Given your basic problem is too much rain during the growing season
ends up with us developing grains that grow is areas that don't have rain during the growing season and thus are prone to drought at other times of the year. The major problem with this is that fields are left bare after cropping which makes them extremely susceptible to drying out and losing topsoil. Every time you see a farmer ploughing a field and stirring up dust, that's erosion in action. Even in Britain some fields are as much as 2 feet below the level of surrounding land from dust erosion. And it rains too much here for reliable quality grain production.
We have to switch from grain agriculture. We have to go to permaculture where land is never left open but our diet has to change radically. and yes, I know I'm saying the end of beer too. keep to the Fen Causeway
OR about barley and einkorn production in the Jutland peninsula during the Jastdorf culture! (Don't. Isn't worth it. Spend your time raising little piggies.)
LOL
It's looking like you Brits are going to lose the Fens from rising ocean level. Which which case ag production in England is, as we say, fucked. BSE wiped-out the flocks and herds in the whatchamacallit (Dorset?) area & etc. That can recover if the government gets off it's ass ... like Right Now ... and stops wasting the CAP money on maximizing grain production, like you said.
Shouldn't get rid of all of it. Grains have their place in proper crop rotation. Hops is a perennial and can be used as part of the basic structure of a farm, in the right area. (Do they still grow hops in Kent?)
There are lands where the best crop one can "grow" is animals -- New Mexico, for instance -- although the amount of meat/acre is lower than current production practices.
In any case, animals have their place in sustainable agriculture. Tho' not in the current practice, in the current quantities.
The rest is a question of industrial process. Grain farmers are a highly-subsidized "top level", integrated into industrial production of concentrates for intensive animal raising integrated into meat packing and supermarket sales.
We can do without this and be in better health.
The problem with it is that eating meat is a matter of prestige, like driving cars. We may wean ourselves off this kind of consumption (to some extent), but people in developing economies want meat like they want cars.
(Nitpick: Europe produces its own maize. But by decades-old international agreements, it does not produce large amounts of soy (even where it could). Intensive animal production here depends on soy imports for protein.)
But I'm not up on the very latest numbers.
seems a bit off... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
In order to understand how agriculture came to central Europe, it is important to know something of the geography of this region. I prefer to simplify the very complicated patchwork of hills, mountains, plains, and streams into two major landscape zones which have relevance for the study of early European farmers. These are the upland basins drained by the major river systems of central Europe and the flat lowlands of the North European Plain. I am putting aside the mountain chains like the Carpathians, Sudetens, and Harz, and the glacial outwash plains of central Poland and Niedersachsen, for these became of interest to European farming peoples only later. The upland basins of interior central Europe had generally served as traps for wind-blown dust during the last glaciation, which formed the fertile loess soils, while the North European Plain is covered with thinner soils which had been moved around quite a bit by glacial action. In the upland basins, streams formed a dendritic pattern separated by dry watersheds. On the North European Plain, the drainage was the result of glacial action: the bogs and streams that formed in meltwater valleys and kettle lakes, connecting with meandering little rivers and the broad floodplains of major streams like the Oder and Vistula. Within the upland basins, there was one habitat that was of greatest interest to the early farming populations. This was the valleys of the smaller streams which drained patches of the loess. Loess is fertile but dry, and these stream valleys were oases of moistness from runoff from the adjacent watersheds and from upstream. Early farming populations settled in these habitats along the smaller rivers and creeks. In the lowlands of the North European Plain, there was also one very important habitat. This was among the chains and clusters of lakes left in meltwater valleys and dead-ice features that interrupt patches of ground moraine in several parts of the plain. In some respect, these features are analogues of the upland creeks, in that they are moist habitats in the midst of drier areas of fertile soil.
In order to understand how agriculture came to central Europe, it is important to know something of the geography of this region. I prefer to simplify the very complicated patchwork of hills, mountains, plains, and streams into two major landscape zones which have relevance for the study of early European farmers. These are the upland basins drained by the major river systems of central Europe and the flat lowlands of the North European Plain. I am putting aside the mountain chains like the Carpathians, Sudetens, and Harz, and the glacial outwash plains of central Poland and Niedersachsen, for these became of interest to European farming peoples only later. The upland basins of interior central Europe had generally served as traps for wind-blown dust during the last glaciation, which formed the fertile loess soils, while the North European Plain is covered with thinner soils which had been moved around quite a bit by glacial action. In the upland basins, streams formed a dendritic pattern separated by dry watersheds. On the North European Plain, the drainage was the result of glacial action: the bogs and streams that formed in meltwater valleys and kettle lakes, connecting with meandering little rivers and the broad floodplains of major streams like the Oder and Vistula.
Within the upland basins, there was one habitat that was of greatest interest to the early farming populations. This was the valleys of the smaller streams which drained patches of the loess. Loess is fertile but dry, and these stream valleys were oases of moistness from runoff from the adjacent watersheds and from upstream. Early farming populations settled in these habitats along the smaller rivers and creeks. In the lowlands of the North European Plain, there was also one very important habitat. This was among the chains and clusters of lakes left in meltwater valleys and dead-ice features that interrupt patches of ground moraine in several parts of the plain. In some respect, these features are analogues of the upland creeks, in that they are moist habitats in the midst of drier areas of fertile soil.
