Ecological literacy made easy

A review of ‘The Call of the Reed Warbler - A new agriculture, a new earth ’ by Charles Massy 2017. Key points for Ecococonnections. D Farquhar 29 March 2021

TIPS FOR ECOCONNECTED PEOPLE

For ecoconnected people, this framework is the best prompt I have found for a system-level understanding of your species in its environment. It could be used as a meditation. To do this think of your species native range, where it gets and gives up it’s energy, water and nutrients, then how it interacts with other species and what impact human systems have on its abundance.

I have found the framework is simple and effective for a wide range of applications. At the paddock level these factors are somewhat within management control. At the farm level more interactions need to be considered. At the catchment level other human institutions and relationships are important. So take a look out the window and think about “How well are the sun, water, nutrients, life and people functioning in this system?”

The emergent mode of thinking can come together as you share these reflections with other people. You might find truths that apply to your own life or see simple interventions that would make the world function better. I would love to hear what emerges from these reflections either directly or on our social media platforms. A more functional world might emerge from our collective consciousness.

MASSY IS A FARMER AND WRITES FIRST FOR FARMERS

Charles Massy farms in the Eden Monaro. This landscape is a bare, savaged generally shocking moonscape for anyone who has driven through it from Canberra to Australia’s East Coast. The book weaves in his own journey to understand how better to manage this country. When I saw the ABC Australian Story I flippantly said ‘he gave the country a rest, spiders ate his grasshoppers and he got his farm back’. After reading the book this is still broadly true however his journey there is based in exploring important thinking, especially from those practising regenerative agriculture in Australia. The implications also go wider than farmers.

I do understand the landscapes and systems Massy writes about. I have also had contact with many of the thinkers that he brings into the story. It took me a few months to read the book and carefully consider the illustrative enterprises he describes to bring together the story. I wonder if you were not a farmer would you need more time and/or a system to consider to apply the principles to. An ecoconnection could be such a system to consider, without the debt and production imperative of a farm.

SHOULD YOU READ IT?

With a well-referenced 513 pages, reading ‘The call of the Reed Warbler’ is no small undertaking. I have met many farmers and regenerative thinking advocates who have made a start and not finished it. If you find yourself in this state you might not see ‘the wood for the trees’. The overview above of the five landscape functions and ‘emergent thinking’ is an important high level ‘take-home’.

Farmers, especially Australian Farmers, should buy and read this book. It sits well on a shelf as a reference text if you want to consider how others have enhanced any of the five landscape functions. It will elevate your understanding of humans in the landscape and what your place is as a land manager. Others should also read it to be in touch with the richness of life that is being an Australian Farmer, to understand the practicality of managing the five landscape functions and to be a part of the emergent discussion toward increased landscape functionality. If you don’t have time maybe orient yourself to this important ‘regen’ mindset by considering the ‘overview’ section above.

LONG REST PERIODS TO REGENERATE

There are lots of thinkers reviewed and woven together in this book. Application of Allan Savory ‘Holistic Management’ thinking is one I pick to highlight. The main idea here is to move away from set stocking. Set stocking allows animals to pick out the most palatable herbs and leave rank grasses, thorns and shrubs. The landscape can be ‘healed’ with short periods of heavy grazing to eat out, manure and trample all the forage on a paddock, followed by long periods of rest. This allows a biodiverse range of plant species to grow and propagate, building soil carbon and biomass generally. The new higher functioning system emerges with a longer rest period.

I would also highlight ‘Soil Food Web’ as another really important train of thought leadership. Massy mentions Elaine Ingham but skips a detailed review of this important thinking. Others might also feel more depth on particular approaches would be warranted.

CONNECTIONS WITH MY OWN STORY

I come from a long line of farmers and grew up on a farm at Winnaleah in Tasmania. My Great Uncle Bert was keen on trees, managing water in the landscape, organic agriculture, and hand chipping weeds on a large scale. The sign on his front gate boasted 10 billion and 16 staff (10 billion worms and 16 stockmen). I attended the first field day of the ‘Tasmanian Organic Producers’ in 1975 at Tomahawk and Uncle Bert’s Wyambi property where PA Yoemans discussed ‘keyline farming’. Massy covers PA Yoemans in the section on the ‘water’ landscape function.

