Forest Farming Position Paper

This project is the second action project that I have completed while using distance learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is also the second action project for the last humanities class of my freshman year, which is called Food for Thought. During this unit of Food for Thought, we discussed the way our food supply works, the issues involved it it, and ways it can be improved. We then used what we learned to make this action project, in which we discuss ways to solve these pressing issues. For this project, every student in the class picked an indicator of the United Nations' SDG 2, 0 hunger by 2030, to try to propose an effective solution to. I chose SDG 2.4, which is Sustainable food production and resilient agricultural practices. My solution was forest farming, which you can learn all about below. I hope that you enjoy my presentation!

Across the globe, there are countless issues going on with modern agriculture as it is, including (but certainly not limited to) the average income and economic worth of farm workers globally stagnating or even lowering, overharvesting of crops, and land issues, like erosion, and denitrification of soil. These issues will obviously require hard work to solve, especially since they aren’t as publicized as certain other issues with our global food supply chain. You may have heard of the extreme surpluses of potatoes that we currently have around the globe due to the pandemic reducing demand for them, but one thing you don’t hear about nearly as much is that the mahogany tree and the american ginseng plant are endangered to the point of being near extinction because of being overcollected in the wild places that they naturally occur. Many plants around the world are being farmed monoculturally. This means they are the only thing planted in the areas they grow. One plant that is usually farmed like this is the orange, which according to the book Empires of Food is leading to extreme erosion in the hills of Belize, where they are beginning to be grown after space ran out in Brazil. These issues may seem difficult, or even impossible to solve, but this certainly doesn’t mean that we should all just lock ourselves in our apocalypse bunkers and give up. There are solutions, and today I’m going to present to you just one of them.

Forest farming is by no means a new idea. It is thought to have been pioneered in Japan, during the 1930s, by Toyohiko Kagawa, who was inspired by some findings on similar topics by Russel Smith. Back then, Japan was quickly expanding and trying to find more efficient ways to  feed their many people. Today, there are forest farms all over the world, from Virginia, to Washington state, to all the way in India. One specific forest farm, Blacks Run Forest Farm in Harrisonburg, Virginia, noticed that there were many things in modern farming that were working, but even more that weren’t, or wouldn’t be sustainable. One of the founders notes his expertise in biodiversity, and this is definitely integrated into the work done on the farm. On the nursery page of their website, they have all different kinds of different plants, like oak trees, mulberries, and echinacea. Most, if not all of the plants grown on the farm are native to the area, and meant to grow where they are growing, which is part of why it works so well. Forest farms use as much parts of the things they produce as possible, selling their timber and using parts of their crops as feed for animals. 

Implementing forest farming globally would be astronomically helpful in lessening the impact of agricultural crises around the world. Planting trees would help with erosion since the roots would hold soil together. In between trees, there is a plethora of things that can be planted, like herbs and berries, or even animal pens. It would allow plants that aren’t typically commercially produced to raise their population, while leaving the wild plants alone.

“Blacks Run Forest Farm.” Blacks Run Forest Farm, www.blacksrunforestfarm.org/.

Carlson, Tyler. “Forest Farming.” AFTA, www.aftaweb.org/about/what-is-agroforestry/forest-farming.html.

Frase, Evan D. G., and Andrew Rimas. Empires of Food: How Civilizations Revolve around the Dinner Table. Free Press, 2010.

“Overexploitation.” National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Overexploitation.

“Blacks Run Forest Farm.” Blacks Run Forest Farm, www.blacksrunforestfarm.org/.
Carlson, Tyler. “Forest Farming.” AFTA, www.aftaweb.org/about/what-is-agroforestry/forest-farming.html.
Frase, Evan D. G., and Andrew Rimas. Empires of Food: How Civilizations Revolve around the Dinner Table. Free Press, 2010.
“Overexploitation.” National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Overexploitation.

“Blacks Run Forest Farm.” Blacks Run Forest Farm, www.blacksrunforestfarm.org/.

Carlson, Tyler. “Forest Farming.” AFTA, www.aftaweb.org/about/what-is-agroforestry/forest-farming.html.

Frase, Evan D. G., and Andrew Rimas. Empires of Food: How Civilizations Revolve around the Dinner Table. Free Press, 2010.

“Overexploitation.” National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Overexploitation.