adapting agriculture to climate change

Adapting Agriculture to

Climate Change

Bring Food Home

November 17, 2013

Tony McQuail

Big Challenges

• Climate Change

• Peak Oil - Peak Everything?

• Environmental Degradation

• Economic Inequity

• Social Deterioration

– Can we develop approaches that address all

these challenges at once?

– Agriculture is the largest land use on the

planet – How it is structured has profound

implications for all these challenges.

Meeting Place Organic Farm

Solar energy at Meeting Place Organic Farm And Carbon Sequestration

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT

Creating The Life You Want

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT

• How to:

Care for your PEOPLE

Improve the LAND

Make a PROFIT

By making better decisions

Allan Savory and

African Range Land

Improving land health by learning to mimic

Nature – Particularly with grazing animals for

animal impact and herd effect.

Bare Capped Soil - Zimbabwe

6 months later – After - 200 cattle &

100 goats in a new area each day

Two Years Later

Holistic Decision Making

Uses

A HOLISTIC GOAL

and

SEVEN TESTING QUESTIONS

Steps in HM Process

• Create a Holistic Goal with inclusive group – Quality of Life

– Forms of Production

– Future Resource Base

• Learn & Use Seven Testing Questions – Keep moving forward towards Holistic Goal

• Learn About 4 ecosystem Processes – Water Cycle,

– Mineral Cycle,

– Community dynamics

– Energy Flow

• Use Planning Processes – Weak link determination

– Financial analysis and forecasting

– Plan-Monitor-Control- Replan.

Adaptation – not just Farm

• Sally talk about Transition Town

movement.

• Follow with discussion Break

• Then resume with some stories from

Meeting Place Organic Farm

Discussion – 20 Minutes Total

• 5 minutes -individually to consider

• -How can you apply these ideas to your

own life NOW?

• - How would the application of these ideas

improve or damage your community?

• 15 minutes group discussion

– Appoint a recorder

Holistic Management

Examples from MPOF

• Holistic Goal

• 4 ecosystem processes

• Testing Questions

• Financial Management

• Monitor/replan

A Family Holiday??

In The Summer????

August 1996 in BC

Replace Snow Blower?

Testing = Snow Scoop

Energy & Community

Financial Planning

Developed New

Enterprises

CSA Garden Pick Up

Freezer Meat Retailing

Adapting Agriculture?

• Need to have a vision of where to go

• Need to have a process that guides us

• Need to accept we may be wrong

• Need to be able to correct our direction

• Need to work with others

Lots of Systems

• Organic Ag

• Ecological Ag

• Permaculture

• Restoration Agriculture

• Regenerative Agriculture

• Regrarian

• Community Supported Agriculture

– Holistic Management is a process that can

work with any system.

Give out Handout

• Any last comments or questions?