Adaptability is Sustainability

Abstract

The availability of fossil fuels will likely decline dramatically during the first half of the twenty-first century, and the deficits probably will not be alleviated by alternative sources of energy. This seeming catastrophe will create opportunities for communities to benefit from foods produced locally in ways that nurture relationships among soil, water, plants, herbivores and people to sustain their collective well beings. Agriculture will be much more at the heart of communities, but by necessity it will no longer be so dependent on fossils to fuel machinery or fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides to grow and protect plants in monocultures, antibiotics and anthelmintics to maintain the health of herbivores, or nutritional supplements and pharmaceuticals to sustain humans. Rather, from soils and plants to herbivores and people we will have to learn what it means to be locally adapted to the landscapes we inhabit. In the process, plants will become more important as nutrition centers and pharmacies, their vast arrays of primary (nutrients) and secondary (pharmaceuticals) compounds useful in nutrition and health. There also will be a need, as in times past before our heavy reliance on fossil fuels, to produce livestock in easy-care systems that match seasonally available forages with production needs, and that match animals anatomically, physiologically and behaviorally to local landscapes. This will mean reducing inputs of fossil fuels to increase profitability by 1) matching animal needs to forage resources, 2) selecting for animals that are adapted anatomically, physiologically, and behaviorally to local environments, 3) culling animals unable to reproduce with minimal help from humans, and 4) creating grazing systems that enhance the well-being of soils, plants, herbivores and people.