crops are not reduced by shading until the tree height reaches the alley width (at which stage the system can be converted to silvopasture.) Competition between trees and alley crop for water does not appear to be a big problem in Britain; it is possible some problems may occur in drier areas (ie the East) during droughty summers.

Benefits
Wood or tree products are produced in addition to agronomic crops, with no reduction in crop yields per unit area for many years.
Crop quality and yields can be increased by enhancing microclimatic conditions, offsetting any reduction by the removal of tree strips from cultivation.
Utilisation and recycling of soil nutrients is improved.
Wildlife habitat and corridors are created.
Aesthetic diversity - improvement to open monocropped areas.

Drawbacks
Many high-value deciduous timber trees grow with poor (crooked) form without the sideways light pressure of a forest. Correction pruning and/or the use of nurse trees can overcome some of this problem.
Arable farmers in particular often have an aversion to trees in arable fields, citing single trees which “get in the way”. Alleys, however, if properly designed, should present no problems with machinery and cultivations.


Other agroforestry types

Riparian buffer strips are natural or re-established streamside forests made up of tree, shrub and grass plantings; they buffer pollution of waterways from adjacent land, reduce bank erosion, protect aquatic environments and enhance wildlife value.

Contour buffer strips are basically rows of trees (and sometimes shrubs) in rows along contours, with alleys between for forage or alley cropping. The aim is to reduce soil erosion on slopes and give some wind protection.

Fertility plantings are plantings of trees and/or shrubs with the main aim of improving nutrient input and/or cycling for a forage or alley crop. Nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs are usually used, for example Italian alder, Elaeagnus, Sea buckthorn, and Black locust. Nitrogen fixed by bacteria in association with their roots is made available to other crops via leaf fall, rain drip, root-root contact and beneficial fungi. The amounts made available are in the same order as from perennial legumes.

Field windbreaks protect a variety of wind-sensitive row, cereal, vegetable, orchard and vine crops, resulting in up to 25% increases in production; and also control wind erosion, and increase bee pollination. Livestock windbreaks help reduce animal stress and mortality, and reduce feed consumption; weight gains of up to 10% and milk production increases of 8-20% can result. Farm homes in windy areas protected by windbreaks can expect heating costs to be cut by as much as 30%.


Windbreak spacing depends on windbreak height (H), soil erodibility, crop sensitivity & rotation, and climate.

Forest farming

In forest farming, high-value speciality crops are cultivated under the protection of a forest canopy that has been modified and managed to provide the appropriate conditions. It is a way of utilising forests for short-term income while high-quality trees are being grown for wood products. The amount of light in the stands is altered by thinning, pruning, or adding trees; 5-40% crown cover is usually desirable. Existing stands of trees can be intercropped with annual, perennial, or woody plants.

Five main categories of speciality crops are:
FOODS:
mushrooms, eg. Shiitake, matsuki (grown on logs, in sawdust/chipped wood beds etc.)
nuts, eg. hazelnuts, small chestnut species; note that the canopy trees could also be nut producers, eg. walnuts, chestnuts, pecans, pine nuts
vegetables, eg. radish, beetroot, Swiss chard
honey from bee plants, eg. plum, black locust
herbs, eg. mints
fruits, eg. blueberries, elderberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries
edible flowers, eg. elderflowers
sap products - eg. maple syrup, birch sap wine etc.

BOTANICAL PRODUCTS: Many medicinal plants are used in herbal medicine and are used to give clinically useful drugs, such as:
Adonis vernalis (Spring adonis)
Agrimonia eupatoria (Agrimony)
Ammi majus (Queen Anne’s lace)
Anabasis aphylla
Anisodus tanguticus
Artemesia annua (Annual wormwood)
Artemisia maritima (Sea wormwood)
Atropa belladonna (Belladonna)
Berberis vulgaris (Barberry)
Brassica nigra (Blck mustard)
Colchicum autumnale (Autumn crocus)
Convallaria majalis (Lily of the valley)
Coptis japonica
Corydalis ambigua
Cynara scolymus (Globe artichoke)
Cytisus scoparius (Broom)
Daphne genkwa
Digenia simplex (Makuri)
Digitalis lanata & D. purpurea (Foxgloves)
Gaultheria procumbens (Wintergreen)
Ginkgo biloba
Glaucium flavum (Horned poppy)
Glycyrrhiza glabra (Liquorice)
Hemsleya amabilis
Hydrangea macrophylla
Hydrastis canadensis (Goldenseal)
Hyoscyamus niger (Henbane)
Larrea divaricata
Lobelia inflata
Lycoris squamigera
Mentha spp. (Mints)
Panax spp. (Ginseng)
Podophyllum peltatum (May apple)
Potentilla fragarioides
Rhododendron molle
Salix alba (White willow)
Sambucus spp. (Elders - flowers)
Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)
Silybum marianum (Milk thistle)
Sophora pachycarpa
Stephania sinica
Taxus brevifolia (Pacific yew)
Thymus vulgaris (Thyme)
Trichosanthes kirilowii (Snake gourd)
Urgenia maritima (Squill)
Valeriana officinalis (Valerian)
Veratrum album (White hellebore)
Vinca minor (lesser periwinkle)
essential oil crops can also be cultivated, eg. Eucalyptus leaves, mints, lemon balm, thyme
DECORATIVES
floral greenery (mosses, ferns, beargrass, salal, Eucalyptus etc)
Christmas trees
dye plants
HANDICRAFTS
basketry materials (willows etc.)
short-term coppice, eg. hazel poles, energy coppice
WOOD PRODUCTS
charcoal from understorey trees
fuelwood
special woods, eg. for carving, incense
garden mulches from chipped wastes & coppice; pine needle mulches

An existing British system which falls into the latter two categories is coppice with standards - eg. hazel coppice with standards of oak.

