WEBVTT 00:00:02.385 --> 00:00:04.770 [♪♪♪] 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:14.280 [cows mooing and birds chirping] 00:00:18.180 --> 00:00:22.880 I always think this Devon landscape is the most beautiful place on Earth. 00:00:23.510 --> 00:00:29.530 And to me this is a very special farm, because it's where I grew up. 00:00:30.210 --> 00:00:34.230 And it's the only place I've ever really called home. 00:00:35.990 --> 00:00:39.610 My name is Rebecca Hosking, 00:00:39.610 --> 00:00:43.230 and I'm from a long line of farmers. 00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:48.750 But it was the wildlife here, more than the farming, 00:00:48.750 --> 00:00:51.830 that really fascinated me as a child. 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:56.300 And this led me into a career as a wildlife filmmaker. 00:00:58.450 --> 00:01:04.220 But now I'm back here to be a farmer, and in very interesting times. 00:01:06.080 --> 00:01:11.240 An approaching energy crisis will likely force a revolution in farming 00:01:11.240 --> 00:01:14.480 and change the British countryside forever. 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:24.510 It will affect what we eat, 00:01:24.510 --> 00:01:26.760 where it comes from, 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:31.005 and even the alarming question of whether there will be enough food 00:01:31.005 --> 00:01:33.295 to keep us fed. 00:01:38.260 --> 00:01:43.000 If our farm is to survive, it will have to change. 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:49.120 In this film I'm going to find out how to make my family farm in Devon 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:52.080 a farm that's fit for the future. 00:01:58.890 --> 00:02:02.270 I think when people find out I was brought up 00:02:02.270 --> 00:02:05.220 on a small South Devon farm, 00:02:05.220 --> 00:02:09.780 they always think I must have had the most amazing childhood ever. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:14.000 When I think back to when I was brought up here, 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.780 I just think of a load of bloody hard work really. 00:02:17.780 --> 00:02:21.850 We were just small time farmers, and with that is involved 00:02:21.850 --> 00:02:25.490 not much money, and a lot of hard work, 00:02:25.490 --> 00:02:28.520 to the point that it's almost drudgery. 00:02:31.230 --> 00:02:36.280 Dad often describes farmers as glorified lavatory attendants. 00:02:36.710 --> 00:02:41.500 And my family, like many farming families I think up and down the country, 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:44.200 wanted something better for their children, 00:02:44.200 --> 00:02:48.040 and I was actively encouraged to get out of farming, 00:02:48.040 --> 00:02:52.120 go and find a job, go and make a decent living. 00:02:52.590 --> 00:02:54.630 So that's what I did. 00:02:56.950 --> 00:02:59.970 And while I was away pursuing my career, 00:02:59.970 --> 00:03:03.870 my dad and my uncle Phil carried on, as ever, 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:07.040 farming in a pretty traditional way. 00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:10.770 But now it's time for me to come back. 00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:15.480 -The thing is, both Phil and I now, we-- 00:03:16.220 --> 00:03:19.640 I was going to say we're several years beyond retiring age, 00:03:19.640 --> 00:03:23.180 and should have retired, and most farmers have done that, 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:26.920 but we've kept the farm going and, um... 00:03:26.920 --> 00:03:31.380 kept it going as long as we can, trying to keep it as we found it, 00:03:31.380 --> 00:03:34.490 as we sort of inherited it. 00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:38.080 You know, I'm delighted to think somebody will take it on now 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:40.610 and keep it going, hopefully. 00:03:40.610 --> 00:03:45.450 But it's not going to be easy, because of pressures of all sorts of things-- 00:03:45.450 --> 00:03:51.000 food shortages, oil prices going up-- it's not going to be easy at all. 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:56.260 -Many would say, "Just sell it." 00:03:56.260 --> 00:04:01.470 "That would make more money in a heartbeat than a lifetime of working the land." 00:04:01.470 --> 00:04:05.270 But how can I turn my back on somewhere so beautiful, 00:04:05.270 --> 00:04:08.610 and a place that made me who I am? 00:04:08.610 --> 00:04:11.290 However, making a living, 00:04:11.290 --> 00:04:15.720 while continuing to preserve all the wildlife on the farm, as Dad has done, 00:04:15.720 --> 00:04:18.720 is going to be a major challenge. 00:04:22.490 --> 00:04:28.170 The inconvenient truth is that this farm, despite being a haven for wildlife, 00:04:28.170 --> 00:04:31.640 is no more sustainable than any other. 00:04:31.640 --> 00:04:35.200 All the farms I know, including organic ones, 00:04:35.200 --> 00:04:39.560 are utterly dependent on fossil fuel, particularly oil. 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:43.300 This dependence is dangerous for two reasons. 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:46.180 Climate change we all know about, 00:04:46.180 --> 00:04:49.760 but there is also growing evidence that the oil we need 00:04:49.760 --> 00:04:52.760 may soon be in short supply. 00:04:53.460 --> 00:04:56.600 Last year's fuel prices hit us badly, 00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:00.370 and for me it was a bit of a wake-up call. 00:05:00.940 --> 00:05:04.340 I recently learned that those crippling fuel prices 00:05:04.340 --> 00:05:07.550 may be just a tiny taster of what's to come 00:05:07.550 --> 00:05:10.780 as world oil production begins to decline. 00:05:11.840 --> 00:05:16.480 If there's any truth to this matter, then this will be my biggest challenge 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:20.300 in keeping our farm going into the near future. 00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:23.750 So I decided to track down 00:05:23.750 --> 00:05:27.750 one of the world's most respected authorities on the subject. 00:05:27.750 --> 00:05:33.080 After a distinguished 40-year career as a geologist in the oil industry, 00:05:33.080 --> 00:05:37.500 he continues his research from a small village in the west of Ireland. 00:05:38.130 --> 00:05:42.770 To Dr Colin Campbell, the facts about our oil supply are simple. 00:05:43.430 --> 00:05:46.720 -Despite searching the world with all the advances 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.140 in technology, and knowledge, and incentive and everything, 00:05:50.140 --> 00:05:53.260 we've been finding less and less for 40 years, 00:05:53.260 --> 00:05:56.500 and in 1981 was a kind of turning point, 00:05:56.500 --> 00:06:00.530 when we started using more than we found in new fields, 00:06:00.530 --> 00:06:04.270 as we started sucking down what had been found in the past. 00:06:04.270 --> 00:06:06.840 Eating into our inheritance, you could say. 00:06:06.840 --> 00:06:09.800 So I don't think there's really any serious doubt 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:12.960 that we're close to this turning point. 00:06:12.960 --> 00:06:15.920 A sort of turning point for mankind, you could say, 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:18.990 when this critical energy for agriculture in particular, 00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:21.600 --which means food, which means people-- 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:23.860 is heading on down. 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:26.470 And there's a huge debate raging 00:06:26.470 --> 00:06:30.590 of exactly the date and the height of the peak of production. 00:06:30.590 --> 00:06:32.970 And really I think this misses the point. 