New research out of the University of Prince Edward Island’s GeoREACH Lab suggests old-time farmers knew what they were doing when it came to energy efficiency and overall sustainability. Can old dogs teach us new tricks in a climate-changing world?

 

Straight-backed and smiling, Josh MacFadyen leans into his computer screen as he explains the Agroecosystem Metabolic Profile Application (AMPA), a tool he uses to analyze farm production in 1870 Canada. “A hundred-and-fifty years ago, if you were investing more into a farm than you were getting out of it, that’s just starvation, right? Bottom line: This is about energy.”

To be accurate, this is about his new research which seems to show, in surprising and convincing ways, that old-time farmers were actually more energy efficient, environmentally sustainable, and commercially viable than many of their contemporary, high-tech counterparts. If that’s true, he may have stumbled onto modern agriculture’s most interesting question. When it comes to feeding the climate-changing world’s growing billions without wrecking the planet, maybe dear old mom and pop really did know best.

Continue reading this story: click below to login/subscribe

Login or Subscribe