Cymraeg Written by Nikki Yoxall, Accredited Training Coordinator
The twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss require farmers to take a ‘VUCA’ leadership approach on our farms. These Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous times mean we need to shift our mindset away from relying on set outcomes, instead thinking of multiple possibilities in a challenging environment. Farmers need to be preparing for as many alternative realities, challenges, and issues as possible – climatic fluctuations, weather events, labour shortages, supply chain disruption, health pandemics.
In order to keep producing food and fibre, as well as enabling a huge range of ecosystem services, we know we have to change. But this is something we can’t do alone.
As we look beyond the farm gate for support to make these changes, we are currently faced with a vacuum. On some farms, land previously in agri-environmental schemes risks returning to potentially inefficient production due only to a lack of support, jeopardising the survival of previously protected plant and animal species, our land-based education puts sheds before soil in the curriculum and farming advice, support and guidance isn’t always informed by the most up to date or adaptive insights. Greening requirements don’t always make ecological or productive sense and the sector is more worried about making use of waste than preventing its creation in the first place.
Many of us are ready, poised to meet the challenges we face, adapt our systems and work collectively to find solutions, but in a society where few are willing to meet the true cost of food at the till, that needs to be supported by the public purse and an appropriate policy framework that reduces waste at the point of production, enables ecosystem health, cuts emissions and facilitates a good food nation. We are looking for clarity of direction, and we need it now.
Since the ‘green revolution’ following the second world war, and subsequent productivity focused policy frameworks, we have increasingly separated farming and ‘nature’, relegating them to separate areas of land, separating them out in our education system and work sectors and viewing them as entirely separate concepts. ‘Nature friendly farming’ is gaining traction in response to ongoing campaigning, practice sharing and lobbying and we have to recognise that providing for nature around the edges of our farms isn’t going to be enough to mitigate against climate change and biodiversity loss. If we add in a third crisis of human health whereby consumption of ultra processed and convenience foods underpinned by a globalised commodified food system is responsible for millions of deaths a year, we really are heading towards catastrophe.
In Scotland we have seen the Farming for 1.5 degrees report recommending a range of actions, with agroecology as one example of whole system change and the SEDA Land report calling for the development and implementation of an agroecology strategy in Scotland. To make these changes, we need clear strategy – not piecemeal, siloed schemes but a transparent overarching framework to meet net zero and facilitate food sovereignty.
But what might this look like in the field?
I call myself an agroecological farmer, and this means I apply ecological concepts and processes in farming, and also recognise the role people and communities have to play in those ecosystems.
Working with the natural world, rather than in an ongoing battle to control and homogenise the farmed landscape, agroecological farmers aim to improve soil and plant health through increasing biodiversity and biomass, as opposed to relying on chemical inputs and destructive, oppressive methodologies. We try to look for root cause solutions to challenges, rather than sticking plasters to address symptoms of a broken system.
Agroecologists are concerned with fair markets, local food systems, wider ecosystem health and its role in building farm resilience, as well as the integration of ancestral, regionally appropriate knowledge and customs. Circular systems to recycle goods and nutrients, and the building of synergies to enhance key functions across the food system, supporting production and multiple ecosystem services. Integration is central to agroecology – bringing livestock into arable rotations, creating space for wildlife to do some of the heavy lifting like pest and disease control, improving water holding capacity of soil to better cope with drought or heavy rainfall.
I am a farmer who is committed to producing healthy, nutritious food for my local community. My husband and I live in upland Aberdeenshire, and are surrounded by beautiful glens, hills, burns and rivers, moorland and species rich grasslands, montane scrub and both new and very old woodlands.
We love where we live, and recognise the beauty of the diversity and abundance of plants and animals….and as such, our farming management is undertaken with those two concepts in mind – diversity and abundance. Research tells us that resilient food systems are diverse systems, and the natural world around us reflects this – just look at verges in the height of summer. We know the land we farm can produce an abundant and diverse array of plants which offer excellent nutrition for our herd of 100% pasture fed native breed cattle, so herding cattle with electric fencing and securing their access to water is the bulk of our job. This movement allows them a fresh bite of pasture regularly, reducing over grazing and ensuring adequate recovery time to optimise photosynthesis and plant abundance. This promotes healthy root structure and soil biology which in turn increase soil water holding capacity and infiltration.
These actions help build soil organic matter, sequester carbon and regenerate the land. Our job is to create the right opportunity and space – the when and where – for the cattle to do their job. The cattle’s job is to select a balanced diet for themselves every day, feed soil biology through trampling grass residues, dunging and urinating. All of this comes very naturally to them, and with careful management they can play a key role in creating healthy ecosystems.
Instead of extracting all we can from the land to feed as many animals as possible, we aim for maximum sustainable output – reducing the need for bought in products, feed, treatments and services….in fact all we buy in is some hay. Implementing agroforestry – which is the intentional integration of livestock and trees – we can ensure our herd can access a broad range of nutrients from browsing, have excellent scratching posts to promote natural behaviours, as well as shade and shelter throughout the year.
We work on a pretty small scale, limited by land access, but there is no reason agroecology can’t be scaled up. There are some fantastic examples of agroecological farming, market gardening and crofting across Scotland, where land managers are realising that by working with ecological processes and adopting an agroecological or regenerative mindset, they can produce healthy food (not just commodities) for local communities, reduce their need for inputs and increase profitability across a triple bottom line. Local food systems rely on local businesses and local skills – networks of individuals who play meaningful roles in creating thriving communities.
If we spend less on ‘stuff’ – chemicals, inputs, the infrastructure that holds up intensive agriculture; we can increase farm profit margins, potentially employ more people on our farms, and this contributes to a more vibrant rural community, helping us to re-people the land, and make a net positive contribution environmentally – enabling soil health, clean air and water quality.
Rather than viewing the world through a deficit lens, looking to off set our impact and account for the damage we do through various trade offs, agroecology reminds us that it hasn’t always been this way, and that there is an alternative that can feed us as well as nourish us more deeply, connect us with the land, and build community…we just need to open our eyes and ears to understanding old learnings in new ways, supported by technology, putting ourselves into the ecology and thinking more holistically.
Ambitious net zero targets need ambitious action – we require strong political leadership to deliver a transformative agriculture and land use strategy.
Photo credit: Clem Sandison
