Annotated Bibliography - Revision history

Toby at 04:44, 4 December 2008

2008-12-04T04:44:08Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:44, 4 December 2008
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	Bibliography: My intent is to provide a brief summary of what I've read and a thorough analysis of the philosophy, design methods and biology outlined in the material.		Bibliography: My intent is to provide a brief summary of what I've read and a thorough analysis of the philosophy, design methods and biology outlined in the material.

	~~Senior PAGS Research Paper: Why Should Sustainable Agriculture be Taught in the Liberal Arts, And How Should it be Done? -agriculture education theorists: David Orr, John Dewey, Aldo Leopold~~

	The Omnivore's Dilemma :Michael Pollan		The Omnivore's Dilemma :Michael Pollan

Toby at 20:16, 22 October 2008

2008-10-22T20:16:50Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:16, 22 October 2008
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	The Omnivore's Dilemma :Michael Pollan		The Omnivore's Dilemma :Michael Pollan
	This book is a journalistic project that traces several different paths that food travels in America today. The author follows the production of one meal from an industrial, an industrial organic, a small-scale pastoral, and a hunter-gatherer's perspective while providing the history and context for each in this country. The book provides a great overarching view the food system and dispels many of the mysteries and myths of how we as a nation feed ourselves and what that means for the environment, the people who make a living on food production and the people who consume this food. The book also provides a great starting place for people interested in making food production more sustainable in the section on small-scale pastoral.		This book is a journalistic project that traces several different paths that food travels in America today. The author follows the production of one meal from an industrial, an industrial organic, a small-scale pastoral, and a hunter-gatherer's perspective while providing the history and context for each in this country. The book provides a great overarching view the food system and dispels many of the mysteries and myths of how we as a nation feed ourselves and what that means for the environment, the people who make a living on food production and the people who consume this food. The book also provides a great starting place for people interested in making food production more sustainable in the section on small-scale pastoral.
	The section of the book which directly looks at food production using Permacultural principles is the profile of the local Pastoral farm called Polyface farm in Swoope Virginia. The author spends a week working on the farm alongside Joel Salatin, a third generation inventor agriculturalist. The author thoroughly describes the systems that Salatin has implemented on his 550 acres of previously degraded farm land. Salatin is deeply philosophical in his approach to farming and describes himself as a â€œChristian-conservative-libertarian-environmentalist-lunatic-farmer.â€ His central dogma is that profitability is measured in the well-being of the land.
			The section of the book which directly looks at food production using Permacultural principles is the profile of the local Pastoral farm called Polyface farm in Swoope Virginia. The author spends a week working on the farm alongside Joel Salatin, a third generation inventor agriculturalist. The author thoroughly describes the systems that Salatin has implemented on his 550 acres of previously degraded farm land. Salatin is deeply philosophical in his approach to farming and describes himself as a â€œChristian-conservative-libertarian-environmentalist-lunatic-farmer.â€ His central dogma is that profitability is measured in the well-being of the land.

	Salatin participates in a manner of pastoral farming meaning that the main crop that he cultivates is grass for various grazing animals to feed themselves on. The pastoral farmerâ€™s mantra is that they are really grass farmers not beef or chicken farmers although those are the products of value. What sets Polyface farm apart from traditional pastoral farms is that it is â€œmanagement intensiveâ€ which allows for a much higher productivity per acre than other practices. How Salatin explains management intensive partoral is that heâ€™s â€œthe orchestra conductor making sure everybodyâ€™s in the right place at the right timeâ€ and ensuring that the â€œthe animals do most of the work on the farmâ€ in how he organizes the movement in space and time of the various components of his farm. In other words, as he only deals with a limited amount of space, he finds ways to exploit as much energy as possible from each plot of land. He does this by mimicking the systems of fertility and energy transfer that occurs in natural ecosystems so that each component of the system contributes to the needs of another component in some way. The goal is to find a balance in the system where no one component is taking more from the system than it is giving back to other parts of the whole. Without this balance the system would be unsustainable by requiring external inputs of the over-used nutrients such as petroleum-based fertilizers to help grow more grass on an over-grazed plot. This is the main difference between industrial agriculture and sustainable practices in that industry strives solely for the highest yield, in contrast with the highest yield that the land can sustainably support under natural conditions.		Salatin participates in a manner of pastoral farming meaning that the main crop that he cultivates is grass for various grazing animals to feed themselves on. The pastoral farmerâ€™s mantra is that they are really grass farmers not beef or chicken farmers although those are the products of value. What sets Polyface farm apart from traditional pastoral farms is that it is â€œmanagement intensiveâ€ which allows for a much higher productivity per acre than other practices. How Salatin explains management intensive partoral is that heâ€™s â€œthe orchestra conductor making sure everybodyâ€™s in the right place at the right timeâ€ and ensuring that the â€œthe animals do most of the work on the farmâ€ in how he organizes the movement in space and time of the various components of his farm. In other words, as he only deals with a limited amount of space, he finds ways to exploit as much energy as possible from each plot of land. He does this by mimicking the systems of fertility and energy transfer that occurs in natural ecosystems so that each component of the system contributes to the needs of another component in some way. The goal is to find a balance in the system where no one component is taking more from the system than it is giving back to other parts of the whole. Without this balance the system would be unsustainable by requiring external inputs of the over-used nutrients such as petroleum-based fertilizers to help grow more grass on an over-grazed plot. This is the main difference between industrial agriculture and sustainable practices in that industry strives solely for the highest yield, in contrast with the highest yield that the land can sustainably support under natural conditions.

