Forest Farms: Healthy food for a healthy future

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

Forest Farms Stopping the madness of climate change

Welcome to the Forest Farm report Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future. Here you will learn about the form and principles of forest farming, including the different elements of forest farms and how the farm functions sustainably. And most importantly how forest farms can help prevent climate change.

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

Contents
An overview of todays problems ............................................................................................................. 4 Global warming..................................................................................................................................... 4 Climate change ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Deforestation ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Factory Farming: ................................................................................................................................... 8 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 9 The Honeybee ......................................................................................................................................11 The solutions offered by forest farming ...................................................................................................11 How ..................................................................................................................................................... 12 Stopping global warming .................................................................................................................... 15 The simple answer: ............................................................................................................................. 17 Comparisons........................................................................................................................................ 18 So when you walk into the forest farm, what will you see? ................................................................... 19 Polycultures ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Successional Patterns .......................................................................................................................... 23 Water and Terrain ................................................................................................................................ 23 Protection of Catchment Areas. ....................................................................................................... 24 Keyline ................................................................................................................................................ 25 Chinampas ........................................................................................................................................... 25 Terracing: ............................................................................................................................................ 26 Time Lag ............................................................................................................................................. 27 The Tree Crops Farming System ............................................................................................................ 28 Development ....................................................................................................................................... 28

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

Food from the Forest Farms ................................................................................................................ 29 Food Guilds ......................................................................................................................................... 30 Types of Trees: .................................................................................................................................... 31 Wildlife ............................................................................................................................................... 32 Animals ............................................................................................................................................... 33 Animal housing ............................................................................................................................... 35 Movement of Animals ..................................................................................................................... 36 Chickens .......................................................................................................................................... 36 Pigs .................................................................................................................................................. 37 Turkeys ............................................................................................................................................ 38 Other animals .................................................................................................................................. 39 Rotation ........................................................................................................................................... 40 Aquaculture ..................................................................................................................................... 41 Feedback Cycles ..................................................................................................................................... 41 Compost and Waste: ............................................................................................................................ 42 Worm Composting .............................................................................................................................. 42

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

An overview of todays problems Global warming

Global warming is the single greatest threat humanity has ever faced. It has the potential to wipe us from the face of the earth. This is no longer contested by the worlds leading scientists, they agree global warming is real and the effects will be worse than expected. If the Venus Syndrome occurs all life on the earth will become extinct. (Venus Syndrome is a runaway heating of the earth caused by the melting of the polar caps and release of methane into the atmosphere.) The storms of the future have arrived and they soon tear us from the face of the earth.

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

To learn more check out 350.org a group fighting climate change. Does this have to happen. No. We know of ways to stop it. Reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use, stop using coal to generate electricity and stop factory farming. There are solutions to all of these that offer an improvement in our standard of living. Forest farming is one of these solutions. Forest farming can stop factory farming. A unique form of farming it has real potential to reduce CO2 and methane emissions while growing healthy food. We simply cant have healthy food if we have an unhealthy environment to grow it in. To have healthy food we need healthy future. And to have a healthy future we need healthy food. If we wish to survive the threat of climate change we have to create a tree based agriculture. Since the 1920s we have known the potential of tree crops but we have not acted, why? The evidence is there. The proof is there. Take Russell J. Smiths book Treecrops: A permanent agriculture, this provides overwhelming proof about the potential of tree crops. The way to do is clear and concise. It is the will to act that is the problem. We must stop this climate madness now. Not tomorrow for that will be too late. It must be today. Most will not wake up to global warming until it is too late to do anything. If we dont solve this madness nothing else matters. The climate scientists say we have only a couple of years before irreversible climate change sets in. Forest farming is tool that can give us time. Why because it can sequester enough carbon to make a difference while heavily reducing the use of fossil fuels needed to grow food. It can done quickly and on scale that would make a difference.

Global warming will have huge impact on how we grow food. Current methods of growing food will just not be able to cope with extremes of weather that will occur.

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

Food prices will sky rocket with mass starvation a real threat. Even if you can grow food it will have less nutritional value. Crops like corn lose a large amount of their nutritional value from being exposed to excessive heat for too long while they are growing. The days of single crop moncultures are over. They have failed. They are so vulnerable to climate change that even desperate attempts to use GMO's will fail. Monocultures just do not have robustness to handle the wide range of climatic conditions that we will face. Moving food production indoors won't help either there's just not enough space. And it will be just too costly to produce enough food while relying on huge amounts of fossil fuel which caused the problem in the first place.

