Comparing Ecology, Farming, Agro-Ecology and Buddhism

As a prelude to discussing the practical implications of Buddhism for farming, how do the relative perspectives of ecology, agriculture and Buddhism line up?

Ecology is the scientific basis for farming. Ecologists understand that functioning ecosystems are a web of relationships between the smallest of molecular components to the largest life forms and collections of life forms and the macro environmental factors that influence them.

Farmers practice applied ecology. They take their understanding of the relationship between plants, animals and the physical environment and apply cultural treatments to manipulate these relationships in order to reap a harvest.

Modern industrial farming (agro-industry) uses ecological understanding to create highly simplified biological systems that concentrate productive potential onto a narrow (usually single) desired commodity. They are capable of producing relatively high production levels per unit area for a simplified or single commodity type. While they may contain elements of natural ecosystems in support of production, they are primarily concerned with ironing out the irregularities in nature. For example they often involve highly controlled inputs of water (irrigation), nutrients (artificial fertilizers), biocides to reduce plant predation or competition, genetics (to confer uniformity and a range of desirable growth, development t or marketing characteristics).

Modern alternative forms of farming can be loosely grouped as agro-ecology and include systems such as organic agriculture and permaculture as well as those that are directly termed agro-ecology. These systems use ecological understanding to create agricultural systems that are productive but with the significant additional dimension of conserving a broader range of resources than agro-industry. Agro-ecology explicitly considers mineral cycles, energy transformations, biological processes and socioeconomic relationships in an interdisciplinary fashion[1].

Permaculture is a form of agro-ecology. It takes an agro-ecological approach to farming that exploits both the potential for change and interconnectivity in ecosystem elements to create largely self-sustaining farming systems with high input:output ratios.

Crucially, permaculture stresses as a primary principle the “Principle of Cooperation: Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis of existing life systems and future survival” (Mollison, 1988, p2) and acknowledges the importance of spatial and temporal complexity in developing robust and sustainable agricultural production.

Irrespective of underlying objectives, ecologists and both agro-industrial and agro-ecological farmers fundamentally understand that ecological systems are constantly changing (impermanent) and are constituted of elements that are highly connected (interdependent). They all understand that productive terrestrial ecosystems are dependent, among other things, on plants that capture and transform nutrients and energy and animals that convert, transport and ultimately facilitate the recycling of that energy and nutrient.

Likewise, interdependency and impermanence, along with their potential for transformative change, are key philosophical underpinnings of Buddhist philosophy.

Where ecology, agro-industry, agro-ecology and Buddhism diverge is in their views on:

1. The relative worth of the ecological system they manage.
2. The role of humans in those ecosystems and
3. The value of aspects of the ecosystems themselves.

[1] http://agroeco.org