Download - Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change
Adapting Agriculture to
Climate Change
Bring Food Home
November 17, 2013
Tony McQuail
Big Challenges
• Climate Change
• Peak Oil - Peak Everything?
• Environmental Degradation
• Economic Inequity
• Social Deterioration
– Can we develop approaches that address all
these challenges at once?
– Agriculture is the largest land use on the
planet – How it is structured has profound
implications for all these challenges.
Meeting Place Organic Farm
Solar energy at Meeting Place Organic Farm And Carbon Sequestration
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT
Creating The Life You Want
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT
• How to:
Care for your PEOPLE
Improve the LAND
Make a PROFIT
By making better decisions
Allan Savory and
African Range Land
Improving land health by learning to mimic
Nature – Particularly with grazing animals for
animal impact and herd effect.
Bare Capped Soil - Zimbabwe
6 months later – After - 200 cattle &
100 goats in a new area each day
Two Years Later
Holistic Decision Making
Uses
A HOLISTIC GOAL
and
SEVEN TESTING QUESTIONS
Steps in HM Process
• Create a Holistic Goal with inclusive group – Quality of Life
– Forms of Production
– Future Resource Base
• Learn & Use Seven Testing Questions – Keep moving forward towards Holistic Goal
• Learn About 4 ecosystem Processes – Water Cycle,
– Mineral Cycle,
– Community dynamics
– Energy Flow
• Use Planning Processes – Weak link determination
– Financial analysis and forecasting
– Plan-Monitor-Control- Replan.
Adaptation – not just Farm
• Sally talk about Transition Town
movement.
• Follow with discussion Break
• Then resume with some stories from
Meeting Place Organic Farm
Discussion – 20 Minutes Total
• 5 minutes -individually to consider
• -How can you apply these ideas to your
own life NOW?
• - How would the application of these ideas
improve or damage your community?
• 15 minutes group discussion
– Appoint a recorder
Holistic Management
Examples from MPOF
• Holistic Goal
• 4 ecosystem processes
• Testing Questions
• Financial Management
• Monitor/replan
A Family Holiday??
In The Summer????
August 1996 in BC
Replace Snow Blower?
Testing = Snow Scoop
Energy & Community
Financial Planning
Developed New
Enterprises
CSA Garden Pick Up
Freezer Meat Retailing
Adapting Agriculture?
• Need to have a vision of where to go
• Need to have a process that guides us
• Need to accept we may be wrong
• Need to be able to correct our direction
• Need to work with others
Lots of Systems
• Organic Ag
• Ecological Ag
• Permaculture
• Restoration Agriculture
• Regenerative Agriculture
• Regrarian
• Community Supported Agriculture
– Holistic Management is a process that can
work with any system.
Give out Handout
• Any last comments or questions?