Rethinking Agriculture: Back to the Future

Rethinking Agriculture: Back to the Future

Proposing new values to restore the food system and its relationship with climate change

Heena Gajjar

LA 437: Regional Design Studio Resilient Futures Fall, 2015 Instructor - Jessica Henson

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE REGIONAL DESIGN STUDIO ABSTRACT: REINVENTING THE VALUES NARRATIVE NATIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES REGIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES HOW DID WE GET HERE? RETHINKING FUTURE PROPOSED REGIONAL PLAN PHASE 1 - PRAIRIE FOR ENERGY PHASE 2 - INTEGRATED FARMS PHASE 3 - VERTICAL FARMS HOW WE ARE MOVING ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’

INTRODUCTION TO THE REGIONAL DESIGN STUDIO As we face poor quality of life statistics in rural areas, urban sprawl, ecological disaster, and globalism, how can landscape architects take cue from historical landscape architects like Jens Jensen, O.C. Simonds, Fredrick Law Olmsted, Ian McHarg, to face challenging issues in the 21st century?

What does a resilient region look like socially, economically, and environmentally? Re-gional landscapes must anticipate change and resiliency must be planned at large scales. Process, time and climate must be factored in. The requirement is now performance over time, and time must be relative to landscape time, not generation time. Landscape architects, architects, engineers, and planners must be able to design systems that anticipate landscape shifts. De-signers cannot wait until a problem exists to act, but instead should seek to anticipate problems, both social and environmental, and plan ways to act that can benefit communities and environ-ment. This studio focused on multifaceted regional scale problem and consider how landscape architecture can drive the framework decisions for planning 50 years into the future.

ABSTRACT: REINVENTING THE VALUES Kankakee and Will counties are experiencing urban sprawl.

To plan for the resilient future of these counties, we need to address the basic needs of any community like its food and water systems. The analysis of present day agriculture system indicates that it is an industrial agricultural system where we are erasing wildlife habitats like grasslands and wetlands for growing seeds that produce ethanol and feeds the livestock rather than food for humans. Thus, we need to rethink and evaluate where we want to move forward. This proposal talks about reinterpreting old values (respect for nature) to propose new values (conserve nature to thrive) for a resilient future where we address the need to work towards reversing climate change. It is important to re-evaluate our present day practices and think about changing our lives though these new values.

NARRATIVE: In past four years, corn and soy commonly used for biofuels expanded onto 7 million acres of new land, replacing millions of acres of grasslands and wetlands. This have emitted as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 34 coal-fired power plants operating for one year — the equivalent of 28 million more cars on the road. In addition to providing vital wildlife habitat, grasslands and wetlands sequester vast amounts of carbon. When the region’s undisturbed soil is put into cultivation, it releases up to half of its carbon over 50 years of cultivation, accelerating climate change. (http://news.wisc.edu/23618)

Government incentives have led to skyrocketing growth in the U.S. corn ethanol industry over the past few years. This has contributed to major increases in corn prices and corn demand, ultimately resulting in increased corn plantings across the country. About one-third of the nation’s corn crop is now diverted to ethanol plants. Farmers have shifted land into corn production from other crops, idle agricultural land, and native prairie, thereby causing wildlife habitat loss and degradation. Given that current legislation mandates increases in corn ethanol production through 2015, these patterns are likely to continue. (www.nwf.org)

In the race of high productivity and meeting the urban population needs, over time we transformed our natural systems and provide incentives for production of corn and soy to produce ethanol. If we are going to move forward with this attitude, our survival is at stake. It is significant for us to understand that we need to protect our environments to thrive. There is need for a shift in our thinking about our natural resources and stop over exploiting them. It is time to plan for a future that is not just human oriented but focuses on bring back the larger order in place and valuing all of our inmates.