00:06:32.970 --> 00:06:36.620 It doesn't matter whether it's this year, next year, five years out. 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:40.530 What matters is the vision that after this peak 00:06:40.530 --> 00:06:43.520 you have a decline of only 2% or 3% a year, 00:06:43.520 --> 00:06:47.430 but, there's a huge difference between climbing for 150 years 00:06:47.430 --> 00:06:50.590 and descending for 150 years. 00:06:50.590 --> 00:06:55.280 -What Colin is saying is this decline will mean fuel shortages 00:06:55.280 --> 00:06:58.350 and prolonged economic turmoil. 00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:01.510 I tend to agree with him. 00:07:01.510 --> 00:07:05.450 It doesn't matter whether it's two years or ten years away, 00:07:05.450 --> 00:07:10.800 the impact it will have on pretty much every part of our lives is huge. 00:07:11.320 --> 00:07:16.470 But for me the biggest concern is how it will affect farming-- 00:07:16.470 --> 00:07:19.400 which means our food. 00:07:19.400 --> 00:07:22.280 I don't think most people have given it much thought 00:07:22.280 --> 00:07:26.020 how much fossil fuel goes into our everyday food. 00:07:26.020 --> 00:07:29.750 I just bought this garage sandwich just before we got on board, 00:07:29.750 --> 00:07:34.610 and I'm going to pull it apart and go through all the ingredients. 00:07:34.610 --> 00:07:36.730 I'll start with the bread. 00:07:36.730 --> 00:07:40.870 So somewhere in the world some farmer has had to plant the cereal. 00:07:40.870 --> 00:07:44.100 First off, he's using a diesel-run tractor, 00:07:44.100 --> 00:07:47.370 So he has to plough the field, then harrow the field, 00:07:47.370 --> 00:07:49.950 then he has to drill the seeds into the earth. 00:07:49.950 --> 00:07:55.190 And then to get the cereal to grow, he's probably had to add a load of chemicals 00:07:55.190 --> 00:08:01.480 to protect the crop--fungicides, herbicides, insecticides--all made from oil. 00:08:02.260 --> 00:08:05.750 And for the nutrients, chemical fertilizers. 00:08:05.750 --> 00:08:08.500 And at the moment, most of the farmers' fertilizer 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:11.360 is derived from natural gas. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:15.260 Once the cereal has ripened, it needs to be harvested. 00:08:15.710 --> 00:08:19.250 Then the grain is dried using big heaters, 00:08:19.250 --> 00:08:23.330 and then it's driven, using even more diesel, to be processed. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.210 And it isn't some little granny in a corner shop doing this. 00:08:27.210 --> 00:08:31.130 This is huge industrial buckets making this kind of bread. 00:08:31.130 --> 00:08:34.980 So then we move on to the inside and ham obviously comes from a pig, 00:08:34.980 --> 00:08:39.250 and that's even more energy hungry, because pigs are fed on grain. 00:08:39.250 --> 00:08:42.780 And one pig can eat nearly half a ton of the stuff. 00:08:44.090 --> 00:08:46.910 And then, just to add to it, 00:08:46.910 --> 00:08:50.350 we've got a little token, very sad piece of salad in there, 00:08:50.350 --> 00:08:55.140 which was either shipped in, flown in, or grown in a heated greenhouse. 00:08:55.140 --> 00:08:58.650 Once again--huge amount of energy. 00:08:58.650 --> 00:09:02.470 All of these ingredients were either cooked or cooled, or both, 00:09:02.470 --> 00:09:05.500 and driven mile after mile in a refrigerated lorry 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:08.820 before they were assembled into a sandwich. 00:09:10.210 --> 00:09:14.270 Basically, this sandwich, like most of the food that we're eating today, 00:09:14.270 --> 00:09:16.970 is absolutely dripping in oil. 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:20.080 And the way that our food production is today, 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:23.260 if we didn't have places like this, 00:09:23.260 --> 00:09:26.480 then in this country we'd pretty much starve. 00:09:30.770 --> 00:09:34.760 My visit to Ireland has given me a lot to think about. 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.360 Even on our little farm, without fossil fuel energy, 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:43.740 farming and food production will grind to a halt pretty quickly, 00:09:43.740 --> 00:09:47.790 and we would be left with, well, a nature reserve. 00:09:48.630 --> 00:09:51.560 And nature reserves don't feed people. 00:09:52.260 --> 00:09:56.480 This is such a serious issue, I'm guessing the rest of the farming world 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:58.970 must be as concerned as I am. 00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:03.030 Perhaps some of them have some ideas on how to move forward. 00:10:03.030 --> 00:10:06.960 A major Soil Association conference on the future of British farming 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:09.750 seems like a good place to start. 00:10:09.750 --> 00:10:14.060 -We may all think we're immune here because we can nip along to Tesco Metro 00:10:14.060 --> 00:10:17.340 whenever we like in the middle of the night and buy something. 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:19.780 That whole system is in jeopardy. 00:10:19.780 --> 00:10:23.320 -How are you going to feed Britain? How are you going to feed London? 00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:28.520 -Forty percent of the world's production comes from the 500 or so 00:10:28.520 --> 00:10:32.480 giant oil fields, half billion barrel oilfields... 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:34.850 -They're certainly worried. 00:10:34.850 --> 00:10:39.990 And from what I'm hearing, the energy problem seems, well, imminent. 00:10:39.990 --> 00:10:44.010 -It will hit us by 2013, at the latest-- 00:10:44.010 --> 00:10:47.470 not just as an oil crisis-- 00:10:47.470 --> 00:10:51.820 but actually as an oil and indeed energy famine. 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:55.480 -Farmers are going to have to move from using ancient sunlight-- 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:59.190 using oil and gas-- to using current sunlight. 00:10:59.190 --> 00:11:03.490 -And that seems to me the most enormous challenge that agriculture has ever faced, 00:11:03.490 --> 00:11:07.450 certainly since the Industrial Revolution, because we have so little time to do it. 00:11:07.450 --> 00:11:10.580 -If we can get government to be part of that, so much the better, 00:11:10.580 --> 00:11:14.240 but if government won't be part of that, then we have to do it without them. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:17.750 -These are the new fundamentals on which the food system 00:11:17.750 --> 00:11:21.490 is going to have to be based or else we are buggered. 00:11:22.380 --> 00:11:27.190 The farmers' conference made it clear to me there are no easy answers. 00:11:28.160 --> 00:11:31.540 If our farms and machinery are so energy-hungry, 00:11:31.540 --> 00:11:34.500 what are the options without oil? 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:39.250 Alternative energies are coming on leaps and bounds nowadays. 00:11:39.250 --> 00:11:42.410 Which one is likely to fit the bill? 00:11:44.510 --> 00:11:47.750 Over in California at the Post Carbon Institute, 00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:51.520 there is a man who has advised business, industry, and governments 00:11:51.520 --> 00:11:54.390 on how to cope with oil depletion. 00:11:54.390 --> 00:11:59.510 Richard Heinberg kindly agreed to talk to me via the internet. 00:11:59.510 --> 00:12:04.490 I mean, surely with wind and solar and nuclear, we could use all of this 00:12:04.490 --> 00:12:08.230 and the depletion of oil really isn't a problem? 00:12:08.230 --> 00:12:11.880 -We've waited too long to develop alternative energy sources 00:12:11.880 --> 00:12:15.080 and there's also the likelihood that 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:18.450 even all of these alternative energy sources put together 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:21.750 won't be able to power industrial societies 00:12:21.750 --> 00:12:26.040 in the way that we've been accustomed to with fossil fuels. 