	The ingenious aspect of Permaculture is that its systems are designed to coax the highest yield possible off of a plot of land while simultaneously improving the fertility of the land so that yields will actually improve in the future rather than degrade and require external energy inputs. Salatin explains productive balance; â€œItâ€™s all connected, this farm is more like an organism than a machine, and like any organism it has its proper scale. A mouse is the size of a mouse for a good reason, and a mouse that was the size of an elephant would not do very well.â€ He accomplishes this balance with the use of â€œholonsâ€ which mean â€œwhole partâ€ and can be imagined to be like an organ in a body because each one performs a distinct function while contributing to the function of the whole. Polyface farm is made up many of these systems, some of which I will explain in detail.		The ingenious aspect of Permaculture is that its systems are designed to coax the highest yield possible off of a plot of land while simultaneously improving the fertility of the land so that yields will actually improve in the future rather than degrade and require external energy inputs. Salatin explains productive balance; â€œItâ€™s all connected, this farm is more like an organism than a machine, and like any organism it has its proper scale. A mouse is the size of a mouse for a good reason, and a mouse that was the size of an elephant would not do very well.â€ He accomplishes this balance with the use of â€œholonsâ€ which mean â€œwhole partâ€ and can be imagined to be like an organ in a body because each one performs a distinct function while contributing to the function of the whole. Polyface farm is made up many of these systems, some of which I will explain in detail.

	The basic premise of the pastoral system is called a â€œproductive symbiosisâ€ and works like this. Energy from the sun is trapped by grasses in photosynthesis and is transformed into glucose. Animals eat the grasses, taking up most of the transformed solar energy meeting their energy requirements and turning excess into body mass. Animalâ€™s waste then returns many nutrients to the soil which in turn feeds the grasses many of the nutrients that they need. This is a very simple picture of the energy cycle found in a patch of grass. The reality is a much more complex web of relationships between species on a purposefully managed pasture. The beauty of this complexity is how once it exists it is self-regulated by other components of the system hence â€œanimals do most of the work on the farm,â€ but that the farmer is â€œthe orchestra conductor.â€ Itâ€™s hard to determine where the beginning of such a complex system is and it seems to be too perfect to have occurred naturally, hence the spiritual relationship of farmers to the systems on their farm; I will try to explain.		The basic premise of the pastoral system is called a â€œproductive symbiosisâ€ and works like this. Energy from the sun is trapped by grasses in photosynthesis and is transformed into glucose. Animals eat the grasses, taking up most of the transformed solar energy meeting their energy requirements and turning excess into body mass. Animalâ€™s waste then returns many nutrients to the soil which in turn feeds the grasses many of the nutrients that they need. This is a very simple picture of the energy cycle found in a patch of grass. The reality is a much more complex web of relationships between species on a purposefully managed pasture. The beauty of this complexity is how once it exists it is self-regulated by other components of the system hence â€œanimals do most of the work on the farm,â€ but that the farmer is â€œthe orchestra conductor.â€ Itâ€™s hard to determine where the beginning of such a complex system is and it seems to be too perfect to have occurred naturally, hence the spiritual relationship of farmers to the systems on their farm; I will try to explain.