Climate change Within a generation climate change could destroy many ecosystems and economies around the world. Scientists have revealed that with the current levels of greenhouse gas emissions a catastrophic transformation of the world's climate could occur as soon as 2047. This could be easily be within a decade in the tropics. This will result in catastrophic changes in both the temperature and rainfall of the tropics. Significant amounts of the world's food supplies could be devastated with the tropics becoming much hotter and drier. Kingston in Jamaica will permanently off the charts hot as one of the first cities affected, with the whole world being affected by 2047. The last city to have its coldest day hotter than its hottest day now will be Anchorage in 2071.

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

The changes will lead to the extinction of many species. "Within my generation, whatever climate we are used to will be a thing of the past." said leading climate researcher Dr Camilo Mora, from the University of Hawaii.

Forest farms healthy food for a healthy future

Deforestation For thousands of years people have been taking trees from the earth to meet demands for food and consumer products a process known as deforestation. Leaving nothing behind but a baron wasteland, deforestation causes numerous environmental impacts. From short-term soil erosion to long-term impacts of climate change and rising sea levels, deforestation is an issue that needs to be addressed. The solution? Bring back the trees!

Its a fact that a single tree can absorb approximately 48 pounds of oxygen each year while producing about 260 pounds of oxygen. This is enough to support two people over the course of one year. The absorption of carbon dioxide is also important for reducing fossil fuel emissions that contribute to climate change and global warming. By using farming practices to preserve maximum tree cover, we can develop a sustainable approach that tackles these problems head on.

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Factory Farming: Factory farming is a mess. It's killing you and our world.

Factory farming developed in the 1930's with the invention of the battery cage. Animals were confined to cages so as not to waste food by moving about. Nobody cared for the consequences, profit became the only concern. Feed conversion was the name of the game and profit the objective. Today, millions of acres supply these factory farms. Large grain fields are used to support the running of these farms and to feed the animals while the animals remain trapped in cages. Some of the fields are so big that tractors can take days to cross them. As a monoculture cannot tolerate other life forms, giant spray rigs are used to kill all other plant and animal life in the way. The most common monoculture crops are corn, wheat and barley but legumes such as soya and other beans are also be grown. Most vegetable today are grow as single crops on huge acreages with large chemical support.

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Note A monoculture is the cultivation of a single crop over a wide area for many years.

Resources Our natural resources are becoming exhausted to feed the factory farm. Fish trawled from the seas to provide fish meal to add to feed stocks for the livestock. Palm oil plantations are grown over huge acreage - stripping the last of the forest cultures from the earth. People lose their homes, farms, and income to feed the factory monsters. The earth has been stripped bare to meet the demands of this insane form of food production. The way monocultures are used today and their scale makes them unsustainable. They are stripping our planet of nutrients and its ability to regenerate itself. Large amounts of soil erosion and soil depletion has occurred. There has been a large loss of bio-diversity and damage to the overall ecosystem. More than 100,000 species go extinct each year.

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Many people have seized on the fact that agriculture accounts for about 30% of global warming. Animal production uses 70% of the land and resources used in agriculture. The common belief is stop farming animals. But will only cause more issues than it will solve. A better solution is to grow food forests for those animals on the land where we grow the crops to feed them in their cages. We really dont need that much good quality land to grow the food we need. It is much better as Russell J Smith suggested to convert the rest into rich tree crop based polycultures to feed our animals. This would create an enormous environmental buffer zone against the excesses of todays world. This would help solve so many problems that we face today. Global warming Deforestation Quality of food Water quality issues Animal welfare Loss of bio-diversity Soil erosion

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The Honeybee For 1 in every 3 mouthfuls you'll eat today, you can thank the honeybee. Honeybees which pollinate crops are dying off or disappearing thanks to a still-unsolved malady called colony collapse disorder. So what's killing the honeybees? Pesticides such as neonicotinoids. Pests like the Varroa mite are killing off colonies and spreading diseases. Monocultures provide very little pollen for foraging bees honeybees are literally starving to death. Even now you have to be careful about planting flowering plants for them as they may have been treated with systematic insecticides that will kill the bees.
Food Quality

The nutrition value of the food you eat today is far less than food that was available 50 years ago. Soils have been stripped of the full range of nutrients and micro nutrients that plants need to provide you with healthy food. If the nutrients do not exist in the soil they cant be taken by the plant. Therefore the foods you eat will not have the dense array of nutrients you need for good health. Furthermore as crops are exposed to hotter growing conditions they will lose more nutrient value, making the problem worse. Soon you may as well be eating cardboard.

