Ecological Agriculture. Integrating Low Input, High Productive Farming with Wildlife Conservation. Results from the Experimental Farm La Combe, Drome France

Marthe Kiley-Worthington^1*

¹Centre d’Eco-Etho Recherche et Education, La Combe, France.

DOI: 10.4236/oje.2014.412064                

Abstract

Wildlife conservation must be integrated with energy and resource efficient agriculture for the human population to survive. Modern high input energy and resource inefficient agriculture does not address these problems. An efficient food producing system which marries wildlife conservation with resource and energy efficient human food production is needed. This is Ecological Agriculture, modelled on how natural ecosystems work. It is defined as: The establishment and maintenance of a diversified, self-sustaining low input farming system managed to maximize net production without causing large or long term changes to the environment. It must be economically viable, and ethically and aesthetically acceptable [1]. Forty years of research on 4 experimental farms have assessed the practicality of this approach (results previously published). The 5th experimental farm in the mountains of the Pre Alps has completed its 10 years. The results are discussed in relation to the tenets of Ecological Agriculture. The techniques previously developed have allowed the results to fulfil the majority of the demands of efficient ecological agriculture and to produce food for 20 families from the farm’s resources despite the difficult climate, topography and soils. It is shown how energy and resource inefficient the omnivorous animals (poultry and pigs) are, compared to herbivores. The species diversity has increased and the whole farm is a nature reserve. Aesthetic and ethical problems have been addressed with an emphasis on a life of quality for farm animals.

Keywords

Ecological Agriculture, Animal Welfare, Wildlife & Agriculture

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Kiley-Worthington, M. (1993) Ecological Agriculture, Food First Farming. Souvenir Press, London.
[2]	http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
[3]	Dumont, R. and Rosier, B. (1969) The Hungry Future. Methuen, London.
[4]	Carson, R. (1965) Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
[5]	Harrison, R. (1968) Animal Machines. Lyle Stuart, London.
[6]	Kiley-Worthington, M. (1980) Problems of Modern Agriculture. Food Policy, 5, 208-215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0306-9192(80)90129-3
[7]	Koept, H., Patterson, B.D. and Schaumann, W. (1976) Biodynamic Agriculture. Anthroposophic Press, New York.
[8]	Balfour, E.B. (1975) The Living Soil and the Haughley Experiment. Faber & Faber, London.
[9]	Kiley-Worthington, M. (1981) Ecological Agriculture. What It Is and How It Works. Agriculture & Environment, 6, 349-381. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0304-1131(81)90039-4
[10]	http://www.agmrc.org/markets__industries/food/organic-food-trends/
[11]	Woodward, L. (2013) Land Health. Proceedings of International Colloquium on the Future of Agriculture, Eco-Etho-Recherche Centre, La Drome.
[12]	(1974) Proceedings of the British Ecological Society Summer Meeting, Aberystwyth, Wales.
[13]	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid
[14]	The Drumghigha Project (1987) An Ecological Farm in a Marginal Area. In: Allen, P. and van Drusenm, D., Eds., Global Perspectives on Agroecology & Sustaiaable Agricultural Systems, IFOAM, Conference Agroecology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 273-283.
[15]	Naess, A. and Haukeland, P.I. (2002) Life’s Philosophy: Reason and Feeling in a Deeper World.
[16]	http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/biodiversity/
[17]	Kiley-Worthington, M. and Rendle, C.C. (1984) Ecological Agriculture. A Case Study of an Ecological Farm in the South of England. Biological Agriculture & Horticulture, 2, 101-133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01448765.1984.9754423
[18]	Savoury, A. (1991) Holistic Resource Management. Glimour Publishing, Avondale.
[19]	Clark, S. (1976) The Moral Status of Animals. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[20]	Dawkins, M.S. (1993) Through Our Eyes Only? The Search for Animal Consciousness. W H Freeman, Oxford.
[21]	Kiley-Worthington, M. (2000) Equine and Elephant Epistemology. M.Phil (Philosophy), Lancaster University, Lancaster.
[22]	Cooper, D. (1992) A Companion to Aesthetics. Blackwell, Oxford.
[23]	Hanon, J., Manjengwe, J. and Smart, T. (2013) Zimbabwe Takes back It’s Land. Kumarian Press, Virginia.