I'll be using this page to show you what I am working on, which is to try out some of the ideas on Emergency permaculture. The eventual goal is to:
- Learn what is needed to help people take the shortest possible route to food self-sufficiency in an emergency situation;
- Define what should be at minimum in a (low-tech) "starter-kit".
Because 'what to grow' and 'how to grow it' will be area specific, I will start to answer these questions for the area that I live in: USDA hardiness zone 6, grass/woodland, clay soil.
This is me > https://twitter.com/Lavie_Flori I am currently building a self-sufficient(-ish) small farm in Central France with my partner.
Why[edit | edit source]
Growing your own food is for many people a relaxing hobby. It is often done with little time pressure, at least some funds to buy necessary equipment and lots of trial & error. But there are situations where being able to grow food fast is necessary for survival. For example in the case of people living in temporary settlements due to war, weather events or changing climate. The reality is that displaced people often live under challenging conditions for long periods of time before they can safely return home, during which they are dependent on outside help for survival and suffer shortages.
There is a lot of information available on food growing in general, but so far there does not seem to be a "how to" for a "your life depends on it"-situation where there is severe time-pressure, no funds and limited outside help. I think we owe it to people in crisis situations to have a plan ready. This could be you one day.
How[edit | edit source]
I am pretty convinced that all the necessary information is 'out there' and that it just needs to be found, trialed and worked out in a way that we can pluck if off the shelve and start doing it. To get there I'll be gathering information and running experiments in my own garden. Of course this is no full-solution. It won't cover the distribution side for example. Let alone the many other challenges that displaced people face. But it's a start - a piece of the larger puzzle.
I'll use this page to show what I am working on and what I have found so far. Feel free to add, comment, shoot holes in whatever I put up here.
Permaculture?[edit | edit source]
Permaculture is a design system that helps to create a sustainable way of living by making an ecologically harmonious, abundant system. Permaculture is not necessarily a fast system (this is also mentioned on the Emergency permaculture page), so I am not fully convinced we can get there with just permaculture. I will therefore be using knowledge from other systems as well.
Scenario[edit | edit source]
I am working from the following scenario:
- The people we're trying to help know nothing about food growing;
- They are provided a low-tech starter kit and no other outside help. It should be possible to air-drop the kit;
- They are given a piece of open grassland to grow;
- They are in USDA hardiness zone 6 on clay soil;
- It is unknown how long they will be there so we need not only fast but also sustainable. They might be there for a looong time.
For the moment it does not really matter how the people got there. I'm only covering the "temporary" emergency situation, irrespective of what was before and what will come after. When looking at SCIM, I am only covering the "how not to die of hunger and thirst part".
Questions I have identified so far[edit | edit source]
The main question is: what should be at minimum in a low-tech starter kit and how much land do we need to make available per person for growing a minimum viable diet?
| Sub-questions | Some first thoughts | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What are scenario's for a minimum-viable diet (MVD)? | So basically: what seeds should be in a starter kit for people not to starve? | Researching |
| 2 | What is the shortest possible time to become food self-sufficient? | Will definitely depend on the season that people arrive in. | |
| 3 | What is the minimum amount of land needed to feed 1 person on an MVD, what about 100? | Trying to get to a rule of thumb based on the MVD. There is a lot of contradictory information out there. | Researching + setting up trial |
| 4 | What are the first steps to take? | This will depend on the month that people arrive in. This will cover: soil prepping, laying out growing site, etc. What can we learn from different food growing systems, like permaculture? | |
| 5 | What is needed to grow year round? | For example: biogas heated growing space, humanure hotbeds (is that even a thing?), ... | |
| 6 | What is needed to bridge the "hungry gap"? | This is the period when nothing grows. This will cover what's needed for storing/conserving food. | |
| 7 | How do we get enough water for growing and drinking? | What low-tech solutions are available for catching, storing, filtering water? (Natural, graphene, ...) | |
| 8 | Trade-offs between fast versus sustainable - how to find a balance? | What can we learn from different food growing systems, like permaculture? |
What I am currently working on[edit | edit source]
1. Minimum-viable diet[edit | edit source]
I am currently researching a minimum-viable diet, because this will largely determine the rest.
- Calories
- Proteins
- Vitamins
- What can be foraged (& hunted?)
- What should be grown (& raised?)
4. First steps to take[edit | edit source]
I am currently experimenting with prepping the growing area. The main question is: what methods are there to quickly turn unused grassland on clay in fertile growing space, using only basic tools and stuff that is naturally present in my surroundings?
My normal method is: lay cardboard and tarp for a couple of months, put 10-15cm compost on top and start growing. But in the situation we are simulating here, there is no time and no compost.
I will use a piece of grassland to experiment with different methods. It contains very persistent, perennial, rhizomatous grass. I'll be making several 1m x 1m beds. In each bed I'll grow exactly the same. Depending on the season it will be a root veg, a leafy veg and a fruiting veg. I'm going to try the following:
- Ruth Stout method (no digging): gather lots of long grass, dump it on the bed area. Sow directly in the mulch layer.
- Ruth Stout method + digging: dig a bed by taking out the grass and putting it back upside down. Put thick layer of cut grass on top and sow directly in there.
- Forest floor mulch + digging: I'll do the same as [2], but in stead of only putting a layer of cut grass on top, I'll be enrich the clay with mulch from adjacent woodland.
- 'Conventional farming' + mulch: same as [2] + but I'll also add a compact/ easily transportable synthetic fertilizer.
- Tbd. [Maybe Hugelkultur, need to research further]