New model farms: what multifunctional farms have to do now

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New model farmswhat multifunctional farms have
to do now

• Food
• Wildlife
• Landscape aesthetics
• Carbon sequestration
• Health services
• Flood protection
• Clean water
• Social capital
• Income generation
• Genetic material
• Historic features

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Therapeutic landscapes

• The Biophilia hypothesis
• Closeness to nature increases well-being
• Biophilia holds that we have an innate
  sensitivity to and need for other living things
  as we have co-existed for thousands of
  generations
• People derive psychological benefits from
  exposure to nature
• Yet this does not form much of a part of health,
  planning, food, agriculture or environmental
  agendas
• Most landscapes shaped by farming food
  production
• Thus farming and countryside agencies should be
  promoting themselves as part of health service
• Important part of personal identity created
  through interactions in specific places
• What we are is partly constructed through
  relationships with people and nature

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Food miles

• A new environmental problem
• One in 4 trucks carry agri-food products in
  Europe
• Shopping trips more numerous and longer
• UK (since 1983)
• t-km up 65
• Mt lifted up 23
• vkm up 46
• Empty running
• 26 of all vehicles
• Domestic internal food miles much more important
  than international

Pretty J, Lang T, Ball A and Morison J. 2005.
Farm costs and food miles an assessment of the
full cost of the weekly food basket. Food Policy
30(1), 1-20
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The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Agriculture
2005 Jules Pretty Our agricultural and food
systems are not meeting everyones needs, and
despite great progress in increasing productivity
over the past century, hundreds of people remain
hungry and malnourished. This book describes a
different form of agriculture one founded more
on ecological principles and which is also more
harmonious with people, their societies and
cultures. Part 1 Agrarian and Rural
Perspectives Part 2 Agroecological
Perspectives Part 3 Social Perspectives Part 4
Perspectives from Industrialised Countries Part
5 Perspectives from Developing Countries
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The Pesticide Detox 2005 Jules Pretty
(editor) Since the 1960s, the worlds population
has more than doubled and agricultural production
per person has increased by a third. Yet this
growth in production has masked enormous hidden
costs arising from widespread pesticide use
massive ecological damage and high incidences of
farmer poisoning and chronic health effects.
Whereas once the risks involved with pesticide
use were judged to be outweighed by the potential
benefits, increasingly the external costs of
pesticides, to environments and human health, are
being seen as unacceptable. The Pesticide Detox
explores the potential for the phasing-out of
hazardous pesticides and the phasing-in of cost
effective alternatives already available on the
market. This book makes clear that it is time to
start the pesticide detox and to move towards a
more sustainable agriculture.
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Waste Management 2003 Jules Pretty, Vasile Oros
and Camelia Draghici Arising from collaboration
between University of Essex and University of
Brasov, Romania 1. Waste problems 2. Integrated
waste management 3. Solid wastes 4. Liquid
wastes 5. Bioremediation 6. Gaseous wastes 7.
Case studies
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Agri-Culture Reconnecting People, Land and
Nature 2002 Jules Pretty an excellent
exposition of agricultural transformation from
about 12,000 years ago to present-day industrial
agriculture.... recommended to those who care for
the health of mother-earth, especially
agricultural institutions, farmers and policy
makers Experimental Agriculture A manifesto
for change a key text for the next agricultural
revolution BBC Wildlife Magazine Agri-Culture
is optimistic, well-crafted and peppered with
alternately interesting and shocking facts,
skillfully woven together with a string of
stories and metaphors. Scientists for Global
Responsibility The chapter on The Genetics
Controversy is the best balanced and most easily
understood that I have ever seen and I would
recommend the book for this alone Bulletin
British Ecological Society
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Guide to a Green Planet 2002 Jules Pretty
(editor) More than 90 chapters from staff in
nine departments at the University of Essex on
environmental matters. Published by the
University of Essex.
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Fertile Ground The Impacts of Participatory
Watershed Development 1999 F Hinchcliffe, J
Thompson, J Pretty, I Guijt and P Shah 23 case
studies from a wide range of countries in Latin
America, Africa and Asia document how innovative
programmes in land management are contributing to
increased livelihood security along with soil and
water conservation. Compelling evidence of the
importance of local peoples involvement in
natural resource planning and management.
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The Living Land 1998 Jules Pretty Marshals the
medical, social and economic arguments for a more
sustainable agricultural policy New
Scientist Well-documented, coherently-argued
and free of romantic rural mythology Times
Higher Educational Supplement A timely book
that makes a powerful case for a shift towards a
more sustainable and community-led approach to
rural economic development An ambitious book
with a vision that could benefit wildlife,
strengthen rural communities, create jobs,
improve food quality and reduce pollution
Plantlife
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Regenerating Agriculture 1995 Jules Pretty This
book analyses the scale of the challenge facing
agriculture today, and details the concepts and
characteristics of alternative, sustainable
practices. It assess policy frameworks and
institutional processes, and sets out 25
alternative policies that are known to work to
support the shift towards greater self-reliance
and sustainability in agriculture. 1 Sustainable
Agriculture 2 The Modernization of
Agriculture 3 The Environmental and Social Costs
of Improvement 4 Resource-Conserving
Technologies and Processes 5 Local Groups and
Institutions for Sustainable Agriculture 6
External Institutions and Partnerships with
Farmers 7 Linking Process to Impact The
Transition to Sustainable Agriculture 8
Agricultural Policy Frameworks and Institutional
Processes 9 Policies That Work for Sustainable
Agriculture
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Unwelcome Harvest Agriculture and
Pollution 1991, 645 pages Gordon Conway and Jules
Pretty Major study of the effects of modern
agricultural practices on the environment and
human health. Chapters on pesticides,
fertilizers, animal wastes, gaseous emissions
address the side effects of agriculture. Further
chapters consider the effects of pollution on
agriculture heavy metals and air pollutants.
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International Journal of Agricultural
Sustainability Launched 2003 Editorial Board
Jules Pretty (Essex), Jacqui Ashby (CIAT), Andy
Ball (Flinders) James Morison (Essex), Norman
Uphoff (Cornell)
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Why Save Nature?
Ethics
Economics
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Psychological benefits?

