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Wes Jackson and Aldo Leopold (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 13:43:24 CST
From: Frank Kutka <fkutka@sage.nrri.umn.edu>
To: SUSTAG@beta.tricity.wsu.edu
Subject: Wes Jackson and Aldo Leopold
My true heroes in sustainable/sensible ways of living on this land are Wes
Jackson and Aldo Leopold. I have just found my materials concerning Wes,
who started the Land Institute in Salina, KS. Here are quotes out of a
paper he wrote with Jon Piper:
"Our subject here is 'the problem of agriculture', not the 'problems in
agriculture'. We proceed with the assumption that problems in agriculture
are primarily derivatives of the problem of agriculture." (Wes sees the
raising of annuals with high energy inputs and soil losses as part of the
problem of agriculture, if I remember correctly)
"Those who settled the North American continent brought with them visions
of a European-style agriculture in which their familiar crops and livestock
could thrive and satisfy markets in the homeland. Tragically, as the New
World ecosystems were dismantled, stabilizing processes were decoupled, and
species were extirpated before their roles in the ecosystem could be
understood sufficiently. In short, as Wendell Berry has said, 'We have
never known what we were doing because we have never known what we were
undoing.' The few relicts of pre-Columbian vegetation that remain must
serve as our best standards by which any agriculture touted as sustainable
is to be judged."
"There are problems, of course. Nature is ill-defined and natural
ecosystems are dynamic. But the patterns and processes discernible in
natural ecosystems still remain the most appropriate standard available to
sustainable agriculture."
Wes and the others at the Land Institute are currently beginning a region
wide test of a perennial grains community (several cool and warm season
grasses, illinois bundleflower, maximillian sunflower, et al.) which they
hope will provide a sustainable and economical source of food. This
community is based on the prairie dominants, rather than the ephemeral weed
communities of rivers, which our current agriculture is mostly dependent on.
Aldo Leopold wrote an essay called "The Land Ethic" back in the thirties
some time. (This shows how out of date all of our sustainable discussions
are: it is time to finally catch up!) He extended the ethics of the Hebrew
Laws (love your community) and the Golden Rule (love your neighbor and
enemy) to include finally the land community as a whole (love the land
of which you are a part). Many times over he lambasted the uselessness of
the county water and soil boards which wrote easy rules that all could
comply with, but which did little to improve the situation. He predicted
that the SCS and others would accomplish little because the land grant
schools were so busy making trouble in the name of progress, and because
you could skin your land and still be considered in good standing in the
community.
Since no one has trumpeted these two as THE leaders in sustainable
agriculture I thought I had better. Both looked at the whole picture and
came up with useful and instructive ideas. And both could see the
silliness that has given us the current economic and agronomic
thinking (such as "our current system damages the environment and
uses irreplaceable energy sources, but it is the only way to keep
the growing world population fed" How long can that go on?) Leopold's
children are still living and some work still goes on at the old homestead,
in fact the sustainable ag center at Iowa State is named the Leopold
Center. Wes Jackson is happily still with us and his group is working hard
to create a new and better agriculture outside the current set of mental
limitations. Here are some references for both.
Jackson, Wes. 1985. New Roots for Agriculture. University of Nebraska
Press, Lincoln Nebraska.
Jackson, Wes, and Jon Piper. 1989. The necessary marriage between ecology
and agriculture. Ecology 70(6): 1591-1593.
Leopold, Aldo. 1951? A Sand County Almanac, with essays from Round
River. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison Wisconsin.
Frank J. Kutka, part-time Junior Scientist and farmer
(218) 720-4262 fkutka@sage.nrri.umn.edu
University of Minnesota
Natural Resources Research Institue
5013 Miller Trunk Highway
Duluth MN 55811
USA