Fast Forest Food: Retrospecting the Historical Journey
Written by Tanny PC
“You have to know the past to understand the present.” – Carl Sagan, an American astronomer and astrophysicist
Are You Curious About the ‘History’ of the Concept of Food Forest?
Although using permaculture techniques to develop a food forest is a new concept, humans have always been managing forests and growing their own foods for ages. In ancient times, farmers manually sowed seeds and reaped the harvest (seasonally) with tools, not machines. They were helped by Nature’s experts – the pollinators, microbes, and soil diggers who were also considered as one of the leading contributors in creating the diverse vegetation in the forests. Organic fertilizers such as organic compost, cattle manures, poultry droppings, and domestic sewage were used by the farmers, which yielded beneficial and nutritious crops every year.
The early food hunters and gatherers had a good experience with fertile land areas, soil textures, climate, and what desirable plants thrive in what conditions and at which time of year. While they moved from one place to another, they started to prune and cut back plants to make space for other plants to grow and to provide adequate sunlight and rain, which was considered an early form of ‘forest gardening.’ However, desirable plants were always given utmost priority for delivering food and other uses. With the colonization of the New World, the colonists and anthropologists were amazed to see the ‘untouched forests’ in front of them, which were, in fact, ‘managed forests.’
Robert Adrian de Jauralde Hart – a dedicated pioneer of forest gardening in temperate zones – was a person of profound influence. His food forest garden in Shropshire, UK, is still a vision for many gardeners, environmentalists, and others who want to choose a sustainable and healthy life for themselves and the planet. Disregarding modern agricultural systems, Hart focused on developing an economical and sustainable perennial forest garden by following forest norms and traditions. He believed and proved that by mimicking the biodiversity of the forest aura, one can create enough food that will suffice for human and wildlife consumption for decades. At the same time, a celebration of the myriad interactions of life followed, both intuitive and scientific, which demonstrated how various life forms interact to stimulate and support each other to nurture, grow, and reproduce.
Geoff Lawton (world-renowned Australian Permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher) found a 2000-year-old food forest in Morocco where he observed that 800 people still continued to farm the desert oasis. Among other edible plants in that area, date palms, bananas, olives, figs, pomegranate, guava, citrus, and mulberry trees also thrived. Likewise, he also found a 300-year-old food forest in Vietnam that has been cultivated by the same family for 28 generations. These intriguing examples can be considered as a ‘legacy’ and ‘inspiration’ for the present and future generations.
In the rainforests of South America, in the Kalahari Desert, in the arctic north of Scandinavia, and in communities all over North America, people have adopted and stood by this technique for years now. There’s one community in Davis (CA, USA) that uses bath and laundry water to flush their toilets and irrigate their gardens. The farmers in New Mexico have used permaculture to transform their hard-packed dirt lots into beautiful, lush gardens and tree orchards bereft of any heavy machinery.
In the early ’90s, Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, Robert Hart, Masanobu Fukuoka, and Patrick Whitefield developed the idea of ‘The Forest Garden.’ Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton worked together toward building, modifying, and broadcasting about developing forest gardens involving permaculture techniques in farmlands and even in home gardens. They criticized the idea of conventional annual-based agriculture because it was neither sustainable nor permanent, and focused on perennial food production. Although there are many books written on this subject, ‘permanent agriculture’ is very difficult to achieve as it is a completely manmade system of growing crops. As you keep your curiosity alive and explore the pages of our website, you will get to know about their revolutionary journey more vividly.
The Benefits of a ‘Food Forest Woodland’
Some hobbies are healing, some are a favorite pastime, and a few of them are considered both with an additional profit of giving back to Mother Nature – from where we come and where we perish. The ‘permaculture’ paradigm is a growing phenomenon and it can be cultivated in our daily lives. Its design overviews the natural system of nature and emulates them to design systems for food production and human settlements. This technique integrates harmoniously with nature to increase the overall biodiversity, efficiency, and sustainability of our food production and choices. Fortunately, this method of creating a food garden can also be adopted in urban communities such as in school playgrounds, backyard spaces, and communal open spaces on inner city housing estates. Interestingly, you can even develop a mini forest garden in containers, pots, and tubs on tower block balconies!