Typically, a system can be established by thinning an existing forest to leave the best trees for continued wood production and to create conditions for the understorey crop to be grown. The understorey crop is then planted and managed intensively to provide short-term income. Areas used for forest farming are usually small (5 acres or less), and systems usually focus on a single crop plus timber, but can be designed to produce several products. Examples of such systems in North America include:

ginseng (medicinal) + maple syrup + bee products + timber
shiitake mushrooms (grown on cut logs) + timber
ferns & beargrass (decorative) + mushrooms + timber
ginseng + walnuts + black walnut veneer logs
Christmas trees + timber

Before investing time and money in growing speciality forest products, entrepreneurs should :

1. Obtain production and processing information. Proper harvest, storage and transport will maximise returns.

2. Locate sources of technical expertise.

3. Locate or develop potential markets, often local stores or co-operatives.

All these can be quite difficult, especially in Britain where there is little culture of utilising forests in this way. However, products such as medicinal plants are increasingly in demand and there is no reason why many (for example, elder flowers or annually coppiced yews or gingkos) cannot be grown in British forest farms. The internet is an increasingly good source of locating non-local buyers of such crops. In North America, Co-operative Extension Services and the USDA Forest Service can often provide expertise.

Benefits:
Economic benefits can be significant. Logs can produce shiitake mushrooms worth 5-10 times the value of the logs themselves, and forest-cultivated ginseng averages £122-245 per pound in North America. Other medicinal plants provide a lower but steady supplemental income. Markets for floral decoratives have been steadily increasing.
Forest farming modifies the forest ecosystem but does not significantly interfere with its crucial contributions of water filtering, soil erosion control, microclimate moderation, and wildlife habitat.
Forest farming provides opportunities to generate short-term income from existing woodlands, with minimum capital investment. Especially on small family farms, this can contribute significantly to diversification and rural economic development.

Drawbacks:
Requires more of an entrepreneurial attitude from farmers and landowners.
Likely to need to conduct research to locate potential buyers of speciality products.
Forest farming systems are often labour intensive - often acceptable if ‘family labour’ is available.


Forest gardening

A forest garden is a designed agronomic system based on trees, shrubs and perennial plants. These are mixed in such a way as to mimic the structure of a natural forest - the most stable and sustainable type of ecosystem in this climate.

The primary aims for the system are:

to be biologically sustainable, able to cope with disturbances such as climate change
it should be productive, yielding a number (often large) of different products
it should require low maintenance.

The crops which are produced will often include fruits, nuts, edible leaves, spices, medicinal plant products, poles, fibres for tying, basketry materials, honey, fuelwood, fodder, mulches, game, sap products.

Forest gardens (often called home gardens) have been used for millennia in tropical regions, where they still often form a major part of the food producing systems which people rely on, even if they work elsewhere for much of the time. They may also provide useful sources of extra income. Their use is intimately linked with prevailing socio-economic conditions. They are usually small in area, often 0.1-1 hectares (0.25-2.5 acres).

In temperate regions, forest gardens are a more recent innovation, many inspired by Robert Hart’s efforts in Shropshire (UK) over the last 30 years. A major limiting factor for temperate forest gardens in the amount of sunlight available to the lower layers of the garden: in tropical regions, the strong light conditions allow even understorey layers to receive substantial light, whereas in temperate regions this is not usually the case. To compensate for this, understorey layers in temperate forest gardens must be chosen very carefully - there are plenty of plant crops which tolerate shady conditions, but many are not well known. Many of the more common shrub or perennial crops need bright conditions, and it may be necessary to design in more open clearings or glades for such species.

Temperate forest gardens are also usually small in area, from tiny back garden areas up to a hectare (2.5 acres) in size. While food production and land use remain the concern of a minority of landowners and businesses, their use is likely to be limited to ‘alternative’ and organic gardeners and land users.

The key features which contribute to the stability and self-sustaining nature of this system are:

the large number of species used, giving great diversity
the careful inclusion of plants which increase fertility, such as nitrogen fixers (eg. Alders [Alnus spp], Broom [Cytisus scoparius], Elaeagnus spp, and shrub lupins [Lupinus arboreus]).
the use of dynamic accumulators - deep rooting plants which can tap mineral sources deep in the subsoil and raise them into the topsoil layer where they become available to other plants, eg. Coltsfoot [Petasites spp], Comfreys [Symphytum spp], Liquorice [Glycyrrhiza spp], Sorrel (and docks!) [Rumex spp].
the use of plants specially chosen for their ability to attract predators of common pests, eg umbellifers like tansy.
the use, where possible, of pest and disease resistant varieties, eg. apples.
the increasing role of tree cover and leaf litter which improve nutrient cycling and drought resistance.

A forest garden is organised in up to seven ‘layers’ . Within these, the positioning of species depends on many variables, including their requirements for shelter, light, moisture, good/bad companions, mineral requirements, pollination, pest-protection, etc. The layers consist of:

Canopy trees - the highest layer of trees. May include species such as Chestnuts [Castanea spp], Persimmons [Diospyros virginiana], honey locusts [Gleditsia triacanthos], Strawberry trees [Arbutus spp], Siberian pea trees [Caragana arborescens] Cornelian cherries [Cornus mas], Azeroles and other hawthorn family fruits [Crataegus spp], Quinces [Cydonia oblonga], Apples [Malus spp], Medlars [Mespilus germanica], Mulberries [Morus spp], Plums [Prunus domestica], Pears [Pyrus communis], highbush cranberries [Viburnum trilobum].

Small trees and large shrubs, mostly planted between and below the canopy trees. May includes some of the canopy species on dwarfing rootstocks, and others such as various bamboos, Serviceberries [Amelanchier spp], Plum yews [Cephalotaxus spp], Chinkapins [Castanea pumila], Elaeagnus spp, and Japanese peppers [Zanthoxylum spp]. Others may be trees which will be coppiced to keep them shrubby, like medicinal Eucalyptus spp, and beech [Fagus sylvatica] and limes [Tilia spp] with edible leaves.

