Problems with farming and farmland..

I really feel that the food side of things is the most important part of my assignment to get right, I'm designing a community in its entirety more than just trying to work out a building in it.

My main focus on this assignment is beginning with the farming side of everything, I feel like that's got to be the foundation of a successful, self-sustaining community. Many of our farming techniques currently don't take into consideration what they're doing to the land or how they should best use the land and we're destroying our arable land.

I want to research into farming techniques and have farming and self sustenance at the heart of my proposal and my community.


Campbell, A. 1991. Sustainable Farming. Melbourne: Lothian Publishing Company Pty Ltd.

• More than half of all cropping and grazing lands require treatment for erosion, salting, soil acidity or soil structure decline
• Many of the waterways and wetlands on this dry continent have become contaminated by soil run -off and algal blooms caused by fertilisers, pesticides and heavy metals
• Most irrigation areas are being flooded from beneath by rising saline groundwater, due to clearing, profligate water use and nonexistent or inadequate drainage

This idea of soil conservation and land rejuvenation is really important to me and necessary to keep the site going. There are places around Woodford that have acidic soil so I want to find a way, as part of the program too, to work through regenerating and sustaining agricultural land in the true sense of the word.

Campbell suggests indicators and main points of keeping farming sustainable:

• Soil structure
• Soil fertility
• Energy Use
• Water and nutrient budgets
• Economic and ecological diversity and stability
• Social cohesion

 It's about implementing a farming plan but to do that and to dramatically change the system into being sustainable it's obvious that we'll need something new and different.

With techniques for soil maintenance such as:

• 'Shelter Belts' separating fields
• Native vegetation
• Restorative planting
• Fire mitigation through native planting and barriers
• Homogenous land divisions based on soil types, natural features, drainage and current vegetation

I should research further into the farming techniques that the climate refugees will bring in as they immigrate to Australia. Especially seeing as our techniques so often fall short. If the new Woodfordia is all about learning, then maybe they are part of the teaching process, not just the learning process.