00:12:26.040 --> 00:12:28.690 People have to understand 00:12:28.690 --> 00:12:32.490 that we've created a way of life that's fundamentally unsustainable. 00:12:32.490 --> 00:12:36.460 And that doesn't mean that it's just, you know, ecologically irresponsible, 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:39.510 it means that it can't continue. 00:12:39.510 --> 00:12:42.520 -The scale of the challenge ahead Richard is talking about 00:12:42.520 --> 00:12:45.720 becomes clear when you look at bio-fuels. 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:50.750 Oil seed rape is the most productive bio-fuel crop in our climate. 00:12:52.990 --> 00:12:56.040 At Britain's current rate of oil use, 00:12:56.040 --> 00:12:59.690 a whole year's harvest from a four-acre field like this 00:12:59.690 --> 00:13:03.220 would be used up in less than one third of a second. 00:13:04.040 --> 00:13:08.160 That would be little help to agriculture as it stands today. 00:13:08.160 --> 00:13:11.280 -Aside from transport-- 00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:14.440 cars, trucks, and airplanes-- 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:18.720 agriculture is the most fossil fuel intensive industry. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:23.060 We use in the industrial world about ten calories of fossil fuel energy 00:13:23.060 --> 00:13:25.650 for every calorie of food we produce. 00:13:25.650 --> 00:13:29.000 So this is an enormous problem that we've created for ourselves. 00:13:34.670 --> 00:13:39.340 We have solved enormous problems in agriculture before. 00:13:40.260 --> 00:13:43.980 -In the past 50 years, agricultural technology 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:49.530 has tripled crop yields and overcome everything nature has thrown at us. 00:13:51.470 --> 00:13:56.520 But all of these advances rely on abundant fossil fuel. 00:14:00.040 --> 00:14:03.890 In a sense, they have taken us exactly in the wrong direction 00:14:03.890 --> 00:14:06.780 to deal with this new problem. 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:11.800 Even the latest technologies, like GM crops, 00:14:11.800 --> 00:14:14.520 regardless of the other arguments, 00:14:14.520 --> 00:14:18.990 are as utterly dependent on fossil fuel as any other. 00:14:21.170 --> 00:14:24.010 So where does this leave us? 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.020 -It's possible in fact that food systems could collapse 00:14:28.020 --> 00:14:31.360 not just in the poor countries, but also in the wealthy, 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:35.870 current food exporting countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia. 00:14:35.870 --> 00:14:41.040 And we're going to have to transform our entire agricultural system 00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:45.810 very quickly if we're going to avert a global food calamity. 00:14:47.400 --> 00:14:53.240 So, does this mean a return to horses, carts and hand tools on our farm? 00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:58.520 I personally wouldn't know how to do this, nor would most farmers today. 00:14:58.520 --> 00:15:02.610 The knowledge of how to farm in this manner is all but gone. 00:15:02.610 --> 00:15:06.490 However, on the next door farm is a woman 00:15:06.490 --> 00:15:09.690 who knows a thing or two about it. 00:15:09.690 --> 00:15:12.470 My dear old friend, Pearl. 00:15:12.470 --> 00:15:16.340 -'Ello darlins, you waitin' for tea? 00:15:16.340 --> 00:15:18.910 You little beggars. [cow moos] 00:15:18.910 --> 00:15:22.710 -They're handsome looking. -Oh, they are. They're sweet. 00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:28.970 Do you know what that's for? -No idea. 00:15:28.970 --> 00:15:32.240 -Well, years ago we used to make hayricks. 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:34.640 -Right, yeah, and put all the hay up to dry. 00:15:34.640 --> 00:15:38.520 -Out to dry. Well, then you'd go up with your wagon, you see, 00:15:38.520 --> 00:15:44.230 and you'd want a wagon load of hay, and you'd have to cut the hay across 00:15:44.230 --> 00:15:47.670 to take away a section to put on the wagon, 00:15:47.670 --> 00:15:50.770 and that you have to go like this. 00:15:50.770 --> 00:15:53.520 -Oh, and literally cut like that? -Yeah, like that. 00:15:53.520 --> 00:15:58.140 -Good old weight, though, isn't it? -We weren't mice. 00:15:58.140 --> 00:16:03.840 I wasn't big, but boy I was strong. The Lord gave me a lot of strength. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:06.440 -He certainly did, He gave you all a lot of strength, 00:16:06.440 --> 00:16:09.980 and we don't realize how easy we've got it now I think, do we? 00:16:09.980 --> 00:16:11.760 -You don't. 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:17.640 -For those tasks too heavy for people, there were horses, 00:16:17.640 --> 00:16:21.240 and Pearl was an incredible horsewoman. 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:25.320 Oh, Pearl, look at that! Wow. 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:27.730 Look at those. 00:16:28.950 --> 00:16:31.340 And look at the... -Yeah, that's my bridles. 00:16:31.340 --> 00:16:35.530 -How many have you got, Pearl? -Well, we had, you see, three big Shires. 00:16:35.530 --> 00:16:37.380 -Of course you did. 00:16:37.870 --> 00:16:43.640 -When you had a horse and cart, well, it often was too big a load for one, 00:16:43.640 --> 00:16:49.340 so you'd put down the fore harness, and that horse had a collar, that on it, 00:16:49.340 --> 00:16:53.440 and two chains that came back and hooked into the front of the cart. 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:56.600 -So when you needed a bit more extra horsepower, literally. 00:16:56.600 --> 00:17:00.700 -That's right, that one was there to pull. -To get you up a hill. 00:17:00.700 --> 00:17:06.500 At best, Pearl had a two-horsepower system to help her with the heavy work. 00:17:06.500 --> 00:17:11.160 Today, farmers' tractors can be up to 400 horsepower. 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:14.850 Trips off the tongue, doesn't it? Four hundred horsepower. 00:17:14.850 --> 00:17:19.410 but think what it actually means: four hundred horses. 00:17:19.410 --> 00:17:23.240 That's the power we get from oil today. 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:27.520 -Do you know, today's energy supply is equivalent, in energy terms, 00:17:27.520 --> 00:17:31.480 to 22 billion slaves working 'round the clock. 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:35.230 So we're basically living with this enormous stock of slaves 00:17:35.230 --> 00:17:37.840 working for us in the form of oil. 00:17:37.840 --> 00:17:41.770 But by the end of this century, there ain't any more of them. 00:17:41.770 --> 00:17:44.750 And that's a huge change we're facing-- 00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:48.380 affects just absolutely every aspect of the modern world. 00:17:49.250 --> 00:17:52.800 -I often think how times have changed 00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:57.810 because, you see, we do all this work just to keep our cows going, 00:17:57.810 --> 00:18:02.390 but now, a bit of silage, boy, and it's all done mechanically, 00:18:02.390 --> 00:18:05.120 and you can go and sit down. 00:18:05.120 --> 00:18:08.980 -Your sons, if they had to farm like you did, 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:12.200 do you think they would do it now? -No, I don't think they would. 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:16.050 I think they have more sense. But I was happy. 