Nederlandse versie hieronder
Whether in Europe or in the global South, young farmers, unless they are born into a farm family, often lack three key things: land, finance and knowledge. But a new breed of farmers has risen, fuelled by passion to produce food in a healthy way, free from agrochemicals. Their journeys are often difficult, but with support from the community and by helping each other, they are heading towards a fairer and brighter future, as I learned this week on a revealing road trip.
Recently, I joined my farmer friends Johan Hons and Vera Kuijpers on their weekly trip to deliver and buy organic produce from wholesalers and fellow farmers to stock up their farm shop that opens from Friday afternoon until Saturday noon. Johan and Vera have been pioneer organic farmers in north-eastern Belgium.
âWhen we started some 30 years ago, it was just us and one other family who had a basic food packaging machine. Whenever needed, we could use their machine,â Johan said. In the meantime, the number of organic farmers has grown, and an amazing informal network is coming to life.
The back of the van is loaded with freshly harvested potatoes, a few crates of cabbages and leek seedlings that Johan and Vera had reared for the new season. Having left their farm before 6 am, by 8 oâclock we finished our first delivery. Biofresh, a main organic retailer, bought their potatoes. At the same time, we collect the produce they had ordered online a few days earlier. Vera guides me through the warehouse, explaining how the whole system works.
I see crates of organic pineapples from CĂŽte dâIvoire, bright mangoes from Ghana, ginger from Peru, fava beans, artichokes and oranges from Italy, and various local products, including their potatoes, amongst other things.
âAt first, our name was mentioned on the label,â Vera says, âbut they have now replaced our name with a number, so people no longer know who has produced them. I think it is to protect themselves from their competitors.â This may well be the case, but as we continue our road trip it dawns on me that the effectiveness of this strategy may only be short-lived.
As we load the van in the parking lot, Floriaan DâHulster, a young fellow organic farmer whom we had met indoors 10 minutes earlier arrives. He has come to buy Johan and Veraâs crates of cabbages and hands over a little carton box. My curiosity triggered, Johan proudly opens it and shows little seed packages.
âThis is from our group of farmers with whom we started to produce vegetable seed. The seed has been cleaned, nicely labelled and packaged at the premises of Akelei, the organic farm where Floriaan works, and will be available in our farm shop as of tomorrow,â Johan smiles. Their non-profit association âVitale Rassenâ was formalised in 2019 and regroups organic farmers across Flanders who produce seed under EU organic standards.
On to the next destination. Like Biofresh, Sinature is a wholesaler, but they also have their own greenhouses behind their warehouse. âWe like to buy as much locally produced food as possible,â Vera says, âas that is in line with our philosophy and many clients also ask me about this.â
As we walk through the warehouse, Vera carefully goes over various lists. I learn that they are at the same time buying produce for other fellow farmers. âMany of us have started to sell our produce ourselves directly to consumers, whether at farm markets or farm shops,â Vera says, âand it is good to be able to offer clients a rich diversity of food on top of your own produce. As we have a van and a trailer, we provide this service to our fellow farmers against a small fee to cover our costs.â
At Bernd Vandersmissenâs farm I am excited to see how even in greenhouses, they successfully integrate crops and livestock. Two pigs are happily sleeping under a trailer in an area secured by a temporary electric fence. While the pigs feed on the green manure (a mixture of rye and phacelia), they keep the soil loose and fertile.
Many of the new generation of farmers have managed one way or the other to secure some land. To gain knowledge and become professional growers, the non-profit organisation Landwijzer has been offering both short and two-year long courses on organic and biodynamic farming for the past 20 years.
The remainder of the day we make various stops to buy and deliver fresh produce at some inspiring farms. As Johan and Vera are pioneers, they know everyone involved in the organic food system. Many of the new generation of farmers have also done their internship with them as part of their Landwijzer course, so they have a strong bond. By providing this weekly service, they also get a chance to chat with their colleagues and exchange ideas and recent news.