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The solutions offered by forest farming

Food forests The solution to stop climate change and have healthy food is simple create multilayered food forests. Yes they will hit by the changing weather patterns but they will offer enough diversity so that something will survive and thrive. The wide range of plants will be able to provide the range of nutrients that we need. The forest will be self cooling enabling food to grown at lower temperature. Forest gardens in desert areas are substantially cooler than the surrounding desert. The one aspect of climate change that evades people is wind. There is a suggestion the wind speeds will increase dramatically. Already they are devastating trees on farmlands. But these are monocultures, trees of one or two species used as shelter belts or crops. They have the same canopy, same rooting system and often the same age. Once one goes the lot go. Storms are breaking new records of wind speed, wrecking havoc around the globe. The tropics will bear the brunt of these first but they will eventually affect the whole of the planet.

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A forest farm will have 100's if not 1000's of different trees, shrubs and plants. It will have a varied canopy and rooting structure. Sure some trees will be blown down but not all. But this is placed into the planning of the farm. The fallen trees are regarded as another crop. Either to harvest for timber or other products. They can also be seeded with mushroom spores and mushroom crops grown on the fallen branches. This will help sequester more carbon while providing healthy food as the soil food web is replenished. A wide of plants suitable to a range of conditions could be grown on the farm so that genetic material and seeds are available for immediately replanting if other species fail due to changing weather patterns.

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Flooding will be more prevalent and provisions made to handle these. Floods provide opportunity to catch water and store it for dry periods and of increasing importance fire fighting. Droughts will bring increased fire danger so plantings will have to be fire resistant. Provision for fighting fires has to be on site and ready to response immediately. Water harvesting must be major part of any future farming operation. Keyline has lead the way here for so long but so few have utilized it's ability to smooth out extremes in the weather. Rich deep layered polycultures will be the only way to grow food in the future. Diverse planting of a wide range of tree crops, perennials and annuals need to be planted. A wide range of animal, birds and insects also need to be included along with fungi.

Earth moving to form mounds, terraces and dam could be used to provide more sheltered areas and water management. Eventually buildings will have to move underground or be protected by earth embankments from excessive storm damage.

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Forest farming is unique in that a huge range of plants and animals are grown and raised together. No other method of farming has so much diversity, inherit in it's production system. It operates with supreme flexibility. It is able to handle a wide range of possible outcomes. It has the ability to rapidly change it's production goals to suit the prevailing conditions. With a wide range of plants from drought tolerate to water loving plants there will be plants that flourish no matter what the climatic conditions. The ability to replant quickly is required as part of the overall management of the property. With it focus on animals as part of the system means crops that are damaged can still be harvested and not lost. Forest farming is a unique method of farming. It is the most robust form of farming ever devised with the ability to turn the clock back on climate change. Lets take a step back in time to the early 20th century, when Europeans were carrying out sustainable practices for mountain farming in Corsica, a Mediterranean island and territorial collectivity of France. What stood out for me about the Corsican mountaineers was their use of chestnut trees instead of cornfields. J.Russell Smith wrote about this in his 1950s book Tree crops a Permanent Agriculture The difference, he said between the Corsican people and alternative farming practices, is that when the Corsican starts a crop, he does it by planting beautiful trees whose crops he and his children and his childrens children will later pick up from year to year. In other words, the trees stay put, and the soil is held in place.

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A corn-based system cannot be permanent. Eventually, after a few seasons of cultivation, the cornfield can no longer be used, and the farmer must find another field to ruin. Such farming practices leave the earth gutted, gullied and abandoned. This cannot be ignored. No system of farming has been so destructive of soil as that practiced by factory farming and the growing of corn to feed them.