00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:22.340 This way of farming is something we couldn't go back to even if we wanted to. 00:18:22.340 --> 00:18:27.680 When Pearl was young, there was ten times as many farmers in this country 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:31.270 and only half the number of mouths to feed. 00:18:31.970 --> 00:18:34.730 Also, most British farmers today 00:18:34.730 --> 00:18:38.970 just don't have the physical strength for hard manual labor. 00:18:39.550 --> 00:18:43.790 The average age of a farmer in Britain now is 60. 00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:49.550 And even worse, there's only 150,000 of them left. 00:18:50.970 --> 00:18:56.220 As an industry, British farming has effectively been left to die. 00:18:57.260 --> 00:19:02.020 And in recent years, more and more of our food is coming from abroad. 00:19:04.040 --> 00:19:08.420 -The UK is a net food importer by a long shot, 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:11.920 so this is a very perilous situation, 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:17.720 because of course all of that import has to come by way of fossil-fuelled 00:19:17.720 --> 00:19:22.040 vehicles of one kind or another, whether ships or airplanes. 00:19:22.490 --> 00:19:26.150 And as fossil fuels again become more scarce and expensive, 00:19:26.150 --> 00:19:29.190 that means that that food is going to become more expensive 00:19:29.190 --> 00:19:33.520 and the whole system will start to creak and groan around the edges. 00:19:35.500 --> 00:19:40.240 -Realistically, the only changes I can make are right here. 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:44.030 And even that isn't as straightforward as it may seem. 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.530 Ours is a traditional livestock farm. 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:54.250 Raising beef and lamb on pasture may not look that fuel intensive, 00:19:54.250 --> 00:19:57.240 but there is one major problem. 00:19:59.520 --> 00:20:04.510 Bringing the cattle in in the winter for beef farming or dairy farming 00:20:04.510 --> 00:20:08.880 is just part and parcel of what we do in this country because of our climate. 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:11.270 If we were to leave them out on the land, 00:20:11.270 --> 00:20:15.430 it's actually bad for the pastures because they carve up the grass 00:20:15.430 --> 00:20:19.630 and it hasn't got enough time to recover for the next spring. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:24.730 And obviously with the cattle in the barn, then they can't get to their grass. 00:20:24.730 --> 00:20:29.050 So we then have to bring their grass to them in the form of this hay. 00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:36.330 And the hay harvest, by far, is our biggest single use 00:20:36.330 --> 00:20:39.520 of machinery and fuel on this farm. 00:20:47.830 --> 00:20:52.110 This is why I was fascinated to hear about a farm up in Shropshire 00:20:52.110 --> 00:20:55.760 run by Charlotte Hollins and her brother Ben. 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:59.730 Fordhall Farm is much the same size as our farm, 00:20:59.730 --> 00:21:03.210 and like us, they raise cattle and sheep. 00:21:03.210 --> 00:21:07.350 But at Fordhall, the cattle stay out on the pasture all winter 00:21:07.350 --> 00:21:10.510 with little need for additional feed. 00:21:11.260 --> 00:21:14.520 I found it hard to believe, but as a result, 00:21:14.520 --> 00:21:17.790 the only machinery they have is a quad bike. 00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:23.610 The secret to this is underfoot: the grass. 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:28.520 Even though we have hundreds of species of wild grass in this country, 00:21:28.520 --> 00:21:31.240 most farmers only use four, 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:34.470 which they buy in a bag from a seed merchant. 00:21:35.250 --> 00:21:37.680 But not at Fordhall. 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:41.120 -...and we've probably got almost 20 different species of grass here. 00:21:41.120 --> 00:21:44.250 Some are hardier than others, some will grow quicker than others, 00:21:44.250 --> 00:21:47.760 and some have roots which go deeper down in the soil and bring minerals up, 00:21:47.760 --> 00:21:51.260 and some have got much shallower roots which help then protect the soil 00:21:51.260 --> 00:21:52.710 across the surface. 00:21:52.710 --> 00:21:55.520 If you come down and have a look at the grasses here, 00:21:55.520 --> 00:21:59.960 you can see straight away that you've got a great big tight structure 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:02.240 there at the bottom. -It's like Scottish Tweed. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:07.800 -Exactly. And even when you get to the soil, it's so matted up with roots, 00:22:07.800 --> 00:22:11.670 it takes an awful lot of force and effort to break through it. 00:22:11.670 --> 00:22:14.500 So it doesn't get trodden up to a muddy mess straight away, 00:22:14.500 --> 00:22:17.360 and then the cows and the sheep get the benefit of it, 00:22:17.360 --> 00:22:21.220 and you get the benefit because you don't have to buy so much feed in. 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:25.560 We know, year on year, it will work, there will be feed, 00:22:25.560 --> 00:22:28.350 we can produce beef, we can produce lamb, 00:22:28.350 --> 00:22:31.230 and we can sell it, and we can make a living. 00:22:31.230 --> 00:22:33.900 And whatever happens to oil prices or anything else, 00:22:33.900 --> 00:22:36.730 we know we can keep going on that system. 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:41.100 -But these amazing grasses didn't happen by chance. 00:22:41.100 --> 00:22:44.790 Charlotte and Ben's late father, Arthur Hollins, 00:22:44.790 --> 00:22:48.510 was a bit of a local legend and a farming visionary. 00:22:48.510 --> 00:22:52.250 -Dad started his way of farming just after the war, 00:22:52.250 --> 00:22:54.990 but he spent his whole lifetime developing the system, 00:22:54.990 --> 00:22:57.880 and it was only just before he died in 2005, 00:22:57.880 --> 00:23:01.510 that he actually said, "I'm happy with this," you know, 00:23:01.510 --> 00:23:05.810 "I think I've got the grasses right, I'm happy with the pastures." 00:23:06.490 --> 00:23:11.510 The soils on our farm are completely different to the ones here at Fordhall, 00:23:11.510 --> 00:23:16.500 so the grasses Arthur encouraged may not suit our fields back in Devon. 00:23:16.500 --> 00:23:21.380 But that's not to say we couldn't try something similar with other types of grass. 00:23:21.940 --> 00:23:27.290 Knowing which species to encourage may be just a case of careful observation. 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.360 And that's exactly what old Arthur had to do, 00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:34.780 because the pastures here weren't always so rich. 00:23:35.460 --> 00:23:38.710 -Dad was always a great observer, and he came through the woodland. 00:23:38.710 --> 00:23:42.470 and he saw how much was growing here, especially during the summer months, 00:23:42.470 --> 00:23:45.310 and he wasn't touching it. But more importantly, 00:23:45.310 --> 00:23:48.480 he wasn't paying for any of it to grow, it was just doing it. 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:52.470 And he saw straightaway, in the top few inches of leaf litter on the soil, 00:23:52.470 --> 00:23:56.720 there was life, whether it be spiders, or woodlice or centipedes. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:00.080 And then you go down a little bit further and you start to see worms. 