Shrubs, mostly quite shade tolerant. May include common species like currants [Ribes spp] and berries [Rubus spp], plus others like chokeberries [Aronia spp], barberries [Berberis spp], Chinese dogwood [Cornus kousa chinensis], Oregon grapes [Mahonia spp], New Zealand flax [Phormium tenax] and Japanese bitter oranges [Poncirus trifoliata].

Herbaceous perennials, several of which are herbs and will also contribute to the ground cover layer by self-seeding or spreading. These may include Bellflowers with edible leaves [Campanula spp], Comfreys [Symphytum spp], Balm [Melissa officinalis], Mints [Mentha spp], Sage [Salvia officinalis], and Tansy [Tanacetum vulgare].

Ground covers, mostly creeping carpeting plants which will form a living mulch for the ‘forest floor’. Some may be herbaceous perennials (see above), others include wild gingers [Asarum spp], cornels [Cornus canadensis], Gaultheria spp, and carpeting brambles (eg. Rubus calycinoides & R.tricolor).

Climbers and vines. These are generally late additions to the garden, since they obviously need sturdy trees to climb up. They may include hardy kiwis [Actinidia spp], and grapes [Vitis spp].

The final ‘layer’ is the root zone or rhizosphere. Any design should take account of different rooting habits and requirements of different species, even if root crops are not grown much. Some perennials with useful roots include liquorice [Glycyrrhiza spp] and the barberries [Berberis spp] whose roots furnish a good dye and medicinal products. Various beneficial fungi can also be introduced into this layer.

BENEFITS:
A long-term biologically sustainable system for growing food & other products for a household
Once established, little work is needed to maintain

DRAWBACKS:
Planting out and establishment usually requires large numbers of plants and substantial work









Animals, herbal lays and fodder, intensive market gardening and greenhouses

Animals are an essential part of the system being proposed for this project. Pigs or chickens can prepare and manure ground in preparation for planting with crops without the need for ploughing which compacts and destroys the soil structure and permits soil erosion. Rabbits can heat greenhouses in the winter and their manure is an input to vermiculture which produces high quality compost for vegetable production and the greenhouses and worms to help feed chickens and fish.

Collected manure can produce methane in a digester and heat “hot boxes” for winter salad production. It can also be used, once composted, as a base for mushroom production. This can then be used as a mulch on the herb and vegetable beds.

Animals help close the cycles that drive the designed ecosystems on the farm. To illustrate this I include some text from  http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Ecosyn/IBS_Math.html

The MATH of Integrated Biological Systems Microfarming: How Synergy Emerges from Linked Foodchains.

[Apologies: a error in switchgrass productivity was incorporated in the previous version. This corrected version uses the figures from Handbook of Energy Crops James A. Duke. 1983 at 55 tons per acre per year (125–150 MT/ha). My gratitude to an early reader who notified me of the error.]

One acre of alfalfa produces 3.5 tons of baled hay per year (US national average production,) or up to 10 tons (@ 4 cutting/year best cases). The cause of very low yields skewing the national averages lower than the peak instances may be due to climates in areas which do not permit baled hay due to wet springs or wet autumns, or both. In these cases the alfalfa fields may still be productive as uncounted haylage (silage) or as grazing for livestock in the fields. Do not be misled by the lowest productivity figures for 'hay' only.

At the lower figure, 3.5 tons (7,000 lbs), one can feed and raise 1,750 pounds of live weight rabbit meat at a conversion ration of 4 pounds of feed to obtain 1 pound of weight gain. 12-week-old 5 pound fryers = 350 rabbits per acre of feed provided in the form of pelletized alfalfa, or fresh-cut green alfalfa. [see Table 1: Example #1, below]



Rabbits Husbandry Links
Rabbits waste approximately half the alfalfa when given in the form of dried hay, so the production is halved to 175 rabbits (5 pound live weight average) per acre if dried hay is fed. Fresh-cut green alfalfa is more palatable to rabbits and they eat more, wasting less, so the figures for fresh-cut and pellets are about the same.

Alfalfa feed in the form of mash is converted to weight gain at a higher ratio, with very little waste. In this case, the same 3.5 tons converts to 2,187.5 pound live weight, or 437.5 market-sized rabbits of average 5 pounds live weight. [see Table 1: Example #2, below]

The outputs are meat and manures. The meat is directly marketable, whereas the manures require further processing. Microbes and digestive enzymes from the rabbits digestive system continue to break down the manures.

Wide experience has shown that rabbit manures are highly compatible with earthworm culture, and that both vermicompost (as fertilizer and soil amendments) and the earthworms have economic values. I have provided a collection of laboratory analysis of rabbit manures from reputable sources, like international, national and university labs from all parts of the world. There is no question that they all agree on the high fertilizer contents of alfalfa-fed rabbit manures.

The production of rabbit manures is approximately twice the weight of wet manure to dried feed (pellets or hay) by the addition of the drinking water taken by the rabbit. So 3.5 tons of hay becomes 7 tons of fresh manures. The vermicomposting process will reduce this mass approximately by half due to the metabolism of the retinue of microrganisms in the rabbit digestive tract and earthworm digestive ecologies. The losses are primarily as carbon-dioxide exhalations of the living microherd.


Agriculture Alfalfa Biomass Links
Alfalfa invariably introduces some rhizobium from its symbiotic nodules, which survive the rabbit digestion. Rabbits introduce from their cecum digestive organ a microbe symbiot of their own, clostridium. Several clostridium species are extremely dangerous, causing tetanus, gasous gangrene, and botulism in anaerobic wounds -- be sure to have tetanus booster shots as needed and treat all wounds around the farm as serious matters. However, these microbes live in the rabbit cecum and provide useful services to the rabbit and later to the earthworm reactors.