Stopping global warming Forest farming offers a real and valid way to stop climate change. With tree crops as its main method of production it can sequester large amounts of carbon. However, few people are aware of the environmental and economic benefits forest farming can bring. The stigma goes back to the 1990s, when the term low input sustainable agriculture was coined to discourage people from looking at organic, or chemical-free farming.

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Because of this, people began thinking that the adoption of sustainable farming practices would mean going back to hoes, lower yields, hard labor, and lower farm income. In the midst of all of this a common argument prevailed: No agriculture is sustainable if it is not first and foremost a profitable agriculture. Practices commonly recommended by proponents of sustainability are inherently unprofitable. This viewpoint fails to account for the hidden costs of conventional farming. Current farming practices usually involve high production costs including those associated with groundwater contamination and soil erosion. Forest farming reduces these costs markedly. What is needed is a reshuffling of the former viewpoint. Forest farms subscribes to the view held by the Amercian Journal of Alternative Agriculture. Resource conservation, environmental protection, and health and safety are just as important as profitable production. In the long run, they are not conflicting goals. The future profitability and productivity of farming will depend significantly on efforts taken from now on to conserve resources and protect the environment.

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Sustainable practices need to be implemented sooner rather than later. Sustainable practices have the potentiality to be even more profitable than traditional methods, especially when the hefty production costs of the latter are considered. The common misconception that sustainable farming means lower inputs (and thus lower outputs) is a key concern, and something that needs to be addressed. After all, who says that sustainability has to be small? It needs to be large scale to combat the problems we face. The simple answer: By simply by letting the animals we farm in cages out of their cages and grow food forests for them. We can solve a large number of todays problems. Even global warming. While providing also providing exceptionally healthy food.

Forest farming provides an alternative to grain growing and is a much better use for the land where grain is grown to feed factory farms. The animals from the factory farm can simply forage on the foods grown in the forest farm. They can live contended lives under the canopy of great forests. So much more healthier for the animals, us and the environment.

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Because of the increased productivity of forest farms there is less need to maintain the entire farm under production. This allows room for the natural world and wildlife corridors throughout the farms, creating a sustainable and harmonious system. Using trees in forest farming as the main foundation of production stabilizes soils with their extensive root systems, unlike grain farming which exhausts and strips the soil of nutrients and life. The soil food web is destroyed by cultivation. The science of agroecology has revealed the benefits of polycultures, which are used in forest farms. Planting a variety of crops supports a wider range of beneficial insects, soil microorganisms, and other factors that add up to overall farm health.

Comparisons While monocultures may be associated with high productivity rates of a single crop, the consequences that come from this type of farming do not justify its use. When the amount of land used to grow the feed for the factory farm is compared with what a forest farm could grow on these same lands there is no comparison. The simple

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fact is, tree-based food production systems produce more per acre. This is offers huge potential for an ecologically sound food production. By creating forest farms with a large assembly of productive food bearing trees and plants we can overcome many of the problems caused by excess grain growing. Putting animals back into the forest and meadows will restore a degree of natural balance back to farming. This would heal a vast areas of the earths surface. The cost of food production has the potential to be much lower with better quality food offered. The outcome is sustainable food for a hungry world. Forest farming reduces it energy use by using one of the main energy harvester of the natural world, the tree as it's main producer. There are three main ways to use forest farming. 1. As forest gardens around the house, in the suburbs and around our cities. The earliest form of farming it has feed billions of people for centuries. Its various forms can be adapted to any environment. These massively reduce the fossil fuels used in growing food and organic waste disposal. 2. Large scale animal food forests to replace the factory farming of animals. 3. As frameworks around areas where grain and horticultural crops are grown.

With these methods the acreage of productive food forests that could be planted would be large enough to truly help offset global warming through a massive sequestering of carbon and lowering of methane emissions.

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So when you walk into the forest farm, what will you see? One of the first things you will notice as you enter the forest farm is that it is all around you. There are many levels; you will look up to the highest, stateliest trees that shelter the property. Smaller trees and shrubs will be planted throughout, alongside spaces for the animals to graze. The land will be terraced to fit with its natural contours. You will be able to follow the dams as they graduate from smaller on the higher terraces, down to the larger dams and catchment areas on the lower terraces.