00:24:00.080 --> 00:24:03.690 But he couldn't see any of that in his soil he was plowing and cultivating 00:24:03.690 --> 00:24:06.260 year on year. There was no sign of any life. 00:24:06.260 --> 00:24:08.020 -It was dead. -It was dead. 00:24:08.020 --> 00:24:11.970 And he got to then learn about all the millions of different bacteria and fungi 00:24:11.970 --> 00:24:15.740 that were also in the soil, that keep it fertile, cycle the nutrients, 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:19.500 that hold those nutrients in their bodies and release them to the plants, 00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:21.750 and they weren't in his soil. 00:24:21.750 --> 00:24:25.060 -If you just look down, I mean, this is classic woodland soil. 00:24:25.060 --> 00:24:27.090 -Yeah. -Look how rich this is. 00:24:27.090 --> 00:24:29.980 -Exactly. -And it's gorgeous, rich topsoil. 00:24:29.980 --> 00:24:34.220 -I mean, even there, in that soil you've got bits of twig, the bits of leaf, 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:37.000 that are slowly being broken down to create soil. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.610 And the worms and everything else do that job for you. 00:24:39.610 --> 00:24:43.210 They eat it, process it through their bodies, and you end up with worm poo, 00:24:43.210 --> 00:24:45.760 which is soil, which feeds the plants. 00:24:45.760 --> 00:24:49.160 And without that life, you've got nothing to feed the plants 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:51.800 to keep that system going. 00:24:52.230 --> 00:24:55.220 Taking the lessons he learned from the woodland, 00:24:55.220 --> 00:25:00.000 Arthur realized that to rejuvenate his fields, he would have to go against 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.020 one of the most fundamental principles of agriculture. 00:25:04.770 --> 00:25:07.480 -The biggest thing that Dad found was damaging the soil 00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:10.050 was actually exposing it to sunlight. 00:25:10.050 --> 00:25:12.720 It was that overturning through plowing. 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:16.520 And Dad always said it would be like humans ripping off their skin, 00:25:16.520 --> 00:25:20.290 you know, it's not nice. And you know, you don't survive. 00:25:20.290 --> 00:25:24.050 So why do it to the soil, and why kill all those organisms in the soil, 00:25:24.050 --> 00:25:26.990 that, at the end of the day, are your best friends? 00:25:26.990 --> 00:25:30.230 -Are you telling us not to plow? -Yes. 00:25:30.940 --> 00:25:35.180 -We've been plowing for 10,000 years. It's what farmers do. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:41.540 Not plowing is a pretty radical idea for any farmer. 00:25:42.500 --> 00:25:45.570 But looking at some old footage from our farm, 00:25:45.570 --> 00:25:49.230 the damage it causes is now pretty obvious. 00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:52.740 This is one of our fields back in the 80s. 00:25:52.740 --> 00:25:56.750 The life in the soil is a feast for the birds. 00:25:56.750 --> 00:25:59.860 After 20 years of the same treatment... 00:25:59.860 --> 00:26:02.680 no birds, the soil is dead. 00:26:04.830 --> 00:26:09.510 Turning the soil has been part of agriculture for millennia, 00:26:09.510 --> 00:26:14.200 but I guess with muscle power alone, the damage was slow to show. 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:19.070 With diesel power, the destruction is much faster. 00:26:19.940 --> 00:26:24.130 The only reason modern agriculture can get away with killing the life 00:26:24.130 --> 00:26:27.760 in the soil is through another use of fossil fuel. 00:26:28.950 --> 00:26:33.050 This time it's by turning it into chemical fertilizer. 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:38.230 These granules contain three essential plant nutrients. 00:26:39.750 --> 00:26:43.760 Nitrates, phosphate, and potash. 00:26:44.970 --> 00:26:48.920 Over 95% of all the food grown in this country 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:52.280 is totally reliant on synthetic fertilizer. 00:26:52.760 --> 00:26:56.800 Without it, we'd be in serious trouble. 00:26:57.840 --> 00:27:00.630 -We've used fossil fuels, essentially, 00:27:00.630 --> 00:27:05.240 to grow plants in soil that is otherwise dead. 00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:08.970 And that works, as long as we have the cheap fossil fuels 00:27:08.970 --> 00:27:11.520 with which to make the nitrogen fertilizer, 00:27:11.520 --> 00:27:14.160 and to transport all the inputs, and so on. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:17.560 But in the end, when we don't have the cheap fossil fuels, 00:27:17.560 --> 00:27:20.480 we're going to need living soil once again. 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:25.580 And that living soil is something that requires time and care to build, 00:27:25.580 --> 00:27:28.480 it doesn't just happen overnight. 00:27:28.950 --> 00:27:32.340 -This field is far more typical for our farm. 00:27:32.340 --> 00:27:34.990 It's called Orchid Meadow. 00:27:34.990 --> 00:27:39.000 And it's never been plowed or dosed with synthetic fertilizer, 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:42.200 yet it's clearly thriving. 00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:46.000 It just does feel like the whole thing's heaving with life. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:51.210 There's so many flowers, but also on a sunny day, the whole place comes alive. 00:27:51.210 --> 00:27:54.440 And you've got the birds in the trees, but it just buzzes-- 00:27:54.440 --> 00:27:57.800 the whole thing buzzes, and you've just got so many insects. 00:27:57.800 --> 00:28:00.800 If you step over this, especially in an evening, 00:28:00.800 --> 00:28:05.880 and you walk through this, the insects come up in great big clouds. 00:28:05.880 --> 00:28:10.510 And it's all built on the foundation of healthy, living soil. 00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:16.010 After seeing Fordhall Farm, I can see by developing these pastures, 00:28:16.010 --> 00:28:19.060 we could reduce our dependence on oil. 00:28:19.500 --> 00:28:22.250 But, no matter how good the grasses are, 00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:25.270 rearing cattle takes a lot of land. 00:28:25.270 --> 00:28:27.780 Every study on the matter concludes 00:28:27.780 --> 00:28:30.980 that if Britain is to become more self-sufficient, 00:28:30.980 --> 00:28:33.530 we need to eat less meat. 00:28:33.950 --> 00:28:38.000 Now I'm realizing, we'll probably have to diversify, 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:42.370 changing not just how we farm, but what we farm. 00:28:42.370 --> 00:28:44.750 And this where I get stuck. 00:28:44.750 --> 00:28:48.120 Because I can see how you can farm cattle without plowing, 00:28:48.120 --> 00:28:50.360 and using natural fertility, 00:28:50.360 --> 00:28:53.730 but how do you grow everything else we need? 00:28:53.730 --> 00:28:57.290 Well, it seems there are a number of people around the world 00:28:57.290 --> 00:29:00.350 who have already grappled with this problem. 00:29:00.350 --> 00:29:03.800 They've developed a system known as permaculture. 00:29:04.370 --> 00:29:08.410 Britain's leading expert is Patrick Whitefield. 00:29:08.850 --> 00:29:13.250 Permaculture seems to challenge all the normal approaches to farming. 00:29:13.710 --> 00:29:16.560 -You know, people often think 00:29:16.560 --> 00:29:18.880 that there are two ways of doing things. 00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.930 One is by drudgery, and the other is by chucking fossil fuel at it. 00:29:22.930 --> 00:29:25.840 Now, permaculture is about a third way of doing things, 00:29:25.840 --> 00:29:29.360 and that is by design, by conscious design. 00:29:29.360 --> 00:29:32.000 -Basically, you're designing the labor out, 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:34.770 or you're designing the need for that energy out? 00:29:34.770 --> 00:29:36.500 -Both. -Okay. 00:29:36.500 --> 00:29:42.990 So why does it take so much manpower and energy to sustain farmland, 00:29:42.990 --> 00:29:47.020 when you look at a natural ecosystem, and we've got a wood behind us, 00:29:47.020 --> 00:29:49.170 and that can just keep going? 