Both rhizobium and clostridium are opportunistic saprophytes, meaning they can prosper and reproduce in dung. The earthworms add their own adapted microbe symbiots and coat their tunnels and egesta (castings) with mucus, which provides extremely preferable habitat for the microbes. Ten times the microbial populations are counted in worm castings than in the adjacent soil. What makes this of interest is that the rhizobium and clostridium are biological-nitrogen-fixing (BNF) species.

The fact is the nitrogen fertilizer value of earthworm castings can be equal to, or higher than, the intial nitrogen assey of the feedstock of alfalfa, from whence the final product originated. In addition, tiny crumbs of worm castings can hold huge populations of desirable microbes as seed populations to bio-activate surrounding soil, where 6,000 individuals can be micro-photographed on the sharp point of a pin. Often the nitrogen is bound up temporarily in living cell material, and some lab tests looking for only soluble nitrogen will fail to detect it. A living population of BNF microbes is continually manufacturing more nitrogen supplies day and night, so any snapshot of nitrogen at a single moment in time will not truthfully report the ongoing nitrogen fertilizer additions continually being created from air.

In any case, the assays of rabbit manures are nearly as high in nitrogen as the alfalfa feedstocks before vermicomposting. In addition, azotobactor which commonly floats in on the air currents, which is another BNF species, prospers well in earthworm castings, but poorly in plain soil. BNF species are all to some extent handicapped in direct competition with other species, because of the nitrogenase enzyme they depend on has peculiar requirements. By breeding them intentionally in optimal conditions they can multiply as rapidly as non-BNF species, bypassing the BNF option until nitrogen supplies in the environment are sopped up. They then can out-compete their neighbors whom have to wait for nitrogen to come from some other source than the air.


Rabbit Manure Fertilizer Value Links
By using vermicompost passed six or seven times through the simple digestive tract of the earthworms, the rabbit manures have been turned into incubation capsules which serve as ecological 'sources' in soil microcosms. A 'source' is a place of high reproduction and subsequent dispersal of offspring to colonize less productive ecological terrains.

The co-adapted earthworm microbe retinue perform in miniature eco-systems serving to repulse immigrant species by co-option of all existing niches. Their offspring, healthy and numerous, can disperse into surrounding soils with lower nutritional value thereby supporting weaker pre-existing microbe ecologies. Since these dispersers are BNF species they introduce affluence into their habitat by drawing nitrogen from the atmosphere, Nitrogen is often the limiting resource in many soils, essential for all proteins, DNA/RNA, enzymes, and vitamins. The dispersers exude their own ureas and wastes, which are taken up by other microbes in the soil. The soil health is raised by introduction of this form of predigested microbiologically-active vermicompost nuggets and crumbs.

Vermicompost also supports actinomycetes, which is yet another BNF lifeform, and the soils fertilized with living (not steamed sterilized) vermicomposts become enriched with these threading-colony builders whom can transport raw materials from where it is abundant to where it is scarce through their dense numerous fibers. Finally, the nitrogen-enriched vermicompost is soon connected to vast soil networks of phosphorus conveyers -- the mycorrhizia. Phosphorus is needed by CAMP and ATP, the essential energy molecules of every cell alive on earth. Phosphorus is often the second most limiting element in the foodwebs. To avoid crushing, sufficating and breaking up this essential microbial network the wise farmer plants in raised beds which are never compacted by walking on or compressed by vehicles of any kind. Using earthworm populations for stirring, aerating and churning, and by regular mulch toppings of vermicompost, this soil rarely needs digging of any kind forever. This soil is of maximum tilth and health, and cannot be improved upon by anything science has ever tried. Only the addition of 'companion planting' is needed to limit the predatory members to low numbers beneath levels of concern.

Effectively, the original rabbit manures provided a one-to-one return: one acre produced one acres' worth of fertilizer. This is the basis for a perpetual fertility system. Ecological Synergy does much better than 1-to-1 return, as will be shown.


Earthworms: culture and castings links
The 40 to 50 feet deep roots of mature perennial alfalfa bring up trace elements from far below the plow zone, and the plant bio-concentrates trace minerals which make it a superior raw ingredient in fertilizers. The illusion is that vast amounts of fertility are being exported off the farm in the form of meat, but analysis shows that the largest bulk of it is from the air and water: carbon dioxide photosynthesized into sugar carbons make up 50% of the dry fraction, which is only about 15% of the living animal if it was freeze-dried to remove all water content. Calcium, which is often in oversupply making alkaline soils, and is cheaply mined from vast limestone deposits, is the second largest mineral exported in the meats mainly as bones. The remaining minerals exported in live rabbits amount to the size and weight of a multi-vitamin tablet, which in fact they are equivilent to.

So the rabbits-alfalfa short foodchain represents a perpetually sustainable system. The BNF microbes use minute traces of boron in nitrogenase to fix the nitrogen, and occasionally enriching the alfalfa stands with 20 pounds of mined boron will reduce the workload on the plants and improve their health and vigor.

Adding earthworms adds productivity in the form of poultry and fish feeds. Extending the foodchain two more species greatly improves the productivity. Earthworms can be harvested from the vermicompost bin or reactor at sustained rate of about 300 pounds per ton of manures processed per year. One acre of alfalfa generates 7 tons of fresh moist manures, so the sustained annual harvest of earthworms is slightly more than 1 ton of earthworms (2,100 lbs). [see TABLE 1 Example #3 below]

As chicken feed, this represents 656.25 pounds of live weight gain, at a rate of 3.2 pounds of feed converted to 1 pound of meat. This turns out to be equal to 131.25 chickens raised at five pound 12-week fryers, except for two things. First, the feed-to-weight ratio is based on grain-based chicken feeds, and chickens gain weight faster on less feed with earthworm supplements, although no figures are available demonstrating the efficiencies of adding earthworms. The second exception is earthworms are fed at about one-third of the total diet.