When I ask Johan how the new generation of farmers is coping with the purchasing power of large buyers that push down prices, he explains that price formation and market diversification are key aspects covered in the courses offered by Landwijzer.
A few days earlier I had an online meeting with one of the coordinators of the Fairtrade Producersâ Organisation from Latin America. To secure a living income, cocoa and coffee growers are also forced to increasingly look at income and market diversification. While the food industry may gradually come to realize that paying a fair price for food is needed to keep farmers in business, it is reassuring to see that farmers continue to innovate by pro-actively strengthening ties between themselves and the community of consumers. Belonging to a network may make a vital difference for new farmers, who often lack land and a family connection to agriculture.
Related blogs
Inspiring platforms
Access Agriculture: hosts over 220 training videos in over 85 languages. Each video describes underlying principles, as such encouraging people to experiment with new ideas.
EcoAgtube: a new social media platform where anyone can upload their own videos related to natural farming and circular economy.
De volgende generatie boeren
Of ze nu in Europa of in het Zuiden zijn geboren, het ontbreekt jonge boeren, tenzij ze in een boerenfamilie zijn geboren, vaak aan drie belangrijke dingen: land, financiën en kennis. Maar er is een nieuwe generatie boeren opgestaan, gedreven door de passie om op een gezonde manier voedsel te produceren, vrij van landbouwchemicaliën. Hun reis is vaak moeilijk, maar met steun van de gemeenschap en door elkaar te helpen, zijn ze op weg naar een eerlijkere en mooiere toekomst, zoals ik deze week leerde tijdens een onthullende road trip.
Onlangs vergezelde ik mijn boerenvrienden Johan Hons en Vera Kuijpers op hun wekelijkse reis om biologische producten te leveren en te kopen van groothandelaars en collega-boeren om hun boerderijwinkel te bevoorraden die open is van vrijdagmiddag tot zaterdagmiddag. Johan en Vera zijn pioniers op het gebied van biologische landbouw in het noordoosten van BelgiĂ«. “Toen we zo’n 30 jaar geleden begonnen, waren we alleen met Ă©Ă©n andere familie die een basisverpakkingsmachine voor levensmiddelen had. Als het nodig was, konden we hun machine gebruiken,” zei Johan. Intussen is het aantal biologische boeren gegroeid en is er een geweldig informeel netwerk ontstaan.
De achterbak van het busje is volgeladen met vers geoogste aardappelen, een paar kratten kool en prei-zaailingen die Johan en Vera hadden opgekweekt voor het nieuwe seizoen. We zijn al voor 6 uur vertrokken van hun boerderij en tegen 8 uur zijn we klaar met onze eerste levering. Biofresh, een belangrijke biologische detailhandelaar, kocht hun aardappelen. Tegelijkertijd halen we de producten op die ze een paar dagen eerder online hadden besteld. Vera leidt me door het magazijn en legt uit hoe het hele systeem werkt.
Ik zie kratten met biologische ananassen uit Ivoorkust, mango’s uit Ghana, gember uit Peru, tuinbonen, artisjokken en sinaasappels uit ItaliĂ«, en verschillende lokale producten, waaronder hun aardappelen. “In het begin stond onze naam op het etiket,” zegt Vera, “maar nu hebben ze onze naam vervangen door een nummer, zodat de mensen niet meer weten wie ze heeft geproduceerd. Ik denk dat het is om zichzelf te beschermen tegen hun concurrenten.” Dat kan wel zo zijn, maar terwijl we onze reis voortzetten, dringt het tot me door dat de doeltreffendheid van deze strategie wel eens van korte duur zou kunnen zijn.