Ultimately the forest farm is the most sustainable and efficient form of farming You will be struck by how integrated and natural polycultures are, which are ultimately the most sustainable and efficient form of farming. These are not the stripped fields of dairy or sheep farming where the land and animals are under strain to achieve maximum production. There are no vast tilled spaces devoted to one crop. The forest farm feeds itself mainly due to the beautiful range of trees on the property. Trees are the great nourisher of the farm. They hold the land together, provide plentiful fruit and nuts, and give shelter to the animals and crops on the lower levels. They will

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provide abundant nuts and berries for both human and animal consumption. Fish meal and other questionable stock feed will not be used or required. The animals are able to graze of their own free will. Small, mobile houses will be placed around the forest for the chickens. These will have special laying boxes and chicken tunnels will lead the birds to where they will forage. Different types of fencing will be used to contain them. You will see many different breeds of chickens with a focus of the farm being on egg production and humanely raising chickens for meat.

Other animals on the property are pigs, turkeys, and some cattle. The pigs, mainly Tamworth and Berkshires, are the cleaner-uppers of the system and will live in a family enriched sheds. Water One of the main features of the farm will be the hydrology of the property. A series of keyline dams throughout the property will deliver the water to catchment areas. All

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catchment areas will contain fish and be planted in natives. These areas will be as natural reserves to support sustainable forestry as the catchment areas fade into productive areas. There will be flat swamps with chinampas, then various filtration beds before the water is discharged into the natural riparian areas. Complex aquatic polycultures will exist within the waterways and chinampas. You will be confident in knowing that compost materials from the local area will have been sourced and used to remediate land that was disturbed during the development phrase. There will be waste to energy projects. With composting, biogas and hydrogen production. Electricity will be generated in a number of ways from hydro through to solar and if not used feed back into the grid. In short, you will be awed by the beauty, and natural intelligence of the farm. You will be confident that all food harvested from the farm has been the product of a truly sustainable and humane system. It will grow the healthiest food you can eat full of delicious nutrients assembled in the nature designed them. Forest farming is about growing high quality food in the most sustainable way possible. A variety of food-producing trees, shrubs and plants form the foundation of this.

Polycultures The forest farming is a series of integrated polycultures. Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space, in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems, and avoiding large stands of single crops, or monoculture. The basic polycultures are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Perennial plants trees and shrubs Annual plants Aquatic plants and fish Animals and poultry

Each of these polycultures will be integrated and incorporated within each other. Placement of plants and animals is determined by their suitability to the climate and type of land being used.

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Types of land and their associated polycultures include:

1. 2.

Slopes and catchment areas: trees and shrubs Flat areas: annuals and aquatics

Animals and poultry are suited to both of the above, apart from catchment and riparian areas.

Everyday Polycultures that you may be Familiar With The salad mixes and mesculins you eat are examples of everyday polycultures that are common to domestic vegetable gardens. Forest farming uses the same principles on a much larger scale. It is the opposite of monoculture where land is farmed exhaustively to produce one crop type.

Successional Patterns Successional patterns (the phenomenon or process by which an ecological community undergoes more or less orderly and predictable changes following disturbance or initial colonization of new habitat) will be used to convert waste land into rich productive forests full of food. These will be also used to maintain the productivity of the farm. This is done by using annual plants interplanted with perennials and trees to provide crops at the initial stages. As the perennials and trees grow they replace the annual plants.
Time Lag

Often the reason people do not plant trees or grow tree crops is the time it take before the tree bear nuts or fruits. With an evolving succession system from annual plants to perennial plant using animals. You can build rich assemblies of annual plants to either direct harvest or feed to the animals while the tree crops are growing. It doesnt have to be one or the other, You can grow tree crops, annual crops and animals together. Virtually from day one you can get a return if you use tree crops interplanted with fodder crops for egg production. Trees can also be planted amongst field and vegetables crops. Then fodder crops planted

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into them later or underneath the main crop. These fodder crops will be available for the animals along with the residues after harvesting the main crop.

Water and Terrain Water harvesting and control is of the highest importance in forest farming as it will allow for flood control in wet periods, and provide water storage in dry periods. Climatic variability will most likely increase as global warming increases. Therefore, preparation for extremes of weather has to be planned for and incorporated into the farming system. The major issues will be droughts, floods, storm damage and fire. For drought, control will be through water harvesting and types of plantings. Flooding is more difficult to deal with but placement of sensitive activities should be above the flooding level. A variety of plantings should mitigate storm damage. Water management will assist in preventing fire. Plantings that slow the spread of fire can be used also.

