Conclusions
This paper has offered a very rough, broad-brush attempt at addressing the question “Can Totnes and District feed itself?” Utilising GIS mapping and the datasets that are currently accessible, it has explored the current land classes and how farmland is currently used, and then, using Simon Fairlie’s ‘Livestock Permaculture’ model, has tried to assess whether or not Totnes and District could actually feed itself. Even if we were to assume roughly stable climate conditions, the answer is that yes, it could, but only if:
- It lived in isolation from its neighbouring major conurbations of Plymouth and Torbay; when these settlements are factored in, it becomes far more difficult;
- Far far more people lived on, and worked, the land; and
- We ate a very different diet from the one we consume today.
Those current eating habits, current levels of meat consumption, as well as the long supply chain, just-in-time distribution models on which the food system is based, are all key factors in the inability of the area to meet its food needs. The approach explored here has looked at an alternative to the current paradigm, arguing that interests of sustainability, resilience, health and nutrition and long-term economic stability are best served by a move, through a well designed and integrated approach, towards the area meeting its food needs as close to home as is practicably possible.
It raises the question as to whether, in times of increasing unemployment and economic contraction, the ‘outsourcing’ of food to whoever can produce it cheapest in the world is an economic own goal. It could be that the relocalisation of the food economy would have huge benefits to the local economy, creating a wide range of jobs. Although the mechanisms and structures needed to make this possible are, in some cases, still at a very early stage of evolution, this paper contends that they are possible and indeed are urgently needed.
This paper has taken an approach that assumes forms of agricultural land use are separate and un-integrated, so that dairy farming happens in one place, forestry in another, and fruit growing some else again. One of the areas for future research that emerges from this paper is the need for more hard data about integrated systems, well designed forms of land use which integrate the production of fuel, medicine, freshwater fish, fruit, vegetables, herbs and so on. One such a model exists in agroforestry, and one of the primary research centres into this, the Agroforestry Research Trust1 is based just outside Totnes. A more widespread adoption of this model could prove a key element in the UK’s ability not only to feed itself, but also to fuel, warm and heal itself too. Ultimately it could turn out that Totnes and District can feed itself, and could be healthier, wealthier and wiser for having done so.
Footnotes
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