Terwijl we het busje inladen op de parkeerplaats, arriveert Floriaan D’Hulster, een jonge bio-boer die we 10 minuten eerder binnen hadden ontmoet. Hij is gekomen om de kratten kolen van Johan en Vera te kopen en overhandigt een kartonnen doosje. Mijn nieuwsgierigheid is gewekt, Johan maakt het trots open en laat kleine zaadverpakkingen zien. “Dit is van onze groep boeren met wie we begonnen zijn groentezaad te produceren. Het zaad is geschoond, mooi geĂ«tiketteerd en verpakt op het terrein van Akelei, de biologische boerderij waar Floriaan werkt, en zal vanaf morgen verkrijgbaar zijn in onze boerderijwinkel”, lacht Johan. Hun vzw “Vitale Rassen” werd in 2019 geformaliseerd en groepeert bioboeren over heel Vlaanderen die zaaigoed produceren volgens de biologische normen van de EU.
Op naar de volgende bestemming. Net als Biofresh is Sinature een groothandel, maar ze hebben ook eigen kassen achter hun magazijn. “We kopen graag zoveel mogelijk lokaal geproduceerd voedsel”, zegt Vera, “want dat ligt in de lijn van onze filosofie en veel klanten vragen me daar ook naar.”
Terwijl we door het magazijn lopen, neemt Vera zorgvuldig verschillende lijsten door. Ik leer dat ze tegelijkertijd producten inkopen voor andere collega-boeren. “Velen van ons zijn onze producten zelf rechtstreeks aan de consument gaan verkopen, op boerenmarkten of in boerderijwinkels”, vertelt Vera, “en het is goed om klanten naast je eigen producten ook een rijke diversiteit aan voedsel te kunnen bieden. Omdat we een bestelwagen en een aanhangwagen hebben, verlenen we deze service aan onze collega-boeren tegen een kleine vergoeding om onze kosten te dekken.”
Op de boerderij van Bernd Vandersmissen leer ik hoe ze zelfs in kassen met succes gewassen en vee integreren. Twee varkens slapen tevreden onder een trailer in een ruimte die beveiligd is met een tijdelijk elektrisch hek. Terwijl de varkens zich voeden met de groenbemesting (een mengsel van rogge en phacelia), houden ze de grond los en vruchtbaar.
Veel van de nieuwe generatie boeren zijn er op de een of andere manier in geslaagd om wat land in handen te krijgen. Om kennis op te doen en professionele telers te worden, biedt de vzw Landwijzer al 20 jaar zowel korte als tweejarige cursussen aan over biologische en biodynamische landbouw.
De rest van de dag maken we verschillende stops om verse producten te kopen en af te leveren bij enkele inspirerende boerderijen. Omdat Johan en Vera pioniers zijn, kennen ze iedereen die betrokken is bij het biologische voedselsysteem. Veel van de nieuwe generatie boeren hebben ook bij hen stage gelopen in het kader van hun Landwijzer opleiding, dus ze hebben een sterke band. Door deze wekelijkse service krijgen ze ook de kans om met hun collega’s bij te praten en ideeĂ«n en recent nieuws uit te wisselen.
Als ik Johan vraag hoe de nieuwe generatie boeren omgaat met de koopkracht van grote afnemers die de prijzen drukken, legt hij uit dat prijsvorming en marktdiversificatie belangrijke aspecten zijn die in de cursussen van Landwijzer aan de orde komen.
Een paar dagen eerder had ik een online-ontmoeting met een van de coördinatoren van de Fairtrade Producers’ Organisation uit Latijns-Amerika. Om in hun levensonderhoud te kunnen voorzien, worden ook cacao- en koffietelers gedwongen steeds meer te kijken naar inkomens- en marktdiversificatie. Terwijl de voedingsindustrie geleidelijk tot het inzicht komt dat het betalen van een eerlijke prijs voor voedsel nodig is om boeren in bedrijf te houden, is het geruststellend om te zien dat boeren blijven innoveren door pro-actief de banden tussen henzelf en de gemeenschap van consumenten aan te halen. Deel uitmaken van een netwerk kan een wezenlijk verschil maken voor nieuwe boeren, die vaak niet over land beschikken en geen familieband met de landbouw hebben.
When knowledge is blocked from being freely shared, humankind can lose a lot of precious time to make the world a better place. This dawned on me once more after I stumbled upon The Secrets of Water, a video documentary about the life of Viktor Schauberger.