Improving energy efficiency is not going to take off carbon currently in the air. This carbon need to be brought back to home into the soils. One of the major driver to achieve this goal to put carbon deep back is through bio sequestration, where deep roots would drive carbon below the churn zone where it can stay for centuries. This could be a big contributor for reversing the climate change. Large industrial farmers will only begin to store carbon when they have monetary incentives. Once a market for sequestering carbon dioxide appears, land management regimes may change. (www.dirt.asla.org)

NATIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES

Agriculture farms across the US

Farms growing seeds for ethanol across the US

Through these maps, it is evident to read the pattern of industrial farming that dominates the landscape today.

Human food vs Livestock food

REGIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES

?

Present day uses of corn

Eventhough it is clear that corn dominates our agricultural system and it has huge negative impacts, we still continue to go ahead with this system.

It is important to ask ourselves this question ‘is our agriculture a food based system or a fuel based system?’

Cons of present day system

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

1800

1850

1917

2015

Kankakee marsh was once known as ‘Everglades of the North’. With European settlers moving in and changing the natural patterns of landscape, the marshland was all drained by channelizing the Kankakee River in Indiana.

The draining of marshland allowed to have the resource of valuable land brought into agriculture use where today the industrial agriculture dominates the landscape.

RETHINKING FUTURE

1870

1900

1950

2000

2030

2040

2050

The proposal is to come up with a system that takes care of energy and food for future in an ecological way.

NOW

POPULATION

CORN PRODUCTION 2011

AGRICULTURE LAND 2007

AGRICULTURE LAND 2011

TAKE OFF 40% AGRICULTURE LAND THAT PRODUCES CORN AND RESERVE THIS LAND FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

FUTURE ENERGY WOULD COME FROM PRAIRIE ETHANOL

PROPOSED REGIONAL PLAN

NATURAL SYSTEM - TODAY

URBAN SYSTEM - TODAY

AGRICULTURE SYSTEM - TODAY

REMOVE 40% FARMS (EHTANOL)

PHASE 1 CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIES CORRIDOR TO PROTECT THE WATER SYSTEM

FUTURE ENERGY COMES FROM THE PRAIRIE GROWN WITH OTHER ECOLOGIES ALONG THE CORRIDOR

PHASE 2 INTEGRATED FARMS

PHASE 3 VERTICAL FARMS

FUTURE URBAN GROWTH CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIES FUTURE URBAN GROWTH AGRICULTURE+LIVESTOCK CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIES VERTICAL FARMING AGRICULTURE+LIVESTOCK VERTICAL FARMING

PHASE 1: PRAIRIE FOR ENERGY

CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIES ALONG FORK AND ROCK CREEK CORRIDOR TO PROTECT THE WATER SYSTEM

WILDLIFE SUPPORTED THROUGH THE PRAIRIE

FIRST 6 YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE

Today’s field of energy production (ethanol corn)

Tranforming the cornfields into prairie

Allowing the wildlife to be part of the system

Recreation use of prairie landscape

Harvesting the future energy

Seasonality of prairie landscape that is native to the midwest

Allow people to enjoy, appreciate and interact with nature

Prairie would hold and slow down the rain water

Future maintainance of prairie

Variety of animals will optimize the biomass utilization

Understanding the natural relationships of this system

Aquaculture and farms are rotated as waste of one system is nutrients to the other system

Understanding the natural relationships of this system

LIFE

WILD

Creating islands of locally grown foods rather than importing it from distant places

ELECTRIC MEADOW

SYSTEM

FOOD LOCAL

IDOR

CORR

HOW WE ARE MOVING ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ The proposals discussed are going to take us back to the future where we understand and appreciate the value of traditional landscapes and practices. Rather than looking at this as old practices, we perceive these practices that would bring back the balance that we have disturbed. It is about re-revaluating our old values to propose new values. Prairie landscape are historic to this region and by re-introducing them we are also bringing back the wildlife and the ecosystem that will help us to thrive. Moreover, it will also provide us with healthy future energy. Traditional integrated farming is brought back as we move towards an organic food revolution. Vertical farms allow to grow food in a contained environment and thus we can create virtual environments and practically grow all kind of healthy food instead of importing them.