	Grazing animals and the plants that they eat co-evolved in nature. Grazing animals are specially adapted to eat grasses because they have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in their gut that allows them to metabolize the cellulose in grass which other animals canâ€™t. Grazers thus allowed certain favorable species of grasses to prosper by clearing competing species and spreading seeds in their feces. Grazers and grass co-evolved to the cycles of sheering and re-growth that occurred in newly formed grass plains. As grazers usually stay in great herds as a mode of protection from predators, they would move into patches of land and completely sheer the grass and then move on to the next patch of new growth. The patch they had just been on then had time to re-grow until the next time the herd came around. This cycle of growth and sheer actually improves the fertility of the soil and the quality of the grasses.		Grazing animals and the plants that they eat co-evolved in nature. Grazing animals are specially adapted to eat grasses because they have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in their gut that allows them to metabolize the cellulose in grass which other animals canâ€™t. Grazers thus allowed certain favorable species of grasses to prosper by clearing competing species and spreading seeds in their feces. Grazers and grass co-evolved to the cycles of sheering and re-growth that occurred in newly formed grass plains. As grazers usually stay in great herds as a mode of protection from predators, they would move into patches of land and completely sheer the grass and then move on to the next patch of new growth. The patch they had just been on then had time to re-grow until the next time the herd came around. This cycle of growth and sheer actually improves the fertility of the soil and the quality of the grasses.
	Responsible grazing improves soil fertility by the top-down build up of the topsoil with organic matter. Plants naturally seek equilibrium of above and below ground growth so that there is not an imbalance of energy requirements in different regions. When they are grazed, grasses will lose an equal amount of root growth to what was eaten above ground adding organic matter to the soil in pastures. Root litter is then broken down by decomposers in the soil which releases nutrients back into the soil and creates channels in the soil for oxygen, water and below surface creatures. After the â€œfirst biteâ€ leaves recover from nutrient stores so that they can obtain energy by photosynthesis and provide for root recovery. New root growth in turn increases soil stability, which reduces erosion and draws water up to the surface from deeper in the soil which benefits many organisms.
	Management intensive pastoral farming exploits the natural benefits of grazing by taking the needs of each of the components into account. Firstly conducting how often an area of grass is grazed prevents over-grazing, a major problem with other grazing practices. Breaking the rule of the â€œsecond biteâ€ as Salatin calls letting grazers go over a patch of pasture before the grass has recovered fully cancels the benefits of grazing. Interestingly the same is true for under-grazing. Salatin says that a pastoralist must â€œpulse the pastureâ€ to optimize the cycle of re-growth that grass undergo. Salatin manages his grazers by rotating them over pasture on a very specific schedule. Grass recovers from grazing on a growth curve of a certain length of time. There is a point where the grass is just right for optimizing the benefits of grazing to the animals as well as the plant and soil. Grass begins to grow back slowly for several days until it hits a â€œblaze of growthâ€ where the blades and roots have reached equilibrium and then undergo rapid growth. This slows down after several more days up until the plant is ready to flower and seed. After this happens grasses become woody which is not preferable for grazers. The optimal time to let grazers over a pasture is right after the major blaze of growth and before it seeds and flowers. This is the point when grass has finished growing and is the most nutritious because all of the plantâ€™s energy has been expended on growth and has not yet been transferred into producing seeds and flowers.		Responsible grazing improves soil fertility by the top-down build up of the topsoil with organic matter. Plants naturally seek equilibrium of above and below ground growth so that there is not an imbalance of energy requirements in different regions. When they are grazed, grasses will lose an equal amount of root growth to what was eaten above ground adding organic matter to the soil in pastures. Root litter is then broken down by decomposers in the soil which releases nutrients back into the soil and creates channels in the soil for oxygen, water and below surface creatures. After the â€œfirst biteâ€ leaves recover from nutrient stores so that they can obtain energy by photosynthesis and provide for root recovery. New root growth in turn increases soil stability, which reduces erosion and draws water up to the surface from deeper in the soil which benefits many organisms.