Born in 1885 as the son of an Austrian forest superintendent, Viktor spent many hours in nature observing and reflecting upon what he saw, always trying to keep an open mind. Later, he went on to study forestry and got inspired by poets like Goethe who instilled in him the importance of making full use of our senses to better understand the Ur-phenomenon or the essential quality of what one observes.
Wikipedia describes Schauberger as a naturalist, pseudoscientist, philosopher, inventor and biomimicry experimenter. While pseudoscientist sounds like a dishonest version of a scientist or someone who stands for “fake science”, Schaubergerâs insights from nearly a century ago have proven far more influential than what most modern-day scientists could aspire to achieve in a life-time, even with the help of advanced technologies and nanosecond computing devices.
Science  ̶ and technological innovations ̶ have often ignored local knowledge and even obstructed its dissemination. In 1930, the Austrian Academy of Sciences confirmed the receipt of a sealed envelope entitled âTurbulenceâ. In it, Schauberger described his theory of interdependency of water temperature and movement. The Academy kept it concealed for 50 years, probably partly because Schauberger continued to criticise their water resource management strategies. His work became the basis for many eco-technological innovations.
For instance, instead of protecting river banks with boulders, Schauberger explained that it makes more sense to control the flow of the river from the inner part of the river, not from the sides. Some unconventional engineers have taken this to heart and have meticulously placed lines of boulders like a funnel inside the river to convert the energy of the river from the sides to the middle. When water accelerates in the middle rather than on the sides, it is a far more cost-effective way to control river bank erosion. Besides controlling floods, it also improves the quality of the water and creates perfect habitats for different fish species.
Schaubergerâs writings carefully explained the underlying principle of his theory on turbulence, namely that it is influenced by differences in temperature. The warmer layers of river water flow faster than the colder ones, creating friction, which is the source of turbulence. According to Schauberger: âa river doesnât just flow, but winds itself forward. It rotates in its bed, or put simply, it swirls.â This principle applies to any moving water, even to a raindrop running down a window.
By understanding that the swirl or turbulence of water is the most natural way in which water flows with least resistance, Schauberger applied this to many prototype technologies for which he registered patents. He developed a machine to replicate spring water, which later formed the basis for water vitalising equipment. Among the many benefits, some are more unexpected than the others. For instance, when vitalised water is used in bakeries it retards the development of moulds.
Instead of letting water simply enter a pond through a pipe, Schauberger made it pass through a specially designed funnel to let the water whirl and gain energy. The water quality in the pond improved and algae growth reduced.
Schauberger reflected on many things. He claimed that crop productivity was declining because of the use of iron tools, saying that the rust destroys soil life. Instead, tools made from copper and copper alloys do not disturb soil magnetism and contain useful trace elements which are brought into the soil through abrasion. This improves soil micro-organisms and apparently also reduces problems with snails.
In 1948, Schauberger developed a copper bio plough, known as the Golden Plough, to loosen the soil without disturbing soil layers and micro-organisms. By copying the mole, he designed a plough that pulls the soil inward rather than pushing it outward. While this technology currently attracts quite some attention on social media, it is still not available on the market.
Jane Cobbaldâs book Viktor Schauberger. A Life of Learning from Nature gives some interesting insights as to why the bio plough never made it. Apparently Schauberger wanted to go into commercial production, but he had poor negotiation skills. Fertilizer companies realized that the new plough would diminish the need for chemical fertilizers, so they approached Schauberger, asking him if he was willing to share profits if they would promote the plough. Being a convinced environmentalist his answer was a definite ânoâ, saying he did not want to make deals with criminals. According to his son, shortly after that Schauberger faced problems obtaining copper, so he had to abandon the project.
Using the whirl or vortex principle Schauberger also suggested that electricity could be generated without losing energy, making use of just air and water. These and many other ideas tested by a careful observer of nature, and documented in detailed writings, drawings and photographs, have continued to inspire later generations of scientists and engineers. Until today, for instance, innovators continue to deposit patents for energy-efficient desalination systems, including Schaubergerâs vortex principle.
