Returning to our roots

It has been a source of immense frustration to me for many years that I can't be a hunter-gatherer.

And it all began with a degree in cultural anthropology. Wading back through the annals of our agrarian past, and studying the marginal hunter-gatherer groups that existed into the 1900s, I had a glimpse of the life humankind evolved to live. Did you know that most hunter-gatherers lived to about 70 years of age, ate approximately 2000 calories of nutrient dense food a day, avoided infectious disease, and worked about 30 hours a week? Not to say this lifestyle didn't have its drawbacks--intertribal warfare claimed more lives than homicide does today, infant mortality was high, and ecological disaster hit these communities hard.

Having spent eight years now in the organic farming and food production world, though, it is ironic to me that the dawn of human suffering seems to be the dawn of agriculture. With its advent came crowding, inequality, disease, a sharp decline in nutrition (with a boon of calories), and the beginning of the environmental destruction that, 10,000 years later, has finally caught up with us.

The biggest difference in the diet of hunter-gatherers and modern humans was not, as we often say, "paleo" versus "grain." It was perennial versus annual. Annual plants live out their entire life cycle in one season, whereas perennials such as trees, shrubs, and herbs come back year after year. In nature, annual plants are relatively rare. Important, but rare. All ecologies suffer period disturbance--flood, fire, tornado, mud-slide. The plants that are poised to occupy this gaping ecological niche are good at establishing fast, taking up nutrients fast, reproducing fast, and spreading fast. Sound familiar? We often call these plants weeds.

Native weeds set succession in motion. As they grow and die back and grow and die back, their biomass accumulates and creates the perfect conditions for perennials to take hold. Eventually these perennials--forbs [a herbaceous, flowering plant], grasses, shrubs, trees, whatever the regional precipitation allows--establish. The deep roots and dense canopies crowd out the sun-loving, short-lived weedy species. And, until disturbance hits again, you have a more or less stable community of perennial plants that are diverse, self-reliant, low-maintenance, carbon sequestering, topsoil-creating, and good at supporting diverse life, including our ancestors. Forests. Prairies. Sagebrush.

Where do our food crops fit into this picture? They're the weeds! Almost all our major food crops are annuals--grains, beans, vegetables, canola. And the problem with this is that in order to keep growing them, we have to keep re-disturbing our environment year after year. We stop succession in its tracks, creating an endless pit that requires more water, more nutrients, and more labor. Hence the environmental destruction our food system is presently causing.

When I first realized this, I felt modern humanity was doomed, its swelling population dependent on an unsustainable food source. Luckily for me, I stumbled into a design science called permaculture that gives us the toolkit for re-creating an ecologically based food system. A perennial food system.

Often, when I discuss permaculture with people, they respond with the whole "we have to feed the world" argument. Just for fun, say we are trying to feed Niwot's population entirely in Niwot. Often, we think of farming as growing vegetables. Bad news folks. Vegetables have a lot of nutrients, but not a lot of calories. If we're going to survive on what we grow, no annual food crop is more efficient calorie-per-space than potatoes. To feed Niwot 2000 calories a day year-round on potatoes, we would have to productively use about 17% of Niwot's land area.

How does that compare to a perennial? Let's say apple trees, plagued by fire blight as they are. If we had a mature monoculture of moderately productive apple trees, we would need to use--you guessed it--17% of Niwot's land area.

Now, some people reading this might say, well, obviously the potatoes are a better choice. You don't have to wait 25 years for them to mature, they yield right away. But let's think about this. An apple tree does need irrigation here, but four times less than potatoes. Moreover, while potatoes only use fertility, apples help create fertility with leaf litter. Their roots support soil life year round and at a deeper soil level. They sequester carbon. You don't have to replant them every year. They provide nectar for pollinators, habitat for birds, squirrels, and other critters, a playground for children, and shade for us.

And, if you've ever seen a tree growing in the wild, what can you observe about its understory? Is it bare? The understory of a mature tree can support many other plants--including food plants. On the southside of an apple tree's understory, you can plant rhubarb, fennel, chives, mint, thyme and a host of other perennial vegetables we've forgotten about in the last 200 years.

By mimicking nature, we can create low-maintenance, self-sustaining "food forests" all over the place. And guess what--they look good. Really good. Just like those ornamental landscapes you're already spending a lot of time and money caring for.

I want to create a future when my children and grandchildren know the joy of foraging for their own food in their own backyard. Participating in the intense joy and gratitude of being taken care of by the places they inhabit. Rekindling that lost relationship. Biting into an apple whose juices have been warmed by the Colorado sun.

If you'd like to join me in creating this future, please get in touch! Left Hand Landscaping is planting food forests in Niwot and can help you with all aspects of growing your own food and fertility.