A Summative Task: Engineering a Sustainable Food Production System
A Sustainable Landscape
In this summative task you will be designing a farming landscape that attempts to address the environmental problems associated with the technologies of the green revolution. The design should reflect your knowledge biogeochemical cycles by applying ecological design principles that maximize nutrient cycling and water cycling. You should produce a colorful annotated (labeled) map of an farm designed to feed 5 families of 5 people for a year. It takes, on average, 2 acres to feed someone on a typical American diet. A cow needs 1 acre/year to live when grazing.
Your landscape should the specific problems associated with the externalities of the Green Revolution technologies including by not limited to:
1. Overuse of water due to lack of watering efficiency and high rates of evaporation
2. Cultural eutrophication and water pollution due to fertilizer runoff
3. Groundwater contaminated and creation of "superweeds" due to use/overuse of herbicides
4. Harm to wildlife and the pesticide treadmill due to use/overuse of pesticides (especially persistent/broad range products)
5. Soil nutrient depletion resulting from monoculture
6. Desertification resulting from the runoff of top soil
7. Loss of biodiversity due to monoculture practices and habitat destruction
Other Considerations and Requirements
1. Your farm should have some combination of crops and livestock. The combinations of livestock and or the combinations of crops should compliment each other.
2. You may pick the location of your farm but you should have some indication of how your management of the farm will change throughout the different seasons and the crops should match the climate you have chosen.
3. If done well your farm will have no throughputs.
4. You will need to draw out and identify specific agricultural practices you are using and why you are using them.
5. An appropriate amount of land should be allocated to livestock. This amount of land will depend on your choice of livestock.
6. You may have buildings,even homes on your farm should you choose.
7. You may research and should include standard, proven sustainable agriculture practices
8. You also need at least 2 original ideas/practices. I will discuss later how to call these out
9. Use new technologies and old ones!
10. You must have at least one surface water feature.
Have fun with this. Create your dream landscape that can be used as a model for future developments!
Can I Work on It with Someone?: If you dare. If done in pairs the project the end product will be assessed with a higher bar of quality.
Helpful Resources:
UC Davis Sustainable Agriculture
Many, many, more….search sustainable agriculture or permaculture….that’s just for starters.
OVER FOR EXAMPLE