Rethinking Agriculture:Back to the Future

Proposing new values to restore the food system and its relationship with climate change

Heena Gajjar

LA 437: Regional Design StudioResilient FuturesFall, 2015Instructor - Jessica Henson

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO THE REGIONAL DESIGN STUDIO

ABSTRACT: REINVENTING THE VALUES

NARRATIVE

NATIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES

REGIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

RETHINKING FUTURE

PROPOSED REGIONAL PLAN

PHASE 1 - PRAIRIE FOR ENERGY

PHASE 2 - INTEGRATED FARMS

PHASE 3 - VERTICAL FARMS

HOW WE ARE MOVING ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’

INTRODUCTION TO THE REGIONAL DESIGN STUDIO

As we face poor quality of life statistics in rural areas, urban

sprawl, ecological disaster, and globalism, how can land-

scape architects take cue from historical landscape archi-

tects like Jens Jensen, O.C. Simonds, Fredrick Law Olmsted,

Ian McHarg, to face challenging issues in the 21st century?

What does a resilient region look like socially, economically,

and environmentally? Re-gional landscapes must anticipate

change and resiliency must be planned at large scales. Pro-

cess, time and climate must be factored in. The requirement

is now performance over time, and time must be relative to

landscape time, not generation time. Landscape architects,

architects, engineers, and planners must be able to design

systems that anticipate landscape shifts. De-signers can-

not wait until a problem exists to act, but instead should

seek to anticipate problems, both social and environmen-

tal, and plan ways to act that can benefit communities and

environ-ment. This studio focused on multifaceted regional

scale problem and consider how landscape architecture can

drive the framework decisions for planning 50 years into the

future.

ABSTRACT: REINVENTING THE VALUES

Kankakee and Will counties are experiencing urban sprawl.

To plan for the resilient future of these counties, we need to

address the basic needs of any community like its food and

water systems. The analysis of present day agriculture system

indicates that it is an industrial agricultural system where we

are erasing wildlife habitats like grasslands and wetlands for

growing seeds that produce ethanol and feeds the livestock

rather than food for humans. Thus, we need to rethink and

evaluate where we want to move forward. This proposal talks

about reinterpreting old values (respect for nature) to pro-

pose new values (conserve nature to thrive) for a resilient

future where we address the need to work towards reversing

climate change. It is important to re-evaluate our present day

practices and think about changing our lives though these

new values.

NARRATIVE:

In past four years, corn and soy commonly used for biofuels

expanded onto 7 million acres of new land, replacing mil-

lions of acres of grasslands and wetlands. This have emitted

as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 34 coal-fired

power plants operating for one year — the equivalent of 28

million more cars on the road. In addition to providing vital

wildlife habitat, grasslands and wetlands sequester vast

amounts of carbon. When the region’s undisturbed soil is put

into cultivation, it releases up to half of its carbon over 50

years of cultivation, accelerating climate change.

(http://news.wisc.edu/23618)

Government incentives have led to skyrocketing growth in

the U.S. corn ethanol industry over the past few years. This

has contributed to major increases in corn prices and corn

demand, ultimately resulting in increased corn plantings

across the country. About one-third of the nation’s corn

crop is now diverted to ethanol plants. Farmers have shifted

land into corn production from other crops, idle agricultural

land, and native prairie, thereby causing wildlife habitat loss

and degradation. Given that current legislation mandates

increases in corn ethanol production through 2015, these

patterns are likely to continue.

(www.nwf.org)

In the race of high productivity and meeting the urban

population needs, over time we transformed our natural

systems and provide incentives for production of corn and

soy to produce ethanol. If we are going to move forward with

this attitude, our survival is at stake. It is significant for us

to understand that we need to protect our environments to

thrive. There is need for a shift in our thinking about our

natural resources and stop over exploiting them. It is time to

plan for a future that is not just human oriented but focuses

on bring back the larger order in place and valuing all of our

inmates.

Improving energy efficiency is not going to take off carbon

currently in the air. This carbon need to be brought back to

home into the soils. One of the major driver to achieve this

goal to put carbon deep back is through bio sequestration,

where deep roots would drive carbon below the churn zone

where it can stay for centuries. This could be a big contribu-

tor for reversing the climate change. Large industrial farm-

ers will only begin to store carbon when they have monetary

incentives. Once a market for sequestering carbon dioxide

appears, land management regimes may change.