Schaubergerâs guiding principle for experimentation was his intuition, which was based on his own observations of nature, his reading of old philosophers and poets, as well as on the deep knowledge of the mountain men who had spent their lives in the forests. As the story of Schauberger has shown, technological breakthroughs are often the result of holistic thinking that incorporates ideas from different disciplines and people, including artists, philosophers, farmers, foresters and engineers.
While research is needed to develop new technologies that will make our planet a better place to live for us and future generations, we also need an enabling environment that supports experimentation with novel ideas, both technical and social.
Further information
Cobbald, Jane. 2009. Viktor Schauberger. A Life of Learning from Nature, Floris Books, pp. 176.
Schauberger, Viktor – The Fertile Earth â Nature’s Energies in Agriculture, Soil Fertilisation and Forestry: Volume 3. Translated and edited by Callum Coats, 2004. pp. 212.
The Secrets of Water, The Documentary of Viktor Schauberger “Comprehend and Copy Nature”: https://www.ecoagtube.org/content/secrets-water-documentary-viktor-schauberger-comprehend-and-copy-nature
Inspiring platforms
Access Agriculture: hosts over 220 training videos in over 85 languages. Each video describes underlying principles, as such encouraging people to experiment with new ideas.
EcoAgtube: a new social media platform where anyone can upload their own videos related to ecological farming and circular economy.
Honey Bee Network: this platform gives a voice to traditional knowledge holders and grassroots innovators. Primarily based in India, it has sparked products, inventions and innovations in many countries.
If Covid has idled you, this might be the time to take a tip from Marco Polo, and write a book or an article.
In 1271, a 17-year-old Marco set out for China and Mongolia with his father, NiccolĂČ and his uncle, Maffeo Polo. At the court of Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, NiccolĂČ presented Marco as the great Khanâs servant. The Khan liked Marco right away, and sent him to various cities in China, perhaps as a tax collector, or as an official in the royal salt monopoly, or maybe just to report back.
Even then, Marco had a gift for storytelling, and he reported back to the Khan in detail of the people and things he had seen. Marco kept notes to remind him of what to tell the Khan.
Twenty-four years after leaving Venice, the three Polos arrived back home again, but they were soon dragged into a pointless war with Genoa. As a noble, Marco was obliged to outfit a galley. But when he and his sailors ventured into the Adriatic Sea they were captured by the Genoese, who took him to prison. For centuries, Genoa had been competing with Venice for the trade in salt and other goods in the Mediterranean, so the city states were arch rivals.
The Genoese recognized Marco as a noble (in no small part because he would tell anyone who would listen that he was a Venetian nobleman). So, Marco was placed into a reasonable comfortable captivity, for at least a year, and perhaps as long as three, waiting for his family to ransom him.
Marco beguiled his fellow jail mates with tales of exotic lands, and soon came to the attention of another prisoner of war, Rustichello da Pisa, a notary and a romance writer.
Rustichello realized the power of Marcoâs story and the two became collaborators. Marco sent for, and received the notes he had written to report back to the Khan, and he dictated his story to Rustichello, who wrote it up (in French, oddly enough). In the words of historian Laurence Bergreen, in prison, Marco Polo found the freedom to write his story.
Hand-written copies of the book slowly appeared all over Europe, in English, Spanish, Italian and other languages. Marco himself, who had returned from Asia with a fortune in pearls and jewels sewed into the hems of his clothing, also hired scribes to copy his book. Each one was a bit different; Marco may have kept adding to his book each time he had it copied. At a time before the printing press, when a book could cost as much as a house, and a library might have only 100 volumes, a copy of Marco Poloâs Travels was a valuable gift. Marco would give copies to important people he wanted to impress.
Marco died in 1324, but his book lived on, and it was one of the first books (after the bible) to come off the printing press, almost two centuries after it had been written. The Travels appeared in print first in German, in 1477 and Christopher Columbus owned a Latin version, in which he wrote detailed notes in the margins.