Industrial Agriculture & Slash and Burn causes
15,000 rare species to go extinct every year!
As fish feed (and we know how fish love earthworm bait) the conversion ratio is closer to 2 to 1, since fish do not have to struggle against gravity, and as cold-blooded they convert less food to heat. 2,100 pounds of earthworms produces 1,050 pounds of live weight fish. The quarter ton of chickens or half ton of fish represents a synergetic bonus by using a four-step integrated biological system. [see TABLE 1 Example #3 below]

Actually it is overly-simplistic to look at it as four macro links in a foodchain, because we have identified at least four microherd essential players, and in fact there are hundreds of species in the soil performing essential functions.

From the giant-sized human perspective it is a 4-step chain. Additional steps can be added. The alfalfa would enjoy return of vermicompost from time to time, but is essentially self-sufficient. The vermicompost is then available to be used to fertilize other acreage for vegetable, ornamental horticulture and orchard fertilization. This high-grade fertilizer is essentially free after producing 437 rabbits and 131 chickens off one acres production of one years hay.

If one wanted to do some creative recycling, many farm wastes (weeds, crop residues, cosmetically damaged produce, spoiled returns) and other organics can be added to bulk up the vermicompost. Carbon is the limiting ingredient in the vermicompost enriched with BNF microbes. Shredded paper, soaked cardboard, leaves, straw, can be added to the worm bins as bedding and feedstock. In 90 days it will be enriched with nitrogen by the microbe colonies.


Human waste of land is causing
a global epidemic of Mass Species Extinctions.
Instead on 1 to 1 rabbit feed/vermicompost ratio output, it is possible to get three times the amount of vermicompost and three times the earthworm harvest for three times the poultry or fish gains. It is even possible to grow biomass crops for worm reactor feedstocks to increase the fertilizer productions. A fifteenth (1/15) of an acre put into switchgrass could produce 3.5 tons of high-carbon feedstocks, or equal mass to a whole acre of alfalfa. This is from a patch of switchgrass 53 feet by 53 feet. Two patches would triple the biomass in the earthworm reactors. A 2 to 1 ratio of high-carbon organic material is converted to equally high fertilizer by the earthworms once the carbon supply allows the BNF microbes to colonize it. [see TABLE 1 Example #4 below]

Please keep in mind the reproductive fertility of microbes in optimal circumstances. One individual, splitting in two ever 20 minutes become 1,000,000 duplicates in 8 hours. High-carbon low-nitrogen feedstocks give the competitive advantage to BNF populations, which can fill the ecological niches before the non-BNF populations can gain entry. There is sound measured evidence to support every one of these statements.

Tripling the biomass in the earthworm reactors triples the earthworm population carrying capacity, so that 3,150 pounds production of earthworms is produced by 1 acre of alfalfa rabbit feed and 2/15ths of an acre of switchgrass. [see TABLE 1 Example #4 below]

This tripling carries down the foodchain to chickens or fish: instead of a 0.33 ton (656.25 lbs) of live weight chickens one obtains 1 ton of chickens; instead of 0.5 ton of live weight fish, one obtains 1.5 tons of fish.

Just adding 2/15ths of an acre of switchgrass (55 tons yield per year) has provided a bonus of meat not available to those whom spurn the Integrated Biological System (IBS) approach. In addition, there is now 3.0 acres of fertilizer produced on 1.13 acres of land versus 1.0 acres of fertilizer produced on 1.0 acres of alfalfa alone. That 0.13 acre contribution produced 200% increase in earthworms and vermicompost product.

TABLE 1
(In each example given, changes to any variable cause changes in productivity, therefore the changes from the preceding example are highlighted.)
So far the math looks like this:
EXAMPLE #1 just rabbits alone, fed dried alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green alfalfa feeds.
1.0 acre of alfalfa
=
1,750 pounds of live rabbits (350 live rabbits)
plus
=
3.5 tons aged manures
EXAMPLE #2 just rabbits alone, fed alfalfa mash.
1.0 acre of alfalfa
=
3,181 pounds of live rabbits (437 live rabbits)
plus
=
3.5 tons aged manures
EXAMPLE #3 rabbits (fed alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green), earthworms, chicken or fish.
1.0 acre of alfalfa
=
1,750 pounds of live rabbits (350 live rabbits)
plus
=
3.5 tons vermicompost
plus
=
2,100 pounds earthworms

= 656.25 pounds of chickens (131 chickens),

OR = 1,050 pounds of fish
EXAMPLE #4 rabbits (fed alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green), earthworms, chicken or fish, switchgrass biomass.
1.0 acre of alfalfa

+ 0.13 acre switchgrass
=
1,750 pounds of live rabbits (350 live rabbits)

=
10.5 tons vermicompost

=
3,150 pounds earthworms
= 984.37 pounds of chickens (196 live chickens),
OR = 1,431 pounds of fish
The previous examples are based upon the lower national average (3.5 tons/year/acre hay) alfalfa production fed in the form of pellets or fresh green cut alfalfa. Using the peak current production figures of best management, most favorable soil/growing conditions one can obtain 10 tons alfalfa hay/year/acre. This is a 286% increase in rabbit feedstock. Multiplying the inputs by 2.86 gives idealized production goals of the following:
EXAMPLE #5 just rabbits alone, fed dried alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green alfalfa feeds.
1.0 acre of alfalfa
5,000 pounds of live rabbits (1,000 live rabbits)
plus
10 tons aged manures
EXAMPLE #6 rabbits (fed alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green), earthworms, chickens or fish.
1.0 acre of alfalfa
=
5,000 pounds of live rabbits (1,000 live rabbits)
plus
=
10 tons vermicompost
plus
=
3,000 pounds earthworms
= 937.5 pounds of chickens (187 live chickens),
OR = 1,363 pounds of fish
EXAMPLE #7 rabbits (fed alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green), earthworms, chicken or fish, switchgrass biomass.
1.0 acre of alfalfa

+ 0.26 acre switchgrass
=
5,000 pounds of live rabbits (1,000 live rabbits)
plus
=
30 tons vermicompost
plus
=
9,000 pounds earthworms
= 2,812 pounds of chickens, (562 live chickens),
OR = 4,090 pounds of fish


I would like to point out the fact that 9,000 pounds of earthworms have treated 30 tons of vermicompost. At average nitrogen assey of 2.3% plant available nitrogen four tons will deliver 184 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre. However, the biologically alive BNF vermicompost will produce additional amounts of nitrogen through the season as timed-release nitrogen through their microbe manures (urea) and decomposition of their deceased progeny.