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Protection of Catchment Areas. All catchment areas will be planted in natives and used as natural reserves with some sustainable forestry developed as the catchment areas fade into productive areas.

Keyline Keyline is an Australian developed water harvesting method which are idea for the forest farm. Keyline is a technique for maximizing beneficial use of water resources of a piece of land. The Keyline refers to a specific topographic feature linked to water flow.

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Keyline dams could be constructed throughout the forest farm property with smaller, higher dams at the top graduating to larger ones as they progress downhill. As much water as possible should be caught on the farm and reused.

Chinampas Chinampas (a method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico) will be designed and utilized for the flat swampy areas of the forest farm. Various filtration beds should be used before the water is discharged into the natural riparian areas. Complex aquatic productions systems will be developed in the chinampas with fish and water plants grown.

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Terracing: Areas suitable for terracing in the forest farm can be identified and developed. Where the slopes permit, the terraces will be quite wide (up to 20m in width). These will be planted with annual crops such as grains and vegetables. Housing for the animals and poultry can be placed on the terraces consisting mainly of portable tunnel structures. The openness of the terrace will provide for greater light penetration into the system to allow better growth overall. Smaller bench terrace 3 or 1m can be placed on the slopes between the main terraces to grow the tree crops. These would be best with a back cut to capture rainwater.

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The Forest Farming System The Forest Farming System is a vast polyculture using J. Russell Smiths principles in Tree Crops: a Permanent Agriculture as its basic framework overlaid with a range of food assemblies. Smith proposed that to develop a permanent agriculture we have to look at tree crops.

Direct harvesting of produce can be used along with the raising of a large number of animals and poultry. The animals are also be able to self-harvest and directly return nutrients to the forest farm. The cycle of life continues. Fish and aquatic products suitable to be produced in the forest farm water systems, and as the trees mature, timber can be harvested on a sustainable basis. How to develop a forest farm To develop a forest farm large amounts of trees will need to be planted. This will be a large initial cost for the trees and other plants, as several hundred types of trees, shrubs and plants will be planted out over the property. These will range from oaks through to vegetables. Mulberries will be a major focus of the plantings as they are hardy, and

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relatively quick to produce fruit. The canopy should be opened up as much as possible for improved light penetration to enable better growth. Trees such as oaks, chestnuts, and walnuts can be pruned as peeler logs (specially selected softwood logs used to produce veneer) and encouraged to grow tall, allowing the growth of fruit trees and shrubs underneath.

There is considerable flexibility of planting design within the forest farming depending on location and climatic conditions. Trees can be planted on all sloping areas making the land productive and improving soil quality.

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Food from the Forest Farms

Food Guilds The food guilds will consist of 10 levels:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Tall Trees: Oaks and other large fruit and nut trees Smaller Trees: Fruit and nut trees Shrubs: Berries and nuts Herbaceous Plants: Vegetables and grains Ground Cover: Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries Climbers: Snow beans Water: Fish and floating plants Shore Edge: Water chestnuts Timber: Large native peeler logs and prunings Fungi: Mushrooms

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The diagram above is from forest gardens, a similar system of using trees to grow food. These are primarily designed to produce food for direct human consumption and are suited to more urban areas.

Types of Trees: Below is a list of the key trees that will be planted on the farm. Natives according for water management and sustainable forestry. Oaks of all varieties Walnuts Chestnuts Kiawe Carob Honey Locust Mulberry Persimmons Pecan Apples Pears A large range of fruit trees Hazelnuts

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And many more.

Wildlife Maintaining native wildlife is important for the forest farm. This allows for better biodiversity within the farming system. Monitoring will ensure that wildlife will not develop into pests, the reality being that farming can no longer exclude other life from its productive areas. This is required for the overall health of the planet. Increasing bio-diversity is a must. Next to reducing our use of fossil fuel it is the most important thing we must attend to. An increase in immune based diseases linked to lowering bio-diversity levels has been proven by a European study.

The sheer volume of extra food produced will allow for the incorporation of conservational and ethical values and wildlife within the farm.

