In 1900, about 40 percent of the population farmed. Today, it is closer to one percent. Throughout the better part of
the 20th century it was taken for granted that most people raised in the country would end up in the city. My father
was the only one of nine siblings who stayed on the farm. There were many reasons why urbanization took place so
quickly.
Until the 1920s, agriculture expanded by putting more land into production. The years from 1920 to 1970, sometimes
referred to as the “mechanization period,” saw technological advances fueled in large part by cheap and abundant
fossil-fuel energy. Evermore efficient farm machinery along with pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizer
doubled and tripled production per acre and the average farm grew from 160 to many thousands of acres. From
1970 to the present, known as the “saturation period,” increasing energy input became subject to the law of
diminishing returns.
While we were creating unprecedented abundance we largely ignored the growing realization among agricultural s
pecialists that modern farming as we know it would not be sustainable in the long run. For some this is a
controversial claim and can’t be fully defended here. But among the concerns are questions about the on-going
availability of chemical fertilizers, the effect of fertilizer runoff on water ways, lakes and oceans, soil erosion,
loss of diversity, scarcity of water for irrigation, salinization, fossil-fuel uncertainties, climate change and an aging
farming population.
Because of these concerns, there is an increasing call for deliberately de-industrializing agricultural production, at
least in part. That does not mean turning back the clock a hundred years -- because a lot has been learned in the
past century about sustainable agricultural methods. De-industrialized agriculture will involve smaller farms, less
dependence on fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers, young people willing to invest physical labor, more production
for local consumption, and a focus on permaculture, seed saving and cooperative networking.
In his 2010 book, Peak Everything, Richard Heinberg coins the phrase, “re-ruralization,” to describe this
phenomenon. This reversal of urbanization is already happening in many parts of the world, including here in
Southern Manitoba. I am privileged to know various individuals who are “coming back to the land.” There is a
youthful energy that characterizes this movement and is proving to be more serious than the “back to nature”
impulse of the 1960s.
As I see it, there will always be a place for food production for export to more distant places were food can’t grow.
But there is something wrong about a system that relies almost exclusively on long distant transport of food that
can be grown locally. As I watch local gardeners carry home produce from the community garden which their
neighbours source in California or Chile, I think to myself that there is something right and beautiful about it.
And many of the “re-ruralized” farmers are beginning to offer their produce for sale locally!
A question I have is how can we support and accelerate this re-ruralization process in our area. Maybe a local
farmer selling out might offer some of his land for sale in 40 acre plots at an affordable price to give young
families a chance to join the movement. Can you imagine what re-ruralization might look like in the Altona
area ten years from now?
Written for ACAN by Jack Heppner
Comments
Post a Comment