China had thrown off Mongol rule not long after Kublai Khan died in 1294, and then closed itself off from the west for centuries. But Marcoâs book inspired voyagers like Columbus and Magellan to seek a sea route to China.
Marco Polo was not the only European to visit Asia. His own father and uncle went not once, but twice, yet they appear as minor characters in Marcoâs story.
Traveling and writing have both changed a lot since Marco stepped onto the Silk Road to China, but some principles remain the same: keep good notes and be observant; report back in a narrative style and write it up. It may be helpful to have a collaborator. Take advantage of any time or space you get, to write.
If Marco had merely travelled to China and not met Rustichello, the Polos would have been largely forgotten. Marco Polo is famous not because of his trip, but because of his book about his trip, in spite of all the technical limitations of publishing in the 13th and 14th century.
Further reading
Bergreen, Laurence 2009 Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu. London: Quercus. 415 pp.
Related Agro-Insight blogs
Illustrations
Caravana de Marco Polo, from the Atlas CatalĂĄn of Carlos V, 1375.
Map, The Route of Marco Poloâs Journey, by SY.
Ask any tourist what comes to mind when they think of the Netherlands and there is a good chance they will say âwindmillsâ. Ask any agricultural professional what the Netherlands is known for and they may mention âwater managementâ and âdairyâ (you know, the big round cheeses). Few people may realize how these are all intricately interwoven, and how their interaction over time has created an environmental disaster.
In his thought-provoking book Against the Grain, James Scott draws on earlier work of anthropologists and archaeologists to provide some insights into how early humans changed their environment to source food from closer to home. Through controlled fires, certain plants and wildlife species were favoured, while cooking enabled our ancestors to extract more nutrients from plants and animals than was previously possible. The very act of domesticating plants, animals and fire, in a sense also domesticated us as a species. While modern cows and many of our crops can no longer survive without us, we can no longer survive without them. Besides fire, people also relied heavily on water. In fact, everywhere in the world, ancient peoples first settled near rivers or at the fringes of wetlands which, along with the nearby forests, provided a rich variety of food.
Agricultural technology was fairly stable for centuries, but slowly began to change in medieval times, which brings us back to the windmill. While fixed windmills were found in Flanders by the 11th century, they were mainly used to grind grain. In the 1600s a Dutchman, Cornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest, added a crankshaft, an Arab invention, to convert the rotating movement of a windmill into an up-and-down one. Windmills could now also be used to saw wood, and to pump water. Soon the landscape was dotted with thousands of windmills. The now so typical Dutch landscape of peat grasslands and ditches is a manmade ecosystem shaped through drainage by windmills. The new pastures with lowered groundwater tables were especially apt for dairy farming, serving what became the world-renown Dutch dairy sector.
The drainage of the wetlands sounds like a great agronomic achievement, but a Dutch veterinarian Katrien van ât Hooft, director of Dutch Farm Experience, recently showed me the other side of the coin. The continuous drainage of surface water and lowered groundwater table, combined with modern dairy farming and use of tractors, has caused a drop in the peatland. The land has been sinking several centimeters per year for a long time, faster than the rise in sea level. Projections are that under current management the peat soils will further sink 2 meters before 2050, and become a major threat to the country. Although the Dutch government is taking urgent measures to restore the groundwater table, the challenges do not stop there.
As drained peat releases CO2, the Dutch government has set up a scheme to reward farmers who help raise the groundwater table. But wet pastures require a very different management, as farmers are now beginning to learn. When collecting hay on wet pasture, overloaded machines risk getting stuck. Maize cannot be grown, because this water-loving crop lowers the groundwater level in the peat land. The typical Holstein-Friesian cow, commonly used in the Netherlands for its high milk production, requires maize and concentrated feed. In the peat lands it is therefore now being crossed with âold fashionedâ local cattle breeds, such as Blister Head (Blaarkop) and MRY (Maas-Rijn-Ijssel breed). These so-called dual purpose cows yield milk and meat, perform well on plant-rich pastures and have the benefit that they can produce milk with minimal use of concentrated feed.
