Cosmic Reflections

This article will provide an overview of the BBC documentary “Rebecca’s Wild Farm”
(Please check out the five parts of the film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShCEKL-mQ8&feature=player_embedded

Viewing the  “Rebecca’s Wild Farm” on LinkTV was particularly exciting for me because this thoughtful documentary captured much of what I had been thinking about over the past several months. 

In August 2010, I took a “road trip” out west to visit friends and family.  The leisurely week of driving provided an opportunity to process personal grief from the past year, to be present and absorb the beauty of Earth’s time sculptured landscape, and to begin charting a new course for the future of a recently retired elder.  In those moments of being present, as my minivan was consuming a gallon of refined Ancient Sunlight every 23 miles and dutifully following the Interstate route colorfully highlighted on my AAA TripTik, I couldn’t prevent being conscious of the concept of sustainability.   Aware of my own callous consumption of oil, I wanted to see how other humans were treating our planet.   On this trip I wanted to give particular attention to the sustainability of farming operations that could be observed along the way.  Occasionally, I’d take an arbitrary exit and venture off the suggested route 5-10 miles to either side of the Interstate to explore a bit, look for some historical landmark, and observe if the farming practices were any different.   

The trip across parts of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona provided a glimpse of the varied but always arid landscape the farmers and ranchers were using to capture and harvest current sunlight.  It was obvious that in this immense region of the U.S., natural rainfall was insufficient to support the current agricultural practices of most farmers.  Irrigation appeared to be the common prerequisite for turning this part of the planet green.  As I thought about the rising energy prices and declining reserves of oil and natural gas both of which are used extensively in current agricultural practices to attain the high yields we enjoy today, I felt a growing concern for future farmers.   As I thought about the scarcity of water and the slow depletion of ancient aquifers, I could only imagine the concern young farmers and ranchers are now experiencing.  I was born and raised on the farm.   My early memories include my grandfather using his team of horses to farm his 80 acres in the Midwest – east of the Mississippi where rainfall was abundant.  My grandfather was farming before we learned how to unsustainably convert Ancient Sunlight (fossil energy) into fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, and fuel to power the heavy equipment that replaced the power of horses – creatures that were sustainably fueled by recent sunlight (hay and oats).  I am concerned about how our current farmers are going to be able to adapt to peak oil and changing climate.    

By contrast, I could not help but notice the only exception.  On the Hopi Reservation north of Flagstaff, Arizona, indigenous people continued to utilize “dry farming” techniques to harvest sunlight in the form of corn, beans, squash and melons.  Even today, they continue to plant seeds and harvest current sunlight without expending Ancient Sunlight.  They have no need to consume oil, coal or natural gas to make fertilizer, insecticides, herbicides or fuel for farm machinery to plant and harvest the crops as do their cousins off the Reservation.   The Hopi farmer relies on the natural rainfall provided by nurturing mother Earth – they do not seek to borrow (or steal) Ancient Water from Earth’s aquifers.   But this is another topic that we will discuss later as we relate our conversations with Duane Tawahongva, a thoughtful Hopi farmer / silversmith. 

 In this film, “Rebecca’s Wild Farm,” Ms. Hosking, a professional wild life filmmaker takes us back to the Devon farm in the UK where she grew up.  Her purpose is not to just showcase the natural beauty of the landscape and capture the wildlife preserved on her retiring father’s and soon to be her farm, but to explain her newly assumed plight of taking over a challenging farming operation in an era beyond peak oil.   The Hosking farm is a working livestock and grain farm as well as a wildlife preserve; nevertheless, Hosking acknowledges that her father’s agricultural practices, like most modern farmers today, are unsustainable – unsustainable because of the heavy dependence on Ancient Sunlight – a one-time energy resource that is declining rapidly.  Like fellow farmers of our era, the Hoskings use petroleum to provide fuel for the farm machinery and to manufacture herbicides as well as pesticides, and natural gas required to produce fertilizer.    Using a typical store-bought ham sandwich as an example, Ms. Hosking describes the various ways fossil fuel / ancient sunlight are consumed to bring that sandwich to the supermarket.   Ancient sunlight is used to grow and harvest the grain, to grind the grain into flour, to bake the bread, to raise the hog that eats more grain, to grow and transport the leaf of lettuce from a warmer climate, and to make the plastic used to cover the sandwich until it is sold in the grocery store.

Ms. Hosking interviews experts who concur that the world’s oil supplies are being consumed rapidly and place our food production practices in jeopardy.  As the soon to be owner/operator of the family farm, she already feels the effect of rising oil prices.  Other than sell the property that has been in the family for generations to speculative developers, what are her options?    To Ms. Hosking’s credit, she begins to look for alternatives to selling the farm.  The documentary brings you along on her journey as she talks to others who are practicing more sustainable ways of farming, including a brief visit with a local farmer who is successfully using Permaculture concepts on his farm.