	Another of the main benefits of management intensive pastoral is the maintenance of grass diversity in a pasture. This has multitude of benefits to the system the most obvious being that diversity maximizes the photosynthetic potential because different grasses are adapted to different niches in natural plains. There are a wide range of heights of grasses in a pasture, tall grasses as well as shade tolerant grasses that grow close to the ground. This allows more total solar energy to be stored in a certain plot than the same size of a grass monoculture such as corn. The occupancy of different niches in a polyculture also allows plains to be more resilient to environmental shocks as well as optimizing the growing season and the amount of the year that a pasture can be grazed. Different grasses have different growth cycles as well as different propensities to cope with environmental conditions such as drought. The overall affect is the security of grazerâ€™s food source so the health of the system is maintained even through scarce times.
	Diversity in a pasture that is grazed responsibly is also directly beneficial to the soil and to the grass itself. Grazers prefer specific species of grass that they find delectable. Size is a big factor to their preference. Cowâ€™s jaws allow them to only eat grasses of a certain height so theyâ€™ll gravitate to the tastiest grasses that they can eat giving the ones that they canâ€™t reach, the ground huggers a chance to grow. A sign of a well grazed pasture is a high number of ground hugging grasses which also allows them to provide a very valuable service to the pasture. Several grasses (legumes such as clover) have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, a critical nutrient to plants. This ability is really a symbiotic relationship between the roots of the plant and bacteria that attach to the roots in â€œnodulesâ€ and fix the nitrogen in return for glucose. The availability of nitrogen in a well managed pasture is another example of how a natural system manages its own fertility because it cuts down on the inputs of fertilizer that a less diverse field would require.		Management intensive pastoral farming exploits the natural benefits of grazing by taking the needs of each of the components into account. Firstly conducting how often an area of grass is grazed prevents over-grazing, a major problem with other grazing practices. Breaking the rule of the â€œsecond biteâ€ as Salatin calls letting grazers go over a patch of pasture before the grass has recovered fully cancels the benefits of grazing. Interestingly the same is true for under-grazing. Salatin says that a pastoralist must â€œpulse the pastureâ€ to optimize the cycle of re-growth that grass undergo. Salatin manages his grazers by rotating them over pasture on a very specific schedule. Grass recovers from grazing on a growth curve of a certain length of time. There is a point where the grass is just right for optimizing the benefits of grazing to the animals as well as the plant and soil. Grass begins to grow back slowly for several days until it hits a â€œblaze of growthâ€ where the blades and roots have reached equilibrium and then undergo rapid growth. This slows down after several more days up until the plant is ready to flower and seed. After this happens grasses become woody which is not preferable for grazers. The optimal time to let grazers over a pasture is right after the major blaze of growth and before it seeds and flowers. This is the point when grass has finished growing and is the most nutritious because all of the plantâ€™s energy has been expended on growth and has not yet been transferred into producing seeds and flowers.
	Salatinâ€™s farm is enormously productive for its size. It consists of the following.
			Another of the main benefits of management intensive pastoral is the maintenance of grass diversity in a pasture. This has multitude of benefits to the system the most obvious being that diversity maximizes the photosynthetic potential because different grasses are adapted to different niches in natural plains. There are a wide range of heights of grasses in a pasture, tall grasses as well as shade tolerant grasses that grow close to the ground. This allows more total solar energy to be stored in a certain plot than the same size of a grass monoculture such as corn. The occupancy of different niches in a polyculture also allows plains to be more resilient to environmental shocks as well as optimizing the growing season and the amount of the year that a pasture can be grazed. Different grasses have different growth cycles as well as different propensities to cope with environmental conditions such as drought. The overall affect is the security of grazerâ€™s food source so the health of the system is maintained even through scarce times.