However, as the peat pastures need to become wetter again, these cows are increasingly suffering from some âold diseasesâ, including intestinal worms and the liver fluke, which spends part of its life cycle in mud snails. Farmers are using anthelmintics (anti-worm chemicals) to control this, but the anthelmintics to control liver fluke are forbidden in adult cows, for milk safety reasons. Moreover, just as with antibiotics, the internal parasites are quickly building up resistance against anthelminitics, and the dairy sector is forced to rethink its position of always trying to control nature.
Now here comes a twist in the story. As Katrien explained to me, these common animal diseases used to be managed by appropriate grassland management, use of resilient cattle breeds and strategic use of (herbal) medicines. Â But most of this traditional knowledge has been lost over the past decades. With a group of passionate veterinary doctors and dairy farmers, Katrien has established a network with colleagues in the Netherlands, Ethiopia, Uganda and India to promote natural livestock farming. Inspired by ethnoveterinary doctors from India, Dutch veterinary doctors and dairy farmers have gained an interest in looking at herbs, both for animal medicine and for enriching grassland pastures to boost the animalsâ immune system. Together they have developed the so-called NLF 5-layer approach to reduce the use of antibiotics, anthelmintics and other chemicals in dairy farming.
Resistance to chemical drugs used in livestock, whether against bacteria, fungi, ticks or intestinal worms, will have a dramatic effect on people. For example, the bacteria that gain resistance to antibiotics in animals become âsuperbugsâ, that are also resistant to antibiotics in human patients. The abuse of antibiotics in livestock can ruin these life-saving drugs for people.
James Scott describes in his book that when we started intensifying our food production thousands of years ago, we lost an encyclopaedia of knowledge based on living with and from nature. In the same vein, traditional knowledge of agriculture has been eroding since the mid twentieth century, with intensification brought on by machinery and chemicals, like the Dutch dairy farmers who lost most of their folk knowledge about plants and the âoldâ cattle diseases.
While the challenges are rising, it is fortunate that the 21st century humans are able to learn from each otherâs experiences at a scale and speed unseen in history. Dutch dairy farmers are not the only ones to have lost traditional knowledge. It has happened across the globe, and more efforts are needed to help make such worthwhile initiatives of knowledge-sharing go viral (as a matter of speaking).
Credit
Katrien van ât Hooft kindly reviewed earlier drafts of this blog and provided photographs.
Related Agro-Insight blogs
Veterinarians and traditional animal health care
Watching videos to become a dairy expert
Further information
James C. Scott. 2017. Against The Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 312.
The Foundation for Natural Livestock Farming. https://www.naturallivestockfarming.com/
Dutch Farm Experience â Lessons learnt in Dutch Dairy Farming https://www.dutchfarmexperience.com/
Groen Kennisnet wiki: Herbs and herbal medicines for livestock (in Dutch) https://wiki.groenkennisnet.nl/display/KGM/Kruiden+voor+landbouwhuisdieren
https://www.natuurlijkeveehouderij.nl/kennisbank/
Watch Access Agriculture videos on herbal medicine in animal healthcare
Deworming goats and sheep with herbal medicines
Herbal treatment for diarrhoea
Herbal medicine against fever in livestock
Herbal medicine against mastitis
Chemical or mineral fertilizers have long been touted by agro-industry and by governments as a necessity to feed the growing world population. Sixty years after the start of the Green Revolution, the damage caused to farmland, surface water and groundwater, biodiversity and farmersâ livelihoods has forced policy-makers in India and in the European Union to curb the over-use of fertilizers and encourage more environmentally-friendly ways of farming. But fertilizers have also affected immigration in various ways.