00:29:49.170 --> 00:29:54.120 -Because this inherently is not what the landscape wants to do. 00:29:54.120 --> 00:29:56.770 And if you leave the landscape totally alone, 00:29:56.770 --> 00:29:59.610 it would turn into something like that. 00:29:59.610 --> 00:30:02.360 So that is the low energy option. 00:30:02.360 --> 00:30:05.900 In the natural ecosystem, there's no work-- 00:30:05.900 --> 00:30:10.530 well not by any humans-- there's no waste, and yet it's thriving. 00:30:10.530 --> 00:30:12.720 You know, look at it. 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:15.260 [baby birds chirping] 00:30:15.260 --> 00:30:19.450 -It's easy to forget Britain used to be a forested island. 00:30:20.980 --> 00:30:24.250 And so much of the energy we expend in farming 00:30:24.250 --> 00:30:27.100 is just to stop it reverting back. 00:30:27.100 --> 00:30:30.290 But woodland has evolved over millions of years 00:30:30.290 --> 00:30:34.500 to be the most efficient growing system in our climate. 00:30:34.500 --> 00:30:37.610 In that respect, I can understand its appeal 00:30:37.610 --> 00:30:41.330 if you're trying to design the best way to grow food. 00:30:41.330 --> 00:30:45.400 But the obvious problem for me is, well, we can't eat trees. 00:30:46.230 --> 00:30:51.570 With all the greatest respect, a few wild berries, you can't...it's not a cornfield. 00:30:51.570 --> 00:30:55.750 -Course it isn't. Course it isn't. No, no, no, it's insignificant. 00:30:55.750 --> 00:30:59.960 What we've got to do is to take the principles of this 00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:05.780 and see how far we can bend them towards something more edible. 00:31:07.230 --> 00:31:10.150 -A food growing system based on natural ecology 00:31:10.150 --> 00:31:12.960 really appeals to my naturalist side, 00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:16.980 but the farmer's daughter in me needs a bit more convincing. 00:31:17.610 --> 00:31:21.470 I suppose the big question is, could permaculture feed Britain? 00:31:21.470 --> 00:31:23.440 -Yeah, good question. 00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:27.510 Although the first question to ask actually is, 00:31:27.510 --> 00:31:30.080 can the present methods go on feeding Britain? 00:31:30.080 --> 00:31:35.090 -Yeah, I suppose, yeah. -Because actually, that is doubtful. 00:31:35.090 --> 00:31:38.210 Well, no it's not. In the long term, it's absolutely certain 00:31:38.210 --> 00:31:41.350 that present methods can't, because they're so entirely dependent 00:31:41.350 --> 00:31:43.930 on energy, on fossil fuel energy. 00:31:43.930 --> 00:31:48.790 So we haven't really got any choice, other than to find something different. 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:55.210 -Last year, I may have dismissed permaculture as not proper farming, 00:31:55.210 --> 00:31:58.530 but with what I've learned about the oil situation, 00:31:58.530 --> 00:32:01.500 I'm keen to see it in practice. 00:32:01.500 --> 00:32:05.690 A visit to a permaculture smallholding in the mountains of Snowdonia 00:32:05.690 --> 00:32:08.280 has given me the opportunity. 00:32:08.730 --> 00:32:14.120 Now, the farmland I'm used to seeing is clumps of trees surrounded by fields. 00:32:14.120 --> 00:32:17.020 But this is the complete opposite, 00:32:17.020 --> 00:32:20.720 a collection of small clearings in a massive woodland. 00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:24.740 It may not look like a farm, but it clearly works. 00:32:25.350 --> 00:32:30.030 For a few days work each week, Chris Dixon and his wife Lynn 00:32:30.030 --> 00:32:33.990 produce all the fruit, veg, and meat they need 00:32:33.990 --> 00:32:36.250 and the fuel to cook it. 00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:39.580 But 20 years ago when they arrived, 00:32:39.580 --> 00:32:43.350 it was degraded, marginal pasture land. 00:32:43.350 --> 00:32:48.770 The first thing they did was let much of the land return to its natural state. 00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:53.730 Now the fertility has returned to the land. 00:32:55.340 --> 00:32:58.400 Observing the forest as it regenerated 00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:02.950 offered all the inspiration they needed to design their smallholding. 00:33:02.950 --> 00:33:05.750 But it is a woodland still, and it is chaos. 00:33:05.750 --> 00:33:10.380 -It is chaos, but chaos in this space is very, very highly ordered. 00:33:10.380 --> 00:33:15.000 Very highly structured. It's just that we see it as untidy and a mess. 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:17.730 Nature doesn't see it like that at all. 00:33:18.520 --> 00:33:23.500 Every plant is doing something useful, important, valuable on the site. 00:33:23.500 --> 00:33:26.390 So, for example, the gorse fixing nitrogen, 00:33:26.390 --> 00:33:29.760 the bracken collecting potash, that sort of thing. 00:33:29.760 --> 00:33:34.540 They gave me the feeling that every plant is important in some way. 00:33:37.490 --> 00:33:40.750 -Everywhere you go on the Dixons' smallholding 00:33:40.750 --> 00:33:44.050 seems to be teeming with wildlife. 00:33:46.820 --> 00:33:51.600 How important is the biodiversity-- so, we're hearing birds above us as well-- 00:33:51.600 --> 00:33:54.120 how important is all of that to this system? 00:33:54.120 --> 00:33:57.920 -Very important because by encouraging the habitat for birds, 00:33:57.920 --> 00:34:01.540 we're encouraging phosphate cycling through the system. 00:34:01.540 --> 00:34:05.470 So again, phosphates is another of the sort of crucial plant nutrients, 00:34:05.470 --> 00:34:07.760 -Yup. -...every plant needs them, 00:34:07.760 --> 00:34:11.840 and phosphates, you'll find in things like insects and seed. 00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:14.560 So the birds that eat insects and seeds, 00:34:14.560 --> 00:34:19.400 they're accumulating phosphates, and the excess comes out in their dung. 00:34:21.220 --> 00:34:23.600 So, up here in the mountains, 00:34:23.600 --> 00:34:27.740 there's no need for sacks of fossil fuel-derived nutrients. 00:34:27.740 --> 00:34:34.500 It's all done by nature: nitrate, potash, phosphate. 00:34:34.500 --> 00:34:38.290 And no need, either, for petroleum based pesticides. 00:34:38.750 --> 00:34:43.160 -We use ducks, Khaki Campbells, as slug control. 00:34:43.160 --> 00:34:47.810 We've kept ducks for 22 years, and the Khaki Campbells are the best slug-eaters. 00:34:47.810 --> 00:34:51.370 -Oh, really, there's a big tip. -And it can be very difficult to find 00:34:51.370 --> 00:34:54.500 slugs in here during the summer, which is great. 00:34:54.500 --> 00:34:56.690 -Fantastic, yeah. 00:34:59.520 --> 00:35:03.800 Chris's veg garden may look untidy to a regular gardener, 00:35:03.800 --> 00:35:08.250 but like in the woodland, every plant is serving a purpose. 00:35:08.250 --> 00:35:13.320 For example, some deter pests. Some help drainage. 00:35:13.320 --> 00:35:16.370 Some encourage bees for pollination. 00:35:16.370 --> 00:35:21.080 And others have long roots that pull up minerals deep from the soil. 00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:27.260 The largest clearings in the woodland are kept as pasture for the livestock. 00:35:27.260 --> 00:35:32.710 But the animals here don't just eat grass, they're benefiting from the trees as well. 00:35:33.250 --> 00:35:38.760 Nutrient-rich willow, lime, and ash are all used as fodder crops. 00:35:39.580 --> 00:35:41.640 Feeding trees to animals, 00:35:41.640 --> 00:35:44.780 this is something I would never have thought of. 00:35:50.040 --> 00:35:52.980 We don't have much woodland on our farm, 00:35:52.980 --> 00:35:55.680 but what we do have are massive hedges, 00:35:55.680 --> 00:35:59.010 and now I'm seeing them in a different light. 