Siwmae (Hiya) Nate,

We don't need to plough (and all the subsequent soil cultivation that follows), of course. That’s an option, not an essential. And for those who choose to grow food that way, draft animals are an excellent, ancient, proven, and still highly practical power source.

The above statements are not just drawn out of the air, but are the result of much practical experience, my own, plus that of a big crowd of very much more authoritative others.

My own current experience is instructive. I’m a member of a CSA (community-supported agriculture) scheme; and also I run my own small permaculture operation, which is still in a state of expansion as I continue to learn.

On the farm, we use tractor-tillage. On my place I use no-till methods. Both are organic operations, of course. May I assure urban and suburban readers of these notes that the viability and the productivity of these operations, very typical of lots of grassroots initiatives which are now beavering away, getting started and making their way up the essential early learning curves, are in no way fatally dependent on the ultra-cheap-energy, fossil-hydrocarbon syndrome. Most seem to be using that facility, whilst it’s still widely viable. But the people involved are – usually, it seems to me – at the cutting-edge of awareness not only about the petro-energy crisis, but crucially of the wider, all-engulfing, inter-linked global crises of which it’s part.

We’re making it our – practical! – business to be ready when the fuel famines strike. We aim to have food and other essentials available for ourselves and for our neighbours, at least in survival quantities, despite the oncoming chaos of bigbiz commercial agriculture and food-retailing.

Rather than go on at length about this here, may I offer the two links below, which are densely-packed with practical, time-proven wisdom about these matters. These sites typify many such operations, which can be found easily enough with due diligence. Robert Denlinger and Dave Blume know their stuff from way back, are constant, practical (that word again) commercially-viable practioners of their craft, and are two of very many living proofs chugging quietly along in the undergrowth, out of the attention of big media, big biz and big politics, that another way is possible. Not only possible, but happening.

As a great bonus, from my personal viewpoint, Robert also protects his livestock, as I do on a much smaller scale (no wolves, bears or jackals in Britain, for the time being; back soon, I hope), with our wonderful, beloved shepherd dogs. Typically, Robert has recorded zero stock losses to predators since he got his first two shepherd dogs, the Kuvasz sisters Capella and Callisto, some years back.

http://www.permaculture.com/drupal/node/141

http://www.denstarfarm.us/

Incidentally, Dave Blume is FAMOUSLY very hot on farm-scale ethanol production for home use, as is Danny Day and the Eprida initiative. Google 'em!

Hwyl fawr (Cheers!), Rhisiart Gwilym