Links to Many Uses of Chicken Wastes
So the EXAMPLE #7 number of acres fertilized by the vermicompost are more than 7 acres from the feedstocks grown on 1.057 acres of land. However, that is measured by broadcasting the fertilizer to row crops: using the much more efficient intensive raised-bed method and applying the vermicompost as mulch directly as top dressing around the plants, one could fertilize nearly 9 acres with the same quantity of fertilizer and harvest at least 20% more from the same acreages.


Spent Mushroom Substrate is called SMS for short
This fertilizer gain is in addition to harvest and export of 10,635 pounds of combined live chickens and live rabbits. The synergy of rabbits-earthworms-chickens-vermicompost has an efficiency exponentially greater than any monocropping livestock confined animal feeding operation.

For maximum simplicity of understanding these descriptions have been streamlined. No mortality figures were included, which subtract from the total outputs. Mortality is highly site dependant and management skill dependent, and can vary from a low of a couple of percent to total disaster wipeout.

There are substitutions which could be included, such as using water hyacinths as the biomass feedstocks for the earthworm reactor bins. Water hyacinths are some of the highest biomass productive plants on the planet, and can be used for excess fertilizer sopping up in pond water purification systems.

Parts of the water hyacinths, or switchgrass biomass, can be pre-processed as gourmet mushroom cultivation feedstocks. In this case the biomass is reduced by 50% due to fungi respiration of carbon-dioxide exhalations and are further reduced another 20% due to cropped mushrooms. For every 10 units of harvested biomass (pounds/kilos/tons/tonnes) one recovers 3 units of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) biomass to feed the earthworm reactors. At the same time, the SMS with still living mycelium has a high nutritional value for livestock feed, and a protein content similar to milk. The SMS can be fed to chickens to increase chicken outputs, but at a reduction of earthworm feedstocks.

To see what this looks like EXAMPLE #8 diverts switchgrass biomass to mushroom cultivation before feeding the SMS to earthworms, and EXAMPLE #9 describes a condition where additional biomass is grown above the amounts in EXAMPLE #7 above to add a mushroom link to that foodchain.

TABLE 2
EXAMPLE #7 [repeated from Table 1 above] rabbits (fed alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green), earthworms, chicken or fish, switchgrass biomass.
1.0 acre of alfalfa

+ 0.26 acre switchgrass
=
5,000 pounds of live rabbits (1,000 live rabbits)
plus
=
30 tons vermicompost
plus
=
9,000 pounds earthworms
= 2,812 pounds of chickens, (562 live chickens),
OR = 4,090 pounds of fish
Diverting biomass to mushrooms instead of to earthworms, diverting SMS to chickens instead of to earthworms]
EXAMPLE #8 rabbits (fed alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green), earthworms, chicken or fish, switchgrass/water-hyacinths biomass.
1.0 acre of alfalfa

+ 0.26 acre switchgrass
=
5,000 pounds of live rabbits (1,000 live rabbits)
plus
=
10 tons vermicompost
plus
=
3,000 pounds earthworms (fed rabbit manure only)
= 937.5 pounds of chickens (187 live chickens),
OR 1,363 pounds of fish
plus
=
2,000 pounds gourmet mushrooms
plus
=
(SMS-fed) 1,875 pounds of additional chickens (375 live chickens)
[Increasing biomass for mushroom production and unpre-processed biomass for earthworm reactors by doubling biomass land cultivation area -- combining examples #7 & #8 above]
EXAMPLE #9 rabbits (fed alfalfa pellets or fresh-cut green), earthworms, chicken or fish, switchgrass/water-hyacinths biomass.
1.0 acre of alfalfa

+ 0.52 acre switchgrass
=
5,000 pounds of live rabbits (1,000 live rabbits)
plus
=
33 tons vermicompost
plus
=
9,900 pounds earthworms
= 3,093 pounds of chickens (618 live chickens),
OR = 4,500 pounds of fish
plus
=
2,000 pounds gourmet mushrooms
plus
=
(SMS-fed) 1,875 pounds of additional chickens (375 live chickens)

The total so far is 11,973 pounds of high-protein foods (rabbits, mushrooms, chickens/fish) produced on feedstocks from 1.52 acres or slightly more than 0.5 hectare on a sustainable perpetual basis, with 33 tons of fertilizer to nourish 7.29 acres of crops at 200 pounds of organic nitrogen per acre per year (broadcast to row-crops). This is an average daily production of 32.7 pounds of protein foods, which can perpetually sustain a population of 16 persons at a daily consumption of 2 pounds per day.


Mushroom Growers Techniques
from around the world.
While this set of figures has not yet subtracted out the feathers, furs, blood, scales, heads and entrails, from the live weight (approximately 22% of live weight), it also does not include the productivity gains of recycling these wastes through black soldier fly larve, for additional fish feeds cancelling these losses. Chicken henhouse litter (straw mixed with manures) is highly palatable to cattle (and highly desirable to them, regardless whether this disturbs your sense of propriety), and has crude protein nutritional values equal to grain feeds. Water hyacinths and fish IBS produce synergistic gains because the selected species of fish graze on the floating plants roots while the fish manures fertilize the plant growth increases, and BNF-blue-green algea are adding continuous supplies of organic-Nitrogen to the aquatic foodwebs. Other synergies exist by adding small plots for market gardening of mixed vegetables using the fertilizers to grow the crops and adding green wastes (crop residues, cosmetically unsalable, and over supply) as rabbit feeds to increase their health and quality of life and increasing net weight gains and net vermiculture gains.