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Animals Do you have to raise animals on a forest farm for meat? NO. There are many other ways to farm or involve them in a forest farm. Animals of all types are encouraged on forest farms. This can be viewed more as a partnership than farming the animals. In a backyard you maybe limited to just a few chickens, and perhaps a couple of ducks. Then of course there are the bees and butterflies. Fish can raised in various pond arrangements and a beetle bank is a must. Bird life should be encouraged along with native pollinators. On a larger scale as full a range of animals as possible should be raised. This holds with the bio-diversity and polycultural principals of forest farming. Instead of a monoculture of animals with large numbers of one type of animal it is far better to have smaller numbers of different animals. Even within an animal group different breeds should be raised. Stock management should follow the lines of operant conditioning. Animals can be trained to move and perform functions that you would like them to do by using positive reinforcement for doing so.

One example of this is with pigs. They can be taught to manure in areas where you can collect their manure much easier. This can then be converted by compost worms into a very high grade natural plant growth medium. Pig based worm castings are capable of converting your basic food crops into superfoods. As a catalyst they increase production and quality far in excess of what would be normally achieved. They would enhance the

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nutritional value of your food considerably. Fiber is an important crop that animals can provide. Sheep lead the way here with their wool being particularly valuable. Used as carpet, clothes or insulation it reduces the need for fossil fuels.

Reducing the need for fossil fuels is an important area that animals can help in a forest farm. They can reduce the need for mechanization by providing alternative cultivation and vegetation control methods. They can aid the nutrient feedback cycle by reconverting plant material into manure that feeds the soil. Less fertilizer would have to be applied. This will reduce the use of fossil fuels in mining, manufacturing and the transportation of the fertilizers. Less fuels will have to be used in applying the fertilizers. Pigeons can be used as phosphate harvesters on farms. The animals emissions especially co2 and methane can be caught and utilized in the forest farm if the density of the animals isn't too high. This will ensure the soil food web is functioning well. Don't overload it by keeping too many animals for too long in one area. Reduce the numbers and move them frequently into new areas for feeding.

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The animals emissions can be caught, stabilized and used for plant growth by as the cycle of life continues. With a greater range of animals and less numbers their health can be improved with less disease issues. Parasite cycles can be broken. So there are many ways to involve animals in a forest farm without using them for meat. Involving a broad range of animals amongst a broad range of plant can only enhance bio-diversity. This is something the planet desperately needs.

The animals farmed in a forest farm will be mainly forest animals. These are animals that have evolved and live naturally in forests for eons including pigs, chickens and turkeys. Forest farming is basically creating a food forest for the animals where they can self-forage and put nutrients directly back into the forest farm system. It is putting them back in their home. Due to the huge amount of food produced from the complex polycultures in comparison to other forms of farming we no longer have to contain animals because of feed conversion issues. This is what allows a fundamental change in how the animals can be raised. Simply by reducing the feed costs per animal we can let them out of their cages and allow them to forage for their food. With little or no feed costs there isn't same pressure to produce as much per animal as is usually required in traditional commercial farming allowing for much more familyoriented and humane systems to be developed.

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Animal housing

Good quality housing of modern design will be used for the animals. Most of this will be mobile, enabling movement of the animals around the farm. Tunnel houses can be used here to provide shelter for the animals. Emergency shelter areas from storms will also have to be provided for the animals.

Movement of Animals Free movement of the birds and other animals will be catered for according to their natural range. Being able to move is such a fundamental need and right of all animal life. This will be a priority on the property. Animals with a nervous system must be able to move about, it is a natural expression of life. They must have the freedom to move around to the degree that they would in their natural environment. This is non negotiable in a forest farm. This is the greatest freedom of all.

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Chickens

Small mobile housing units of up to 100 birds will be used for the chickens. These houses, developed by ethnologist A. Stolba, would contain special laying boxes. Chicken tunnels lead the birds to where they forage, and they will be rotated around the farm. Different types of fencing are used to contain them. Wire netting can be used for the chickens and deer, and electric fencing for pigs and cattle. Mixed breeds of chickens are best used; especially the light Sussex chickens as developing strains of good producing dual purpose birds will be a priority. More humane methods of managing the birds are a must with birds kept as long as possible and the rooster chicks kept and grown out on the property. The young roosters can be used as chicken tractors. Egg production will be a large focus of the farm. All the natural needs of the chickens will be met, such as dust baths, while maintaining a secure and safe environment for them.