(www.dirt.asla.org)

NATIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES

Agriculture farms across the US

Human food vs Livestock food

Farms growing seeds for ethanol across the US

Through these maps, it is evident to read the pattern of industrial farming that dominates the landscape today.

REGIONAL SCALE - AGRICULTURE AND ITS ISSUES

Present day uses of corn

Cons of present day system

Eventhough it is clear that corn dominates our agricultural system and it has huge negative impacts, we still continue to go ahead with this system. It is important to ask ourselves this question ‘is our agriculture a food based system or a fuel based system?’

?

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

1800 1850 1917 2015

Kankakee marsh was once known as ‘Everglades of the North’. With European settlers moving in and changing the natural patterns of landscape, the marshland was all drained by channelizing the Kankakee River in Indiana. The draining of marshland allowed to have the resource of valuable land brought into agriculture use where today the industrial agriculture dominates the landscape.

1870 1900 1950 2000 2030 2040 2050

The proposal is to come up with a system that takes care of energy and food for future in an ecological way.

RETHINKING FUTURE

NOW POPULATIONAGRICULTURELAND 2007

AGRICULTURELAND 2011

CORN PRODUCTION 2011

TAKE OFF 40% AGRICULTURE LAND THAT PRODUCES CORN AND RESERVE THIS LAND FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

FUTURE ENERGY WOULD COME FROM PRAIRIE ETHANOL

PROPOSED REGIONAL PLAN

NATURAL SYSTEM - TODAY

PHASE 1 - CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIESCORRIDOR TO PROTECT THE WATER SYSTEM

URBAN SYSTEM - TODAY

FUTURE ENERGY COMES FROM THE PRAIRIE GROWN WITH OTHER ECOLOGIES ALONG THE CORRIDOR

AGRICULTURE SYSTEM - TODAY

PHASE 2 - INTEGRATED FARMS

REMOVE 40% FARMS (EHTANOL)

PHASE 3 - VERTICAL FARMS

FUTURE URBAN GROWTH

CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIES

AGRICULTURE+LIVESTOCK

VERTICAL FARMING

FUTURE URBAN GROWTH

CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIES

AGRICULTURE+LIVESTOCK

VERTICAL FARMING

PHASE 1:PRAIRIE FOR ENERGY

CONSTRUCTED ECOLOGIES ALONG FORK AND ROCK CREEK CORRIDOR TO PROTECT THE WATER SYSTEM

WILDLIFE SUPPORTED THROUGH THE PRAIRIE

FIRST 6 YEARS OF PRAIRIE LIFE

Today’s field of energy production (ethanol corn)

Tranforming the cornfields into prairie

Allowing the wildlife to be part of the system

Recreation use of prairie landscape

Harvesting the future energy

Seasonality of prairie landscape that is native to the midwest

Allow people to enjoy, appreciate and interact with nature

Prairie would hold and slow down the rain water

Future maintainance of prairie

Variety of animals will optimize the biomass utilization

Understanding the natural relationships of this system

Aquaculture and farms are rotated as waste of one system is nutrients to the other system

Understanding the natural relationships of this system

CORRIDOR

ELE

CTR

IC M

EA

DO

WLO

CA

L

FO

OD

SY

STE

MWILDLIFE

Creating islands of locally grown foods rather than importing it from distant places

HOW WE ARE MOVING ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’

The proposals discussed are going to take us back to the

future where we understand and appreciate the value of

traditional landscapes and practices. Rather than looking at

this as old practices, we perceive these practices that would

bring back the balance that we have disturbed. It is about

re-revaluating our old values to propose new values. Prairie

landscape are historic to this region and by re-introducing

them we are also bringing back the wildlife and the ecosys-

tem that will help us to thrive. Moreover, it will also provide

us with healthy future energy. Traditional integrated farming

is brought back as we move towards an organic food revolu-

tion. Vertical farms allow to grow food in a contained envi-

ronment and thus we can create virtual environments and

practically grow all kind of healthy food instead of importing

them.