I've been reading a book titled Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. It's really a thrilling read, in that dorky, sciency sort of way. It presents several chapters on different ways that scientists look at and mimic nature. For example, there's a chapter on making energy directly from the sun, a la plants, and on making super strong materials similar to spider webbing, etc.
The first chapter in the book is about the idea of sustainable farming. Apparently, the way most "civilized" people have been farming for the past 10 000 years was / is rather wasteful. For example, the soil gets all sorts of wasted, since we only grow one crop at a time, and these crops tend to be annuals. At the same time, in modern times, agriculture has become dependent on the the petroleum and chemical industry for things like fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel.
The auther, and the Land Institute which she talks about, propose a different kind of agriculture, one based on how nature farms. Basically, they want to set up farming lands like prairies, one of the most efficient biological producers of all time. One of the key ideas is to use perennial plants in place of annuals, as may be found in nature. This gives the plants a head start each year, saving the soil. At the same time, using a mix of plants,similar to the mix found in prairies, farmers can eliminate the use of fertilizers (by using plants that naturally fertilize the soil), pesticides, etc. At the same time, such prairie farms, once started, require little to no maintenance, therefore eliminating the need for major diesel.
It's so simple, it's brilliant. It makes sense that we've now come full circle. From living in nature, to abusing nature, to sharing with nature. It has a beautiful symmetry to it.
Genuis.
And Merry Christmas everyone. Don't worry, I didn't forget!
And for Matt, Happy Birthday Jesus!
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2 comments:
Yeah... I've always found Biomimicing to be fascinating. It's amazing how many problems people face when they try to build even the simplest organisms.
The farming idea sounds pretty neat... although I don't think I quite understand how making it a prarie would help keep up with the output while saving lots of gas. Maybe we could discuss that in detail. Sounds cool though. Yet another delay of the inevitable.
When I wrote of "eliminating the need for major diesel" in agriculture, I wasn't trying to imply that most diesel is used in agriculture. What I meant was that diesel is used, unnecessarily, in agriculture, and therefore eliminating it would be a bonus. At the same time, petroleum products make up most of the fertilizers and pesiticides/herbicides that are used to make "modern" agriculture run. Limitting there use would also be a bonus. Sorry for the fuzzy language.
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