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Pigs

Old pig breeds such as Tamworth and Berkshire are best used. Family-enriched shedding is a perfect method of housing and raising the pigs. Raised in family groups all their social and behavioural needs of the pigs will be meet . This is based on the work of A. Stobla. Pigs can maintain the overall health of the forest farm systems and substantially reduce pest issues. They play a crucial role in the reconversion of land back to forest, especially through their foraging. Whole natural succession patterns have evolved around pigs, especially their association with raspberries and blackberries. Raspberries are well known to improve the health of pigs in many ways. Pigs do not need to be only farmed for meat on a forest farm. They are incredibly value as energy and nutrient harvesters. They can produce one of the most productive growing medium ever tested while they

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also offer news ways to produce non polluting energy. Turkeys

Turkeys can also be raised on the forest farm. Care of how they interact with the chickens will have to be taken to reduce disease spread. Turkeys provide us with the highest quality meat that we can eat. This will be further improved by providing the birds with a very diverse diet.

Other animals Some cattle will be farmed in the forest, along with a limited number of sheep, deer and goats.

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Rotation A complex rotation of the animals and poultry occurs around the property. A mixture of temporary and permanent fencing will contain and rotate the animals and poultry as they are moved around the farm. An example of this rotation is: When an area is ready for harvesting if there is suitable produce for direct sale it should be picked first. Then the turkeys will be let in to feed, followed by the chickens and then the other animals. The order of the rotation is to prevent disease transmission and address the feeding needs and types feeds available for different types animals. Seeds and fresher produce will be used for the poultry, coarser food material will be used for the goats, sheep and cattle.

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The rotation order will be as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Harvesting of the best fruits, nuts and vegetables for direct sale to people. Turkeys. Chickens. Ducks and geese. Pigs Cattle Goats, sheep.

Aquaculture Complex aquatic polycultures can be developed within the chinampa and farm dams. These have colossal potential, with the interface between land and water the most productive zone we have.

Feedback Cycles

Feedback cycles (or loops) are of paramount importance to the health of natural systems.

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And therefore the health of the food we eat and ultimately our health. We break the nutrient recycling cycles with so many of our farming and food practices. It is not possible to have a truly sustainable farming without addressing this issue. Forest farming addresses the nutrient cycle at the point of production as most the nutrients used to produce the food grown on the farm are recycled within the farm itself. The animal and poultry manure is recycled in the actual growing areas of the farms. This is deposited in small enough amounts to allow rapid absorption within the growing system. Active decay systems and high bio-diversity, plus good rotation and resting of areas will allow safe onsite disposal of manures. The rapid uptake will substantially reduce that amount of gases escaping into the atmosphere. This will be offset by the sheer volume of carbon sequestered within the forest farm system itself through the growing of trees. Any concentration of manures will be composted on the farm.

Compost and Waste: Organic waste materials from the farm and surrounding areas will be composted and used to remediate land that has been disturbed during the development phase. This can be also used for the ongoing maintenance of soil health. Worm farms and a compost unit should be set up to facilitate this process. Worm Composting Worm composting plays an important role in the overall development and health of the forest farm. Potting mixes with added worm castings have been proven to out-perform other potting mixes. These will enable quicker establishment and growth of the tree crops and other plants. Nutrients and the biological activity in the casts are placed where they are of most use, in the root zone of the trees and plants. Worm castings are also the most cost efficient and the safest method to return nutrients back to the areas where the food was grown from. Worm castings are a more concentrated form of compost. Therefore they reduce transportation costs. Worm castings with good nutrient rich compost can improve to health of soil to provide for nutrient dense food. This is the ultimate way to health is eating food grow on nutrient

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rich soils. Even good foods grow on poor soils will be less healthy for you. Worm castings ensure that you have nutrient dense superfoods to eat. This will provide good health for you and your family. Can-o-worms worm farm

What can you do. Reduce your carbon footprint by: Using forest farming to grow your own food where you live or in your community. Support forest farming by sourcing products from forest farms. Invest in and support the development forest farms. Banks and governments are not currently supporting the development of forest farms. We cant wait for them. Stop the climate madness now. You can either leave a Garden of Eden for your children or a one way ticket to hell. It is your choice.

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The world is in your hands.