More synergies can be added at little effort, cultivating honeybees which pollinate the alfalfa takes very little work or expense once established.

Companion Planting can reduce pest damage
in an ecologically compatible way.
Vine crops can grow up over the henhouse and chicken coops getting double-duty from the same square-footage of land space. The grapes, kiwi or passion fruits give summer heat shading to the animals when they need it most. Chickens and ducks can eat weeds and insects among the growing crops, if the operation is designed intelligently. Ducks can co-exist with the aquaculture of fish/water weeds, at minimal expense or effort once established.

Fast breeding rabbits and fowl, harvested young at 12 weeks, have very little time to multiply any infectious prions to spread any Spongiform Encephapathy which may become epidemic in your area as it is now sweeping the globe. So far the infectious agent has never been located in fish, although fowl (wild waterfowl) may be carriers. It might be wise to only eat eggs from the ducks once the plague hits your area.

Elsewhere There are internet knowlegebase resource website pages I maintain, and many others from 'eco-villiages' or permaculture advocates providing information about choreographing lifeforms for synergistic productivity increases.

Let me conclude this article by describing one point alluded to above. In EXAMPLE #9 you can get another 250 pounds of rabbit production, (1,250 lbs total), from the exact same feedstocks by making the simple change from feeding it as pellets or fresh-cut, to providing it ground-up in water as mash. Rabbits go from 4 units of feed to one unit of weight gain, to only needing 3.2 units of mash feed to obtain the exact same 1 unit of weight gain. It pays to research many methods and learn many options so that one can be flexible in a world of uncertain changes looming on the future.


On farm food processing

One of the integral parts of this project is a kitchen built to food industry standards to maximise the value of the farm's production. It will be powered by direct heat from the CHP and refrigeration will be accomplished by an adsorbtion method from the same heat source. In the accompanying clean room we would produce cheeses, do brewing, mycoculture, micropropagation of plants and any work that requires biological cultures. The kitchen would produce pickles, chutneys, jams and preserves, candied fruit and a whole range of other high value organic products. The main philosophy is high quality, high value, high diversity low volume production for the local market. The kitchen would also produce meals for the occupants of the farm and we may consider the possibility of functioning as a restaurant at weekends and holidays.


Multifunction passive solar greenhouses

These are designed to host a variety of functions. A sunken trough of water, heated by the CHP to 25C running down the centre of the building would simultaneously heat the building and act as a tank for breeding fish for the table such as tilapia and invertebrates like crayfish. Care would be taken to ensure that species utilised were not capable of breeding in the British climate unless they were native species. At the back of the greenhouses where there is less light year round production of mushrooms would be in progress and in the lit areas temperature sensitive plants could be grown year round. Fresh water from the farm spring would be trickle fed into the system that would then be piped into the plant beds to irrigate the indoor crops. Nutrients from the aquaculture would then be fed into the plants to improve productivity. Pests would be controlled by insect predators bred on the farm that would also be an additional product. It would also be possible to consider silk production in these spaces.



Transport

As a sustainability centre we would discourage people from bringing their cars to the project and would use a mini bus to collect workers, guests and diners from a place of their choosing in the local area as much as possible. We would however need to provide parking for about 15 cars on the farm. As far as possible we would produce as much of our own fuel on farm as possible in the form of ethanol and biodiesel. Ultimately we would like to consider production of methane from composting manures.


Education

One of the primary functions of this project is the dissemination of techniques in sustainabilty. The farm will welcome volunteers and several times a year will offer courses in sustainable agriculture to paying guests. These courses will assist in improving the farm with free labour and provide additional income for the project. Visiting experts will improve the project's knowledge base. We would like to be in a position to accommodate classes of school children to educate them in nature and sustainability. We would consider opening our doors one day a week to local schools at no charge for educational purposes. We also intend to host a library and information centre on sustainable agricultural techniques and a book shop.


Sustainability requires people

We would expect to house our staff and their families on site. This project is highly complex in nature and needs monitoring 24 hours a day. It will be run in such a way that all members of the project have a financial stake in it's success. We expect to need to accommodate 6 to 7 families and be capable of hosting 30 guests at any one time. (The size of a class of secondary school students plus their teachers) All new permanent buildings will follow a passive solar design to maximise efficiency and will have a low visual profile. We intend all new construction to be invisible from outside the project with the possible exception of the chimney for the CHP. As policy we will allow only a few vehicles on site and use communal transport. Guests will be requested to leave their vehicles elsewhere and we will collect them from one of the local towns. All visits will be by appointment and restaurant places must be booked in advance to prevent too much traffic to the centre. We will not be an attraction open to the general public but a working business concern.



A rough idea of the first 10 years



Year 1

Construction of growing beds, greenhouses, installation of CHP restoration of farmhouse, construction of chicken sheds and other animal accommodation, planting of energy crops, in Autumn planting of orchards and trees, creation of ponds, grey water systems, growing vegetables and other plants for seed, preparation of perennial beds,installation of heating and aquaculture systems in greenhouses (as part of construction process) installation and testing of climate control systems.

Fencing installed. Contacting potential customers for medicinal herbs, identifying 50 customers for regular veg boxes for following year. Finding markets for meat and egg products. building web site for marketing.

Herbal leys prepared and sown a few of the animals brought in and systems worked out

Advertising of guest cabins, holistic medical centre and sustainability courses for following year started.

Willow wind barriers created.

Secondary energy systems (solar panels battery banks perhaps a medium scale wind generator) installed

Little if any income expected in first year.

Year 2

Jan:
Bed preparation, greenhouse preparation, first batches of cheese from goats made and recipes tested.
Green manures sown in beds. Any remaining tree planting completed.

