Permaculture garden battles against industrial agriculture

One November afternoon, a white pick-up truck pulled along the side of the grass field in front of Franklin Dining Common. Three people, males, got out and grabbed rakes out of the bed of the truck. Using these rakes, they pulled down a six-foot high pile of mulch off. The crisp fall sun shining upon them, they began to spread the mulch across the space. But these weren’t UMass agriculture workers. These were students, and they were building a garden.


The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Permaculture Garden Planning Committee, who are currently building their own permaculture garden on campus, developed this idea and was eventually funded to begin the project. Through their work, they are hoping the garden will serve as a tool to promote sustainability and help educate students about the enemy it fight against, industrial agriculture.

Nick Daly of the Planning Committee said that the garden serves multiple purposes


“It’s a dual edged sword. We’re aiming to grow food, which will all be supplied to Franklin Dining Common, but it’s also an educational tool to teach students about sustainability,” he said.


The garden was a project originally developed by some students in Professor John Gerber’s Sustainable Living class. The Planning Committee and about 150 volunteers have been working on the garden since the beginning of the school year. Permaculture, a sustainable garden system that minimizes waste and is self sufficient, is steadily gaining popularity amidst threats of energy use and climate change.

The Planning Committee, by luck, was able to acquire the space in front of Franklin Dining Common and turn it into the garden. It was previously destined to become a parking lot to accommodate the construction in the Central area, but a last-minute decision cancelled that idea.

The garden, which has been in development for a couple of
months, will be ready for planting in late spring.

Volunteers applied newspapers and cardboard (with soy-based inks to prevent chemical damage) and applied a layer of mulch to help provide a foundation and nutrients. Most of the preliminary steps are finished, and it will be planted by late spring of 2011


Fully-funded by UMass Auxiliary Services, the garden is a way for students to take initiative and show the UMass community how sustainable living is better for the environment, according to Rachel Dutton of the Planning Committee.


“Industrial agriculture, which is taking over, increases need for fossil fuels, ground water and oil and increases our chemical use,” she said.

John Gerber, whose students created the initial draft for the garden about two years ago, said that industrial agriculture is destroying to environment, and that sustainable living, as showing with the garden, can help to restore it.

“Industrial agriculture produces food relatively cheaply and quickly at great expense to human health and rural communities. We can do better than that,” he said.

Dutton expanded that although industrial agriculture mass-produces crops, it’s ironically counter-intuitive, compared to creating permaculture gardens.


“It does appear as if it is more productive with a vast quantity of crops, but it is an inefficient use of space, she said.

“By using only one type of crop, the soil is depleted of nutrients, where as in a permaculture garden, multiple crops with a symbiotic nature are planted, actually acting as a remedy to the soil,” she added.

Gerber added there will be serious consequences, primarily on climate change and food if do not watch where food comes from or take any affirmative action.

           
“Individuals waking up to the reality of the crisis we’re in will be in so much pain and discomfort that there will be no choice but to be serious about this,” he said.


Daniel Cooley a microbiologist professor at UMass said sustainable agriculture is a positive thing, but isn’t sure if people will be willing to put in extra time and money to support it.


“As long as the economy is reasonably healthy, consumers will pay the price, but if it tanks, they probably won't,” he said.


Cooley also said that in order for a sustainable agriculture garden to be beneficial, it needs to be close to its intended market and be contained enough to prevent biomass, which helps preserve the garden, from leaking.


“To be sustainable, an agroecosystem needs to be as self-contained as possible, with minimal inputs and leakage,” he said.


Daly said that this project is definitely not going to be the last of what the committee has planned.


“Part of our mission statement is to complete this project and two other similar projects in the campus and in the community,” he said.

As well as the additional projects, a documentary about the process of creating the garden is in works and will be released on youtube at episodic intervals.


The committee is unsure of what exactly will be planted in the garden, but are ready nonetheless


“It’s great and I’m very excited,” said Dutton. “As soon as I heard about permaculture, I saw this as a solution to the problems caused by industrial agriculture.”