• The Biophilia hypothesis
• Closeness to nature increases well-being as well
  as increasing the likelihood of understanding and
  caring for nature
• Biophilia holds that we have an innate
  sensitivity to and need for other living things
  as we have co-existed for thousands of
  generations
• Why do people all over the world have a negative
  response to spiders and snakes?
• And not modern dangers such as guns and cars?

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Psychological benefits of nature room with a
view

• Prisoners in Michigan
• Comparison of those in cells facing
  farmland/trees or prison yard
• Those with nature views 24 fewer sick cell
  visits
• Hospital patients, Pennsylvania
• Comparison of patients looking out on brick walls
  or trees
• Patients with nature views stayed in hospital for
  less time, needed less medication, had fewer
  negative comments in nurses notes
• Dental patients
• Those observing a live aquarium before treatment
  were more relaxed than control patients

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Psychological benefits of nature

• Pet owners
• Lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels than
  non-owners (Australia)
• Fewer visits to doctor (USA)
• Dog-owners after heart attacks 6x more likely to
  survive a year after trauma than non-owners
• Nature distraction therapy
• Bronchoscopy patients nature scene placed at
  bedside (still, not moving), and patients
  provided with tape of nature sounds
• Significantly better pain control
• Total cost significantly less than cost of drugs

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Food and health

• Recent rapid dietary change
• Nutrition transition - shift from traditional and
  local foods, mixed diets, high in fruit and
  vegetables - to refined cereals and sugars, more
  fats, more processed foods, fewer vegetables
• Large increase in chronic diseases in adults (and
  now in children)
• Coronary heart disease, strokes, type II
  diabetes, gall stones, osteoporosis, cancers (30
  caused by diet), obesity
• Mediterranean diet
• High in fruit, vegetables, carbohydrates
• Low in meat, with some fish and olive oil
• Research on understanding farm and food systems,
  and behaviour about food choices

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Consumption of calories

• Average US diet
• 3800 kcal per day up by 500 kcal since 1970
• Double the energy requirement for inactive women
• 130 of energy needed by inactive men
• A max hamburger meal
• 2400 kcal in one hit
• Large cheeseburger 1000 kcal (75 g fat)
• Large fries 590 kcal (28 g fat)
• Soda 400 kcal
• Deluxe desert 435 kcal (18 g fat)
• Meal gives 2400 kcal (120 g fat)
• Daily requirements 2800 kcal (90 g fat)

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The agricultural and food disconnect
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Land transformations
Guatemala
India
Kenya
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• The effect of agricultural policies

• Canada
• USA

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• Languages and cultures now under threat
• 5000-7000 languages spoken today
• half are under threat (less than 10,000 speakers
  each)

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Paraikulum womens groups (1991 to 2003)
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Tamil Nadu, India
The village of Paraikulum changes over 12 years