The (far better) Alternative Way; The Egg Example.
Ted Trainer
2.11.2016
The following comparison shows how the local way is typically far better on all dimensions than the industrial-global-commercial way. (It is based on the famous Òindustrial eggÓ illustration by Bill Mollison (1988, pp. 23-4). The alternative approach is indented in bold.)
Consider the inputs and infrastructures involved in producing an egg.
FACTORIESÉ
Éproduce steel girders, tin, bolts, machinery, tractors, pipes, irrigation equipment, trucks, officesÉand petrol and roads for the trucksÉ In addition to the energy used in the factories there is the energy needed to produce the factories and input materials, especially the energy to run the factories. These outputs are used to build É
Egg factories, vast sheds containing thousands of hensÉin inhumane conditions.
Silos to hold grain.
Machinery.
Water supply systems.
Roads to farms producing feed.
Egg processing equipment, packaging, labelling, especially the energy-intensive refrigeration.
Chemicals, e.g., to control disease in the sheds.
Trucks and systems to dispose of the chicken manure, which does not go back to the fields which grew the feed.
International systems for production of the steel etc. to make all the factories, ships, aircraft, buildings and high-rise offices, etc.
Backyard and village cooperative pens can be made from scrap materials and local saplings, earth etc., plus a small amount of wire netting and tin for roofing. No need for steel girders, trucks, machinery, ships, computers, offices, marketing, insurance personnel departments... Poultry and other animals fed mostly via free range and recycling of kitchen scraps to soils. Processing of eggs and meat via local informal arrangements, or small local coops and small firms.
OFFICES
Éwhere most egg producers work at managing the inventories, orders, logistics, deliveries, payments, advertising, marketing, financial arrangementsÉmost people getting eggs to you wear suits and sit at computer screens É and use energy driving to work É and probably donÕt enjoy their work.
These offices are made from steel, concrete, glass, aluminium and plastics, and they need carpets, air conditioning, desks, personnel departments, electricity, paid cleanersÉand lots of computers and suits.
Few egg producers ever see a chicken or enjoy communicating with them.
We donÕt need any of that.
DEGREES
Most egg producers have tertiary qualifications, complex skills in accounting, chemistry, vet science, management, finance, logistics É that can take 20 years of ÒeducationÓ to get. Many lawyers are involved in the production of eggs.
Kids can look after chickens. Only a few simple (but important) skills are needed.
ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION, RESOURCE WASTAGE
Food production via modern soil-mining agriculture damages soils, e.g., through acidification and losses of carbon and soil nutrients. Monocultures require pesticides. Energy and materials intensive infrastructure systems contribute to the global resource impact of industrial society. High density sheds require antibiotics etc. Manure is often a waste problem, eutrophying water ways, inefficiently used or dumped É not returned to soils that produced the feed, meaning artificial fertilizers have to be brought into the fields.
Chickens free range, eat kitchen food scraps, returning nutrients to soils, eat pests (e.g., snails), clear weeds, aerate soils by scratching, enhance leisure-rich landscapes. No pesticides, few resources, no energy. Healthier chickens, so few chemicals or vets needed.
WORK
Typically boring, routine narrow work, in the sheds or at the screens all day.
No work involved. Chickens are a delight to care for, involving a few minutes a day, via home pens or village co-ops and rosters.
SOCIAL, LEISURE, COMMUNITY-BONDING BENEFITS, SYNERGISM, OVERLAPS, INTEGRATION EFFECTS.
None of these effects occur. Eggs are only a commodity. Costs are multiplied, e.g., manure becomes a problem requiring energy and expenditure. Trucking in feeds wears out roads. Agribusiness destroys country towns.
Poultry and other animals enrich the local landscape with diversity, closeness to nature, tasks and responsibilities for kids, learning about nature, reinforcement of earth-bonding. Chickens perform many functions, integrated with other animals, plants and systems, e.g., enrich soils, reduce pests, provide entertainment, clear weeds, prepare garden beds, use up food ÒwastesÓ, provide feathers for pillows, produce chicks, feed themselves, help to keep us sane and animal-sensitive. A source of pride in skill and self-sufficiency; we can provide ourselves with eggs, we take responsibility for this aspect of the homestead or community we run well. Looking after the poultry adds diversity to the day, reinforces cooperatives and associated community systems and skills.
OVERHEADS: INSURANCE, DEBT, ADVERTISING, PROFIT
Egg prices include the cost of all the avoidable overheads, including interest on all the debt carried by the corporations involved, along with the pyramided cost of all the advertising, and insurance involved at all levels, the salaries of the corporate lawyersÉand the outrageous CEO salaries ... and the taxes and profits at all levels.
None. We can even produce and distribute eggs without any money.
SYSTEM COMPLEXITY, FRAGILITY, DEPENDENCE
If the global economy falters egg supply can be cut, along with jobs in the industry. Egg farms go bankrupt, poor people canÕt afford eggs. In the Third World when eggs and food in general are sold to maximise corporate profit the poor canÕt afford them.
A simple, local system gives complete independence and security from the outside economy. We can go on providing ourselves with eggs no matter what. The poorest people can have secure access to eggs, and other food.
EGGS THAT AREÉ
Éalways old, sometimes stale, contain dubious chemicals, produced by unhappy chickens, carrying a high embodied energy and resource cost Éand that cost money.
Éperfect, fresh, pesticide-free, guilt-free, produced by happy chickensÉand that cost no money at all.
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The principle can be applied to most of the basic needs people have, e.g., for most other foods, housing (small earth-built dwellings), basic clothing, furniture, tools, toys, community buildings. These things can be produced at negligible cost from local resources by households and village co-operatives.
Consider care of children and the aged É when every day about fifteen person-hours of care are wasted in the average rich world household watching an electronic screen. Just reorganise that resource and how much could be produced in co-operative gardens and firms, craft centres, working bees, concertsÉ
Mollison, B., (1988), Permaculture; A DesignerÕs Manual, Tyalgum, Tagari.