00:35:59.010 --> 00:36:02.510 Well, I've always thought of a hedgerow as a land division 00:36:02.510 --> 00:36:05.220 between two fields, and I've always-- 00:36:05.220 --> 00:36:10.060 well, I suppose on this farm, thought of it as a wildlife corridor as well, 00:36:10.060 --> 00:36:14.460 but I've never actually thought of it as a yielding crop. 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:19.500 But their potential even just as a fodder crop is huge. 00:36:20.070 --> 00:36:24.540 I've never noticed before how much the cattle like eating ash. 00:36:25.500 --> 00:36:28.260 And there is also a wealth of fruits here, 00:36:28.260 --> 00:36:30.820 and that's with doing nothing at all. 00:36:30.820 --> 00:36:35.770 With a bit of careful steering, who knows how much a hedge could produce. 00:36:36.940 --> 00:36:41.080 Ironically, I've learned hedgerows could be much more productive 00:36:41.080 --> 00:36:45.720 than the fields they enclose, and require much less work. 00:36:46.470 --> 00:36:50.960 You don't have to add anything, it's self-maintaining, 00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:55.310 you know, you're not having to tend it, it's just there in abundance. 00:36:55.310 --> 00:36:58.670 And why is it there in abundance? Because it wants to grow here. 00:36:58.670 --> 00:37:01.270 It's the natural food that should be here. 00:37:01.270 --> 00:37:05.060 The only difference is it's growing upwards and not across. 00:37:05.060 --> 00:37:08.680 Actually, by utilizing the full height of trees and hedges, 00:37:08.680 --> 00:37:14.220 you can squeeze a much higher yield out of the same piece of land. 00:37:14.220 --> 00:37:18.520 Turns out, just up the road from our farm is the best example in Europe 00:37:18.520 --> 00:37:22.510 of just how far you can take this way of producing food. 00:37:22.510 --> 00:37:26.500 Until now, I had no idea it existed. 00:37:27.460 --> 00:37:32.080 The man behind this pioneering system is Martin Crawford. 00:37:32.080 --> 00:37:35.520 -This is a forest garden, where there's a big diversity 00:37:35.520 --> 00:37:38.520 of trees, and shrubs, and other crops, 00:37:38.520 --> 00:37:42.200 all growing together, very carefully designed 00:37:42.200 --> 00:37:45.720 so everything is working together, 00:37:45.720 --> 00:37:49.210 to give many different yields from the same space. 00:37:49.710 --> 00:37:54.340 The trees are spaced very carefully so that there's enough light 00:37:54.340 --> 00:37:57.530 getting into the ground layers beneath, 00:37:57.530 --> 00:38:00.560 so you can actually grow something productive. 00:38:02.990 --> 00:38:06.240 Forest gardens are one part of permaculture 00:38:06.240 --> 00:38:10.050 where design is clearly inspired by nature. 00:38:11.080 --> 00:38:14.360 Something that makes a natural woodland so productive, 00:38:14.360 --> 00:38:17.250 is it grows on many layers. 00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:22.320 It's rather like having half a dozen fields stacked on top of each other. 00:38:24.280 --> 00:38:27.520 A forest garden imitates each woodland layer, 00:38:27.520 --> 00:38:31.020 but uses more edible and desirable species. 00:38:31.960 --> 00:38:35.000 This one down below my feet here--is very low-- 00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:37.510 it's called Nepalese raspberry. 00:38:37.510 --> 00:38:41.760 It's a fantastic plant and it protects the soil from winter rain. 00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:44.520 -And it saves on weeding. -Yes, so there's no weeding... 00:38:44.520 --> 00:38:46.780 ...to be done, you see. -No. 00:38:46.780 --> 00:38:49.960 The garden floor is covered with fruit and veg, 00:38:49.960 --> 00:38:55.110 and above them, the shrub layer is equally abundant, if not a little unusual. 00:38:55.110 --> 00:38:57.770 -One of several hawthorn species I've got. 00:38:57.770 --> 00:39:01.500 Massive thorns on it, but much bigger fruits and much tastier fruits. 00:39:01.500 --> 00:39:05.530 The other side of us is a mulberry. -You never see mulberry bushes nowadays. 00:39:05.530 --> 00:39:08.380 -You don't often see mulberries, but they're really nice fruits, 00:39:08.380 --> 00:39:10.720 and quite easy to grow, really. 00:39:10.720 --> 00:39:13.910 Another big salad crop from the forest garden are lime leaves. 00:39:13.910 --> 00:39:17.080 And I use them as a base, kind of a base ingredient, in a salad. 00:39:17.080 --> 00:39:18.920 -Right. -Like lettuce. 00:39:18.920 --> 00:39:21.970 -Oh, okay, so they are your replacement for lettuce? 00:39:21.970 --> 00:39:26.240 -Yeah, yeah. -Big lettuce, Martin. [laughing] 00:39:28.230 --> 00:39:31.240 A bit higher up are the fruit trees, 00:39:31.240 --> 00:39:35.280 like apples, pears, medlars, plums, and quinces. 00:39:36.240 --> 00:39:40.490 And then there's the canopy, where those trees that aren't producing food 00:39:40.490 --> 00:39:45.310 are serving other essential functions, like cycling nutrients. 00:39:45.310 --> 00:39:48.460 -...and the Italian Alders are a very good example. 00:39:48.460 --> 00:39:52.990 They're very fast growing, and supply a lot of nitrogen to the plants around. 00:39:52.990 --> 00:39:55.540 -And this is through the root system? 00:39:55.540 --> 00:39:58.630 -It's through the leaf litter, which is still quite high in nitrogen, 00:39:58.630 --> 00:40:02.480 and the root system, and also through beneficial fungi, 00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:05.960 which link up everything under the ground, and move nutrients around. 00:40:05.960 --> 00:40:09.020 If there's a lot of nitrogen in one place in the soil, 00:40:09.020 --> 00:40:12.760 and a lack of nitrogen in the other, the fungi will move it for you. 00:40:12.760 --> 00:40:15.040 -Everything is here for a reason, isn't it? 00:40:15.040 --> 00:40:18.750 -Everything's here for a reason... often multiple reasons. 00:40:18.750 --> 00:40:21.200 So, behind us, the mint here-- 00:40:21.200 --> 00:40:24.140 this is horse mint, which is one of the native British mints-- 00:40:24.140 --> 00:40:28.360 The main use for this mint is actually to attract beneficial insects. 00:40:28.360 --> 00:40:31.230 It's fantastic at attracting hoverflies, 00:40:31.230 --> 00:40:34.470 which of course eat aphids, amongst other things. 00:40:34.470 --> 00:40:37.710 So, by having plants that attract beneficial insects, 00:40:37.710 --> 00:40:41.270 I don't get any pest problems. -So no pesticides? 00:40:41.270 --> 00:40:43.770 -That's right. -Fantastic. 00:40:44.510 --> 00:40:49.910 Martin has over 550 species of plant in his forest garden. 00:40:49.910 --> 00:40:55.500 Surely a growing system this complex must require endless attention and work. 00:40:55.500 --> 00:40:59.760 Over a whole year, it probably averages out about a day a week. 00:40:59.760 --> 00:41:02.680 -Right. -A lot of that is harvesting. 00:41:02.680 --> 00:41:06.210 -Right. -In terms of maintenance... 00:41:06.210 --> 00:41:10.400 well, say ten days a year. -That's ridiculous. 00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:14.040 Compared to running a farm, that's virtually nothing. 00:41:14.040 --> 00:41:16.720 But how much food does it produce? 00:41:16.720 --> 00:41:19.490 -If you design it for maximum yield, it can be very high. 00:41:19.490 --> 00:41:22.270 This forest garden isn't designed for maximum yield 00:41:22.270 --> 00:41:24.530 'cause I'm experimenting a lot, 00:41:24.530 --> 00:41:27.970 and I have a lot of unusual crops I'm trying, and so on. 00:41:27.970 --> 00:41:30.800 In terms of one designed for maximum yield, 00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:33.710 you would be able to feed probably ten people an acre 00:41:33.710 --> 00:41:36.950 on a maximum yield forest garden. -Really? Okay. 00:41:36.950 --> 00:41:39.880 That's roughly double the amount of people 00:41:39.880 --> 00:41:43.080 that we can currently feed from an average acre 00:41:43.080 --> 00:41:46.020 of conventional arable farmland. 00:41:46.020 --> 00:41:50.530 It is an amazing low energy, low maintenance system, 00:41:50.530 --> 00:41:54.440 but what you can't grow in a forest garden are cereal crops. 