Feb:
First veg boxes being delivered with winter crops

grown from previous autumn and first greenhouse crops for this year we may need to top the boxes up with product acquired from other organic farms. Start with 10 boxes (Depending on amount of product available it would be better to be reliable with fewer boxes than damage our reputation with poor reliability). We would increase numbers as production increases.

Excess production would be sold at farmers markets and in local farm shops.
Orchards mulched.

We should be in a position to always have more product than we need to deliver.

March:
More plant sowing, cuttings prepared. First week long course in sustainable ecological agriculture. 1 course per month until September. The kitchen should be prepared to work flat out by now.
Introduction of fish to greenhouse aquaculture systems.

April:
Opening of cabins to guests and opening of the restaurant. Opening of Holistic medical centre, services offered in first year of operation include acupuncture and medical herbalism.

May:
Late vegetables sown main crop plants planted out. First batches of goats cheese delivered to customers.

Bee hives installed

June:
Routines should be settling down by now. once fortnightly meetings should track problems and solutions would be worked out. Vegetable production should be getting to a commercial level but perennial production will be low until year 3 as will soft fruit production.

July:
First soft fruits will be used for recipe testing for production in year 3-4 first chickens and rabbits
for market should be ready for sale. First harvests of medicinal herbs for drying will be made now. Propagation of perennial species for next years production expansion
From year 3 the cherry harvest will start at low levels.


August:
First seed harvests for appropriate species.

This should be the peak month for tourism and we may increase the number of courses to two for the July/Aug/Sept months.

This should be the peak month for medicinal herb harvesting. Beginning of main outdoor mushroom crop.

September:
From year 3-4 the first tree fruit harvest will begin with appropriate cultivars. Preparations should be made for winter crops.

October:
Winter crop planting. End of summer crops and winding down of the main beds. Garlic planting.

Preparation for winter moving the rabbits into the greenhouses to add to heating. End of guest season.

Honey harvest before first frosts.

November Increasing complexity of agroforestry planting of new trees and adding to hedgerow plantings. Last of the tree fruit harvests should have been completed. In future years nut harvests will be now. End of outdoor mushroom crop.

December:
Christmas and New Year opening of restaurant.

We should be making some money in year 2 but this year will be one where bugs in the system are worked out and we can expect to make mistakes. This is the year in which we establish our customer base and we begin online marketing of products. By end of year 3 we should also be
producing herbal soaps, medicines and cosmetic products.

The first of our indoor mushroom production should be coming on stream in year 2.

Year 3

Routine should be established by now and although revenue stream will not reach peak plateau until the main tree crops are in production from year 15-20 we should be in profit and repaying our investment in year 3. Year 3 should be one of consolidation and examination of systems. This year will be the first year when the energy crops are at their continuous production level.

At this point we should be able to function off grid and be selling excess power to the grid or our neighbours.

Fruit tree production should be up to reasonable levels by year 5 but we should see the beginnings of tree fruit production in year 3. Year 3 should also see the beginnings of products (Tilapia, crayfish, watercress) from the aquaculture systems.

By the end of year 3 all the ecosystems should be in place.

Year 4-5

We should be running smoothly by now. We should know how much we can produce with the manpower available. If we have any excess capacity we should examine the possibility of creating new niches and products. We must not be so ambitious that we let our primary income generators suffer.

The process of getting to year 5 will be the most labour intensive period in the farms life. After this routines will have been established and all the major ecosystem installation will be done.

Year 10

Apart from the deciduous trees the farm should be mature and capable of self reproduction. From year 5 we should be in a position to assist neighbouring farms in shifting to a fossil fuel free sustainable system if they should wish the assistance.


Some thoughts on revenue streams


These are some of the potential revenue earners for the project. As it grows in complexity these will increase. As niches are added to the designed ecosystems more products will become possible. The more complex the system becomes the more stable it will be and less susceptible to failure from problems due to disease or extreme climatic events.

50 veg boxes a week @ £20 = £52,000 pa

75 kg assorted mushrooms per month @ £5 per kg £4500 pa

25 kg dried medicinal herbs 50 species @ £2 per 100g sold online annually £25,000

200 kg honey annually @ £5 per kg £1000

1000 potted plants per week @ £1 each £52000

1500 eggs per week @ £1 per 6 = 13,000 pa

1000 rabbits pa @ £1 = £1000

1000 chickens pa @ £3 = £3000

100 kg goats cheese pa @ £10 per kg =£1000 pa

1000 kg pickles and chutneys @ £5 per kg = £5000 pa

500 kg fruit jams and preserves @ £5 per kg = £2500 pa

10 pigs pa @ £500 = £5000

15 goats pa @ £300 = £4500

3000 jars for pickles and jams @ £0.2 = -£600

750 kg sugar for pickles and jams @ 0.5 = -£375

vets bills -£1000 pa

loan repayment £2000 per month = -£24000

Revenue from holistic clinic = £50,000

Holistic clinician fees = -£20,000

mortgage repayment £2000 per month = -£24000

6 courses per year 30 people per course @ £150 pp £27000

tutor fees -£6000 pa

Profits from meals provided at courses £6500

paying guests 10 per week @ £100 per week for 6 months £21000

Profits from providing food for guests est @ £7500 pa

assorted outgoings -£15000

wages for 6 employees -£72,000

rent from employees @ £75 per week £23,000

The farm would be run as a workers cooperative. Profits would be divided into one third to in farm investment, one third as additional loan repayment and one third as bonuses to the staff. All staff would receive the same level of basic salary but bonuses would be determined by ballot where staff may nominate bonuses to anyone but themselves from an equal share of the bonus pot. Each staff member would be given a list of names on separate pieces of paper and would split their share of the bonus amongst them according to how they feel the people have worked. This ballot would be secret but the final amounts would be public within the group. This creates some competitive incentive that is fair to all.


Joe Djemal