Europe's broad plains curve around the highlands. Scoured by Ice Age glaciers, the North European Plain, or Great European Plain, stretches from southeastern England and western France eastward to Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. The plain's fertile soil and wealth of rivers originally drew farmers to the area. The southern edge is especially fertile because deposits of loess, a fine, rich, wind-borne soil, cover it. Deposits of coal, iron ore, and other minerals found on the North European Plain led to western Europe's industrial development during the 1800s. Today many of Europe's largest cities, such as Paris and Berlin, are located on the plain. Another fertile plains area, the Great Hungarian Plain, extends from Hungary to Croatia, Serbia, and Romania. Farmers cultivate grains, fruit, and vegetables and raise livestock in the lowlands along the Danube River.
Europe's broad plains curve around the highlands. Scoured by Ice Age glaciers, the North European Plain, or Great European Plain, stretches from southeastern England and western France eastward to Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. The plain's fertile soil and wealth of rivers originally drew farmers to the area. The southern edge is especially fertile because deposits of loess, a fine, rich, wind-borne soil, cover it.
Deposits of coal, iron ore, and other minerals found on the North European Plain led to western Europe's industrial development during the 1800s. Today many of Europe's largest cities, such as Paris and Berlin, are located on the plain.
Another fertile plains area, the Great Hungarian Plain, extends from Hungary to Croatia, Serbia, and Romania. Farmers cultivate grains, fruit, and vegetables and raise livestock in the lowlands along the Danube River.
Wherever the region's terrain is rolling and drainage is satisfactory, the land is highly productive. This is especially true of the areas that contain a very fertile siltlike loess soil, better than most German soils. Such areas, called Börden (sing., Börde ), are located along the southern edge of the North German Lowland beginning west of the Rhine near the Ruhr Valley and extending eastward and into the Leipzig Basin. The Magdeburg Börde is the best known of these areas. Other Börden are located near Frankfurt am Main, northern Baden-Württemberg, and in an area to the north of Ulm and Munich. Because the areas with loess soil also have a moderate continental climate with a long growing season, they are considered Germany's breadbasket.
I'm not preaching against extensive animal production on marginal land and grassland, or old-style mixed farming.
Didn't think you were.
Also, carbon costing would involve all the extra flatulence from animals digesting feed their digestions cannot process properly.
In the long run, more people are going to have to return to the land and growing their own food, we need to depopulate cities, the south east of england is a joke. But that's gonna need legislation and landowners in Scotland who have stolen good agricultural land to turn into grouse or deer moors will suffer most. keep to the Fen Causeway
...and you feel better physically, once you're 'over the hump'! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
We have to switch from grain agriculture.
It's more like we need to switch how we farm our grains:
The future is Green: Perennial Polyculture Farming
For three decades, the Land Institute has been working to create a sustainable system of agriculture that is patterned after nature itself, that is, in the words of Director Wes Jackson, "more resilient to human folly." In Jackson's eyes, modern agriculture wages war on nature. Every year erosion eats away 5.5 tons of soil for every acre of farmland in the U.S. Petrochemical based fertilizers and pesticides kill the soils fertility. The land Institute's Kansas farm is working to reverse this damage by developing cropping systems that mimic the prairie. Rather than planting annual crops, Jackson and the Institute are developing perennial crops that need no plowing or planting. A farm that looked like the prairie would require fewer inputs by farmers, allowing them to keep more of the profit. It would feature a mixture of crops that could be harvested from the early spring to late fall; and perhaps most importantly, it would regenerate the soil into a thriving ecosystem. The main problem farming with perennials is that they must devote more energy into building a larger root system and have less energy for growing seeds, thus have a lower food yield. Researchers at the Land Institute and several universities are searching for varieties of perennials whose yields can compete with annual crops. The Land Institute has had some success with wheat, sorghum, and sunflowers by cross breeding perennial strains with annual strains. Some lines of wheat have been developed that yield 70% of the best annual varieties. Perennials are hardier than annuals and more resistant to weeds once they are established. In addition they contain stronger resistance to disease. A polycrop field, imitating the prairie, further increases resistance to disease since each type of plant is further separated making the spread of disease more difficult.
For three decades, the Land Institute has been working to create a sustainable system of agriculture that is patterned after nature itself, that is, in the words of Director Wes Jackson, "more resilient to human folly."
In Jackson's eyes, modern agriculture wages war on nature. Every year erosion eats away 5.5 tons of soil for every acre of farmland in the U.S. Petrochemical based fertilizers and pesticides kill the soils fertility.
The land Institute's Kansas farm is working to reverse this damage by developing cropping systems that mimic the prairie. Rather than planting annual crops, Jackson and the Institute are developing perennial crops that need no plowing or planting. A farm that looked like the prairie would require fewer inputs by farmers, allowing them to keep more of the profit. It would feature a mixture of crops that could be harvested from the early spring to late fall; and perhaps most importantly, it would regenerate the soil into a thriving ecosystem.
The main problem farming with perennials is that they must devote more energy into building a larger root system and have less energy for growing seeds, thus have a lower food yield. Researchers at the Land Institute and several universities are searching for varieties of perennials whose yields can compete with annual crops. The Land Institute has had some success with wheat, sorghum, and sunflowers by cross breeding perennial strains with annual strains. Some lines of wheat have been developed that yield 70% of the best annual varieties. Perennials are hardier than annuals and more resistant to weeds once they are established. In addition they contain stronger resistance to disease. A polycrop field, imitating the prairie, further increases resistance to disease since each type of plant is further separated making the spread of disease more difficult.
It will raise the total amount of nutrition per acre (hectare) by raising the amount of fruit, vegetables, berries, etc. produced. And you don't need a 12 ounce steak every night. 4 ounces of animal protein per meal is enough.
i bet many excellent products could be created from them, and the wood is great.
also edible bamboo, wonderfully productive plant
200 apple varieties in england 50 years ago... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