			Diversity in a pasture that is grazed responsibly is also directly beneficial to the soil and to the grass itself. Grazers prefer specific species of grass that they find delectable. Size is a big factor to their preference. Cowâ€™s jaws allow them to only eat grasses of a certain height so theyâ€™ll gravitate to the tastiest grasses that they can eat giving the ones that they canâ€™t reach, the ground huggers a chance to grow. A sign of a well grazed pasture is a high number of ground hugging grasses which also allows them to provide a very valuable service to the pasture. Several grasses (legumes such as clover) have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, a critical nutrient to plants. This ability is really a symbiotic relationship between the roots of the plant and bacteria that attach to the roots in â€œnodulesâ€ and fix the nitrogen in return for glucose. The availability of nitrogen in a well managed pasture is another example of how a natural system manages its own fertility because it cuts down on the inputs of fertilizer that a less diverse field would require.

			Salatinâ€™s farm is enormously productive for its size. It consists of the following.
	(450 acres, restored woodlands)		(450 acres, restored woodlands)
	(100 acres, pasture, structures, garden, etc.		(100 acres, pasture, structures, garden, etc.

Toby at 20:14, 22 October 2008

2008-10-22T20:14:04Z

Show changes

Toby at 23:56, 27 September 2008

2008-09-27T23:56:28Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:56, 27 September 2008
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	(100 acres, pasture, structures, garden, etc)		(100 acres, pasture, structures, garden, etc)
	-Farm products (per year)		-Farm products (per year)
			lumber
	Tomatoes		Tomatoes
	Sweet corn		Sweet corn
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	queen annes lace		queen annes lace

	-"below decks"		-"below decks"
	earthworms		earthworms
	woodchucks		woodchucks

Toby at 23:50, 27 September 2008

2008-09-27T23:50:58Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:50, 27 September 2008
Line 10:		Line 10:
	This book is a journalistic project that traces a several different paths that food travels in America today. The author follows the production of one meal from an industrial, an industrial organic, a small-scale pastoral, and a hunter-gatherer's perspective while providing the history and context for each in this country. The book provides a great overarching view the food system and dispells many of the mysterys and myths of how we as a nation feed ourselves and what that means for the environment and the people who make a living on food production. The book also provides a great starting place for people interested in making food production more sustainable in the section on small-scale pastoral.		This book is a journalistic project that traces a several different paths that food travels in America today. The author follows the production of one meal from an industrial, an industrial organic, a small-scale pastoral, and a hunter-gatherer's perspective while providing the history and context for each in this country. The book provides a great overarching view the food system and dispells many of the mysterys and myths of how we as a nation feed ourselves and what that means for the environment and the people who make a living on food production. The book also provides a great starting place for people interested in making food production more sustainable in the section on small-scale pastoral.

	[local Pastoral]		[local Pastoral]: Profile of Polyface farm, Swoope VA.
			-550 acres
			(450 acres, restored woodlands)
			(100 acres, pasture, structures, garden, etc)
			-Farm products (per year)
			Tomatoes
			Sweet corn
			Berries
			25,000 lbs beef
			50,000 lbs pork
			12,000 broilers (chickens)
			800 turkeys
			500 rabbits
			30,000 dozen eggs

			-Grasses
			Orchard grass
			foxtail
			bluegrass
			timothy
			fescues
			red/white clover (legumes)
			lupines (legumes)
			Plantain
			dandelion
			queen annes lace

			-"below decks"
			earthworms
			woodchucks
			moles
			insects
			nematodes
			bacteria
			rotifers
			phages
			fungi mycelium

Toby at 23:17, 27 September 2008

2008-09-27T23:17:43Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:17, 27 September 2008
Line 1:		Line 1:
			'''Bibliography''': My intent is to provide a brief summary of what I've read and a thorough explanation of the philosophy, design methods and biology outlined in the material.


	Senior PAGS Research Paper: Why Should Sustainable Agriculture be Taught in the Liberal Arts, And How Should it be Done?		Senior PAGS Research Paper: Why Should Sustainable Agriculture be Taught in the Liberal Arts, And How Should it be Done?
	-agriculture education theorists: David Orr, John Dewey, Aldo Leopold		-agriculture education theorists: David Orr, John Dewey, Aldo Leopold



			'''The Omnivore's Dilemma''' :Michael Pollan
			This book is a journalistic project that traces a several different paths that food travels in America today. The author follows the production of one meal from an industrial, an industrial organic, a small-scale pastoral, and a hunter-gatherer's perspective while providing the history and context for each in this country. The book provides a great overarching view the food system and dispells many of the mysterys and myths of how we as a nation feed ourselves and what that means for the environment and the people who make a living on food production. The book also provides a great starting place for people interested in making food production more sustainable in the section on small-scale pastoral.

			[local Pastoral]

Toby at 03:38, 25 September 2008

2008-09-25T03:38:39Z

New page

Senior PAGS Research Paper: Why Should Sustainable Agriculture be Taught in the Liberal Arts, And How Should it be Done?
-agriculture education theorists: David Orr, John Dewey, Aldo Leopold