00:41:54.440 --> 00:41:59.040 And we are rather addicted to our high-carb diets. 00:41:59.040 --> 00:42:03.420 But as oil gets more expensive and farming begins to change, 00:42:03.420 --> 00:42:08.620 it will become necessary for us to broaden our diets and embrace new foods. 00:42:08.620 --> 00:42:11.250 Down the road from his forest garden, 00:42:11.250 --> 00:42:14.080 Martin has created a four-acre nut orchard. 00:42:14.080 --> 00:42:17.440 -It would help, enormously, 00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:21.570 if we could move more towards nuts, and less towards cereals, 00:42:21.570 --> 00:42:25.300 because they are much more sustainable, because they grow on trees. 00:42:25.300 --> 00:42:28.520 In other parts of Europe, France and Italy, there's a big tradition 00:42:28.520 --> 00:42:31.330 of growing hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts, walnuts. 00:42:31.330 --> 00:42:33.920 An orchard crop like a sweet chestnut, 00:42:33.920 --> 00:42:38.270 it takes far less energy and maintenance to grow than a field of wheat. 00:42:39.250 --> 00:42:41.770 -Less energy and maintenance maybe, 00:42:41.770 --> 00:42:45.760 but can the yield from nuts really compare with a cereal crop? 00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:50.280 -You're talking sweet chestnuts, two tons an acre or something like that, 00:42:50.280 --> 00:42:53.480 which is pretty much what you get growing wheat organically. 00:42:53.480 --> 00:42:58.640 And the composition of chestnut is almost identical, actually, to that of rice. 00:42:58.640 --> 00:43:02.780 And it's very similar to the other grains in terms of calorific value. 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:07.840 -Even at this experimental stage, Martin's nut orchard 00:43:07.840 --> 00:43:12.790 and his forest garden have a huge output for such a tiny acreage. 00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:19.240 Back in Wales, at the Dixons' equally small plot, 00:43:19.240 --> 00:43:22.500 there is a similar story of productivity. 00:43:22.500 --> 00:43:25.520 -The whole site is seven acres, 00:43:25.520 --> 00:43:31.920 which now, after 22 years of the natural regeneration and the stuff we've done, 00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:35.020 it's too much for one family to harvest. 00:43:35.020 --> 00:43:38.760 So, you know, really, the smaller is better. 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.670 To me, this is the big difference between farming and gardening. 00:43:44.670 --> 00:43:48.040 So I'm not a farmer, I would consider myself a gardener. 00:43:48.040 --> 00:43:52.520 -Are you trying to say gardeners are the way forward, rather then farmers? 00:43:52.520 --> 00:43:56.250 -I wouldn't say that gardening is better than farming, 00:43:56.250 --> 00:43:58.760 gardening is different from farming. 00:43:58.760 --> 00:44:02.440 But I would suggest that, as far as I can tell from what I've done 00:44:02.440 --> 00:44:06.220 in my own practical experience, and from what I've tried to find out, 00:44:06.220 --> 00:44:09.990 that gardening with hand tools is more productive 00:44:09.990 --> 00:44:13.510 and more energy efficient than farming. 00:44:14.500 --> 00:44:18.970 -It's the attention to detail that a gardener can give to a small plot 00:44:18.970 --> 00:44:21.720 that makes it so productive. 00:44:21.720 --> 00:44:26.750 A veg garden with an experienced gardener can produce up to five times more food 00:44:26.750 --> 00:44:30.010 per square meter than a large farm. 00:44:30.750 --> 00:44:34.200 Supermarkets reliant on transportation, 00:44:34.200 --> 00:44:37.270 and the industrial scale farms that supply them, 00:44:37.270 --> 00:44:40.740 are unlikely to survive as oil declines. 00:44:40.740 --> 00:44:44.200 But a host of veg plots, allotments, and smallholdings 00:44:44.200 --> 00:44:49.550 could easily make up for their loss. But only if we have a lot more growers. 00:44:49.550 --> 00:44:52.590 -The dominant demographic trend of the 21st century, 00:44:52.590 --> 00:44:55.180 I think, is going to be re-ruralisation. 00:44:55.180 --> 00:44:57.990 That's not to say that the cities will all disappear, 00:44:57.990 --> 00:45:01.520 but the proportion of people involved directly in food production 00:45:01.520 --> 00:45:03.480 is going to increase. 00:45:03.480 --> 00:45:06.460 Think back to the Second World War, for example, 00:45:06.460 --> 00:45:10.740 there was the Victory Garden movement, where everyone was growing a garden plot 00:45:10.740 --> 00:45:14.140 and something like 40% of fruit and vegetables were being produced 00:45:14.140 --> 00:45:18.840 from front yards and back yards and vacant lots, and so on. 00:45:18.840 --> 00:45:22.450 That's a model to imagine and look back to. 00:45:22.450 --> 00:45:26.520 -But we also will need a lot more full-time farmers, 00:45:26.520 --> 00:45:30.520 otherwise, what are we going to be eating? 00:45:31.190 --> 00:45:34.470 Feeding ourselves as oil goes into decline 00:45:34.470 --> 00:45:38.260 is clearly going to require a national effort. 00:45:38.260 --> 00:45:43.270 And, in an ideal world, a bit of government leadership. 00:45:43.270 --> 00:45:49.330 But for my part, weaning this farm off fossil fuel is all I can do. 00:45:49.330 --> 00:45:53.320 And the pioneers I've met recently are a big inspiration. 00:45:53.320 --> 00:45:56.650 Now I've learned to observe the land, and work with it, 00:45:56.650 --> 00:45:59.460 rather than fight against it. 00:45:59.460 --> 00:46:02.850 I'm fascinated to find out what species of grass we have, 00:46:02.850 --> 00:46:06.200 and how I can improve our pastures. 00:46:06.200 --> 00:46:10.730 And how we can make the most out of our trees to benefit our cattle. 00:46:11.310 --> 00:46:15.700 But also, I think we need to produce more than just livestock. 00:46:15.700 --> 00:46:20.990 Who knows? In a few years from now, we might even have a forest garden here. 00:46:20.990 --> 00:46:25.360 Although I'm not quite sure what Dad would make of that. 00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:28.250 But for any of these ideas to work, 00:46:28.250 --> 00:46:32.010 it's essential to continue preserving the farm's wildlife, 00:46:32.010 --> 00:46:36.530 and work even harder to encourage greater biodiversity. 00:46:37.810 --> 00:46:42.440 Biodiversity is far more important to us than I ever gave it credit for. 00:46:42.440 --> 00:46:45.700 I just always thought it was pretty, and it was, you know, 00:46:45.700 --> 00:46:47.980 species we lived with. 00:46:47.980 --> 00:46:50.930 Now I've learned the big lesson that 00:46:50.930 --> 00:46:56.540 it keeps us going, it gives us food, it protects our food, 00:46:57.180 --> 00:47:00.790 and it's crucial that we keep it. 00:47:01.310 --> 00:47:06.900 I'm so grateful for what my uncle and my dad have done on this farm, 00:47:06.900 --> 00:47:09.810 because they've kept it all. 00:47:10.400 --> 00:47:14.030 But there is still so much work to be done here. 00:47:14.700 --> 00:47:18.960 And what drives me to make our farm a farm of the future 00:47:18.960 --> 00:47:23.510 is the knowledge that I have no other choice but to try. 00:47:24.720 --> 00:47:27.230 Of all the people I met, 00:47:27.230 --> 00:47:30.500 I think Dr. Colin Campbell puts it best. 00:47:31.240 --> 00:47:34.600 -What we can say now without any shadow of doubt, 00:47:34.600 --> 00:47:39.850 is that petroleum man is just about extinct by the end of this century. 00:47:39.850 --> 00:47:45.020 That poses the thorny, difficult question, will 'Homo sapiens' be as wise 00:47:45.020 --> 00:47:49.220 as his name implies, and figure out a way to live without oil, 00:47:49.220 --> 00:47:53.270 which is the bloodstream of virtually everything? 00:47:54.280 --> 00:47:58.620 And it seems to me, the sooner we begin that transition 00:47:58.620 --> 00:48:04.280 to a new, low-energy future, the easier the task will be. 00:48:06.231 --> 00:48:10.231 [♪♪♪]