Suppose, you have a backyard or a spare land at the rear end of your house. So, how do you motivate yourself to renovate it and develop a food forest there?
Well, you might be inspired by someone whom you have seen adopting the technique and gaining profits. Or you might have gleaned information from experts (such as Bill Mollison, Robert Hart, Masanobu Fukuoka, and others) by studying their revolutionary journey on how they attained a radical change in the environment during their era. The motivation might also be derived from one’s willingness and dedication to develop a certain standard of lifestyle for others in the society for whom food starvation is an ever-present threat. Although every expert, in the past and present, inculcates a different theory of ‘food forestry’ and ‘permaculture,’ their final mission is alike: to create a viable alternative to modern, non-sustainable agricultural techniques to produce food for a society based on the idea of emulating physical patterns of nature.
Putting it all together…well, a typical food forest does not require acres of land (home garden spaces or even pots are enough), tractors for digging (friendly earthworms are always in action), extensive maintenance (perennial plants can thrive well), any expensive chemical fertilizers or pest controls, or any horticulture degree. The noteworthy criteria for consideration are knowing the different soil compositions and the variable density of vegetation, the diversity of organisms, and layering the diverse vegetation. As proved by a pioneer in Food Forestry, Robert Hart, in the past – a basic food forest has two key features: Plant types and Plant layers – which are similar to a typical forest, and they decide the diverse vegetation and sustainability of forest life. We will learn more about Robert Hart and his work in our next blog – ‘Fast Forest Food: The Layers of Greenery.’
Why Ponder Upon it When the Journey is so Beautiful?
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” (John Quincy Adams). Given that thought, farmers are considered ‘angels,’ just like Mother Nature, as they provide us with the basic necessities for survival. Mollison’s ideas about ‘Food Forestry’ and ‘Permaculture’ started to spread their wings worldwide as many people adopted these techniques to grow (mostly) perennial plants (such as fruits and nut trees, medicinal and flowering plants, and self-seeding annuals) throughout the year in their own gardens.
To sum up, for a healthy planet, ecosystem, and lifestyle, we all have to work along with Nature. If one person starts to work for a change, hurdles will be on the way for sure, but, eventually, many people will join, and this will change the entire thought process of the world. It’s high time we let the Earth heal on its own, for our own good – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Let the microorganisms, critters, and earthworms do their job – without our further intervention of disturbing or disrupting the soil with chemicals and pesticides. As Mollison remarked, “It’s a revolution, which is anti-political. The only ethics we obey are: care of the earth, care of people, and reinvestment in those ends.”
As the saying goes, “Nothing that is worthwhile comes easy.” – especially agriculture – which needs a lot of patience, trial, and hard work. Cooperatively, we can achieve this mission worldwide as an individual and a community as trios of cooperatives have started to collaborate to work shoulder-to-shoulder in making this a successful mission. Here at Reap Goodness, we have collaborated with a team of scientists, technicians, engineers, and organizers from The Bionutrient Institute and its cohort The Bionutrient Food Association for our collective goal of restoration of land, cleaning ample waters, and growing nutrient-rich and sustainable food forests for both people and, separately, for wild animals, locally everywhere. We are trying to create signs of the plants for our Heartland Trial in Arizona. We hope that when the planting begins, the signs will attract attention from the public for years to come.
We will be excited to see you join us as a group once it is in operation. More details on the Heartland Trial are coming up soon, so please do not miss reading our upcoming posts to know more about our exciting and sustainable dream project and also about ‘Food Forestry.’ Let’s start planting the plants, together – A Green Planet is a Clean Planet, after all!
