A farm for the future - BBC2 tonight

kate83

This looks like it's going to be a good program to watch, repeated on Sunday or available on Iplayer here if you miss it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hs8zp/b00hs8t5/Natural_World_20082009_A_Farm_for_the_Future/

Farm for the Future sees Rebecca Hosking finding out how she can make her family’s wildlife friendly farm in Devon a low energy farm for the future and discovers that nature holds the key. With her father near to retirement, Rebecca Hosking returns to her family’s wildlife friendly farm in Devon to become the next generation to farm the land.
But last year’s high fuel prices were a wake up call for Rebecca. Realising that all farming and food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant, cheap fossil fuel – particularly oil. Rebecca sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is. She is met with some alarming answers, which drive her to find ways of farming without using fossil fuel.
By seeking advice from experts, pioneer farmers and growers Rebecca learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a low energy future.

Iguana

That looks interesting; especially as 'The Victorian Farm' has recently finished and the Victorians introduced the idea of mechanisation.

greenbee

Very interesting and insightful programme. It'll be interesting to see how people react!

betterlife

i agree , it was really interesting. i now some people panic after watching programes like this, and some say dont worry it will never happen, but i agree that things need to change. its the small changes that everyone can do that will make a difference, like growing there own fruit and veg etc.

nommo

OMG what a shocker.

I already knew about all this - but had convinced myself that I had convinced myself that it was going to be worse than it really would be. I take it back, I am back on panic stations.

Even without the looming threat of climate change (wich was not mentioned in the show) - it is undeniable that we are going to suffer very badly as fossil fuels decline. Starting with food production. If the farmers are not just concerned, but panicked - how the hell can we carry on arguing about whether you should be able to get two chickens for a fiver from a supermarket?

Does anyone else feel like an idiot for being taken in by all the labour saving cheap energy and techno-fetishism?

Ken68

Yes Kate brilliant documentary.Worth a follow up, see what she did.
Am gonna grow extra taters this year and cancel the bread.

moonrakerz

nommo wrote: »

Even without the looming threat of climate change (wich was not mentioned in the show) - it is undeniable that we are going to suffer very badly as fossil fuels decline. Starting with food production.

Don't panic Captain Mainwaring !!!!

I don't know if you watched the programme a couple of nights ago about the search for Nuclear Fusion. Huge amounts of totally safe energy for all - just needs a few zillion dollars/pounds/euros and about 30 years to get it working !

BUT .. if we are really that desperate why is it that Britain spent more on mobile phone ring tones last year, that it did on Nuclear fusion research ?

The programme also came up with some figures for the number of wind turbines, solar panel, tidal barrages, etc, etc required just to replace our present power stations - absolutely mind boggling ! and totally impossible to do !

The electricity consumption of the UK is around 350 Million megawatts per annum (2005 figs) the biggest wind turbines are rated at 5 megawatts, but they only average about 25% efficiency - as our American friends would say - do the math !
Unfortunately the politicians believe that wind power can save us: the problem is when you get pure fantasy (lies ?) like this put out in support of wind power:

"The wind farm output data is the actual output of four wind farms, scaled up to show the effect of 10,000 megawatts of installed capacity. This would meet 10% of England and Wales' annual electricity demand."

Again - do the math !

That was electricity only - UK uses 100 b cu m of gas per year. 1 cu m of gas = 11 kWh - do the math ! I tried, I got lost with all the zeroes !

Then of course there is oil for the road vehicles .....................

I am just lost for words for the utter complacency of those people who so-called govern this country, do they really think that a couple of dozen wind turbines off Southend will solve all our energy problems ?

Don't worry about the future - worry about the totally incompetent buffoons who are running things now.

Ken68

Agree Moon, tis about making money, slip a few thousand to an MP, away you go.
This lady wrote about permaculture 30 odd years ago. 10lb of grain to get 1lb of meat .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Moore_Lapp%C3%A9

Diet for a Small Planet well worth a read and not forgetting John Seymour, Self Sufficiency guru.

Mistymaid

The best book I've got is one that focuses on land management and how theh land is being stripped bear by continual misuse and poor management in an effort to increase yields.

It's a bit of a bible to me and I've tended to focus a lot of things I do around it, although admittedly I have to exchange chemicals and machinery for natural fertilizers and a wheelbarrow.

That said - the book was published in the 1890's ...

Soon, probably very soon, I think I just might be fashionable ... first time ever;)

nommo

moonrakerz: NIMBY or Fusion fan-boi? ;-)

I was OMG at actually seeing a prime-time TV show openly discussing our current unsustainable food production supply chain. It would be bad enough if, for some unexpected reason, our imports were stopped, cut or even became too expensive. This whole peak-oil thing isn't unexpected - it is something we are "LA-LA-LA-LA-I-CAN'T-HEAR-YOU"-ing.

Back to the tangent of wind energy - don't you think that charging an electric tractor and other farm machinery up from an on-site wind-turbine would be a sensible thing for farmers to do? Perhaps you should check out Dale Vince's blog and share your findings with him, he seems to have a handle on things wind related and may be able to shed some light: http://zerocarbonista.com/2009/02/03/rocs-regos-and-wind-powering-gb/

No - wind turbines are not a magic bullet for energy supply - but they are an important part of the solution. Fusion *might* be part of the solution - it is still a theory... and we will need energy from somewhere to fire them up - that is if we ever work out a way to get more energy out of one than we put in. Why not use renewables for such purposes?

I do worry about the future though - the present is a consequence of the past, which we can't change. If we start doing things differently tomorrow - or perhaps even this afternoon - then things might change for the better. No point waiting till the oil runs out or becomes so expensive it is uneconomic and no longer helps to keep the price of food down before we decide to worry about it.

nommo

Mistymaid wrote: »

The best book I've got is one that focuses on land management and how theh land is being stripped bear by continual misuse and poor management in an effort to increase yields.

Hiya Mistymaid - what is the book called? I would be interested to look into it... although I don't believe in harping back to the past (as romantic and appealing as it is) - I do think that we have abandoned some past practices for no good reason at all and should renintegrate them into future practices.