My dad was a Nuffield farming scholar, R&D investor, Tree Farmer of the Year, and developer of new crops, irrigation and farming systems for Tasmania’s North East. We ‘developed’ properties and often went on weekend ‘Field Naturalist’ trips around our region. Farming systems have been a part of dinner table conversation all of my life with cousins from the Morris family in NW Tasmania and Farquhars, Muirheads and neighbours often working together.

Charles Massy did his Agricultural education a decade or two before mine. I did mine at the University of Tasmania. UTAS was the birthplace of Permaculture and this was included in our course, particularly noting the intact permaculture systems operating to Australia’s north in villages of New Guinea. Whilst the UTAS degree was firmly grounded in science I think the world had progressed a little from the ‘mechanical’, ‘chemical’ and ‘soil physics’ approach more prominent in Massy’s time.

As an Industry Development Horticulturist I was a government representative considering organic agriculture. A highlight being the formation of the the Organic Federation of Australia to enable international certification for Australia’s organic producers. Discussion of farming systems has been a part of my life in Wine industry extension, lecturing in Agribusiness and investing in Agricultural Research and Development.

Having said this the focus of Charles Massy’s book is in broadacre grazing systems. I have had more contact with intensive systems. For this reason ‘Call of the Reed Warbler’ has been a refreshing elevation of my thinking to the landscape scale, joining the familiar characters and lines of thinking into a coherent story for the country.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CONVENTIONAL FARMERS

Many conventional farmers look at regenerative thinking and see productivity declines from reducing inputs. One recent comment was ‘you need a lot of money to go into regenerative farming’. The pressure of large debt can push farmers for near term cash flows. This often happens for young farmers trying to establish themselves. Massy reduced his debt and costs later in life. The result of the regenerative transformation often includes more productive country, also personal physical and mental health benefits.

Massy’s personal experience frames these conflicts as a battle between a mechanical mindset and a regenerative mindset. He contends the shift in mindset has often come after a dramatic life event.

Stakeholders that could be challenged by Charles Massy’s approaches include input suppliers like chemical, fertiliser and machinery companies. ‘Call of the Reed Warbler’ elevates thinking to the landscape scale beyond the pressures of these companies and banks. It is not easy to resist short term survival and gain for a higher functioning system in the longer term. Even if you can build a high functioning system there are no guarantees it will be sustained if you sell the property.

For these reasons, I think all farmers need this book on their shelf. It will remind them to look for opportunities for the emergence of higher functioning systems in the longer term. There are plenty of pointers and examples where steps can be taken down a ‘regen’ pathway.

Ecoconnections and Regenerative Agriculture

Ecoconnections was founded in Integrated Pest Management. This approach to agricultural management involves understanding the ecology of pests and diseases in agro-ecologies and managing them to thresholds. I found that many species that kept pest and disease under control in apple and grape production were unnamed. This made understanding their biology and managing them to thresholds hard. For this reason, Taxonomy research was a starting R&D priority.

Some regenerative thinkers would say that this is ‘reductionist thinking’. The problem with reductionist thinking is that it’s likely to cause system failure by focussing on one detail and leaving out an appreciation of the system. Farmers are always thinking about the system and how it comes together to deliver a yield. For this reason, they can’t take the time to understand every species and its dynamics. Farmers and land managers have to make system decisions with imperfect information.

When people do look at the detail of individual species there are usually surprises. There could be clues to better management in this detail. Ecoconnections encourages the allocation of human capital to this large task. One end goal is better land-management as a result.

The idea of Ecoconnections is similar to totems which are a common feature of many indigenous cultures. One function of totems is to store information about ecological dynamics from different perspectives and how people might interact with these dynamics. Charles Massy notes the high functioning agro-ecologies managed by indigenous people, especially as detailed in Bruce Pascoe’s book ‘Dark Emu’ and Bill Gammage ‘s ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth’.

Humans tend to take a human perspective on ecology. The idea that the rest of life is here for our plunder has thin logic. The idea that we are a part of ecology is a more enlightened view. Charles Massy’s system of five landscape functions appreciates people as a part of a dynamic system and points to the possibility of a higher functioning system. Indigenous cultures tend to appreciate themselves as part of ecological systems. Ecoconnections take the perspective of other species in the system and biodiversity as a whole. Given that ‘better managing ecosystems’ is a part of the logic of ecoconnections, we should consider partnerships to raise research funds for regenerative agriculture projects. The different perspective we would seek in any final reports would be that of biodiversity as a whole.