Immigration can be triggered by political suppression or economic hardship, often aggravated by climate change. But rural folks across the globe are also under increased pressure due to the rising costs of agricultural inputs, such as chemical fertilizers and animal feed. While recently some European farmers have decided to migrate to other countries, the high rate of suicides among farmers in both Europe and India is shocking. Despite these alarming events, the promotion of fertilizers in Africa goes on. As with the dumping of obsolete pesticides banned in Europe because of their high toxicity, the agro-industry has also turned to Africa to further increase their profits from selling fertilizers.
One of the problems is that for far too long researchers have been focusing on yields instead of on farmersâ profits and building healthy soils that can sustain farming in the long run. At a recent virtual conference organized by the European Commission, researchers from the Swiss Research Institute on Organic Agriculture (FiBL) presented results from a 12-year study looking at various cropping systems in tropical countries. Soil organic carbon was on average 20-50% higher in organic farms compared to conventional farms. While the yields of organic systems can match or outperform conventional systems, proper use of N-fixing legumes, organic manure and good agricultural practices is key to improve productivity.
Fertilizer promotion by governments or development projects have mostly benefited local elites and better-off farmers thereby adding to social inequality. Modern cereal varieties have been bred for responsiveness to chemical fertilizer. At the beginning of the Green Revolution in the 1960s, rice, maize and wheat farmers who opted for the full package (modern high-yielding crop varieties, fertilizer and pesticides) initially were able to boost their yield. But while the increased production led to lower market prices, they also became increasingly indebted to moneylenders and banks.
International researchers have now turned their attention to roots and tubers. The poor personâs crop, cassava, could yield up to 50 tons per hectare, about four to five times the current average yield, if chemical fertilizers were used. Again, it will be mainly the larger farmers who stand to benefit as they capture the market. Smallholders stand to lose and, along with their children, turn to seek other livelihood options.
Cities in Africa are bursting and offer few economic opportunities, so it is of little wonder that people seek greener horizons. Regional migration is a common strategy to survive. According to the latest report of the International Organization for Migration (IOM 2020 report, page 318), land degradation, land tenure insecurity and lack of rainfall are major drivers of environment-induced migration for people from West and North Africa. The European narrative framing migration as primarily âeconomicâ often overlooks key factors, such as climate and environmental drivers of migration.
But environmental damage does not only happen where chemical or mineral fertilizers are used. It also happens where fertilizers are produced, but this remains often hidden.
The site of secondary mining of Phosphate rock in Nauru, 2007. Photo: Lorrie Graham
Nauru, a Pacific island, was a good place to live when it gained independence from Australia in 1968. However, in just three decades of surface-mining, the island was stripped of its soil, to get at the rock phosphate (for fertilizer). Now there is no place to grow crops. Ironically, Nauruâs entire population has become dependent on imported fast food from Australia. More than 70 percent of Nauruans are obese, and the country struggles to reinstall backyard gardening and encourage young people to eat plants. The mining of fertilizer and bad governance turned the smallest and once richest republic in the world into the most environmentally ravaged nation on earth: Nauru had little choice but to accept Australiaâs offer to host ousted asylum seekers, often immigrants from Indonesia, in return for money.
While some people and donors are still convinced that a Green Revolution industrial model of agriculture is the way forward for Africa, one should pause and look at the consequences of mining and using chemical (mineral) fertilizer. If we want to keep people on their land, we have to support healthy food systems that nurture the soil and keep it healthy and productive.
Further reading
Bhullar, G.S., Bautze, D., Adamtey, N., Armengot, L., Cicek, H., Goldmann, E., Riar, A., RĂŒegg, J., Schneider, M. and Huber, B. (2021) What is the contribution of organic agriculture to sustainable development? A synthesis of twelve years (2007-2019) of the âlong-term farming systems comparisons in the tropics (SysCom)â. Frick, Switzerland: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).
LoFaso, Julia (2014) Destroyed by Fertilizer, A Tiny Island Tries to Replant. Modern Farmer. https://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/tiny-island-destroyed-fertilizer-tries-replant/
International Organization for Migration (2020). Migration in West and North Africa and across the Mediterranean. International Organization for Migration, Geneva.
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