What is a Food Forest?

A Food Forest is a garden or orchard which mimics a natural forest. More specifically, a food forest endeavors to recreate the self-sustaining and resilient qualities of a natural forest,  A food forest combines plants into synergistic communities, as well as using water-harvesting techniques and other strategies to maximize fertility and productivity. A food forest is created  by applying a set a principles which are collectively known as Permculture.

Permaculture

While conventional agriculture tries to subdue Nature, Permaculture works with Nature. Permaculture is one version of an emerging science called agroecology ─ the study of natural processes as applied to food production. The principles and strategies which embody Permaculture may be summarized as follows:

1. Permaculture pays close attention to the cycles and patterns of Nature and its methodology is a blend of traditional food growing systems and modern science. It utilizes the local climate, shape of the land, and natural water resources to maximize productivity, while maintaining or enhancing the fertility of the soil.

2. Permaculture encourages the growth of food-bearing plants that thrive in a given environment, taking advantage of synergistic relationships between various species.  By maximizing the use of trees and perennial bushes and arranging them properly, they require less watering or no watering and pretty much take care of themselves – similar to plants growing in the wild.

3. As with raising children, when the permaculture system is in its earliest phase of development, it requires a lot of attention and the stewards of the land have to put in quite a bit of time and effort in the form of mental homework and physical labor. However, over time, as with a growing child, the permaculture system eventually becomes a mature forest that does not need to be watered of fertilized and is capable of withstanding storms, drought, and pestilence.

4. Though the grand strategy of permaculture is to nurture the system so that it becomes as stable and self-sustaining as possible, it is also designed to be productive at every stage of development. If the claims of its advocates are valid, permaculture and related systems are indeed the wave of the future; they might be the most efficient and sensible way of producing food, offering a greater yield than chemical farming or organic farming.

5. Fruits, nuts, seeds and perennial vegetables are the foods that can be grown most abundantly and efficiently in a permaculture system. However, annual plants like grains and annual vegetables, as well as traditional farm animals, can also be integrated, so they add to the overall usefulness of the system, without depleting the soil or polluting the environment.

Food Forests in the Ancient World

(Except from What Should I Eat? Book 1)

Permaculture principles and methodology are not new. In the Americas, we see evidence of humans encouraging the growth of food-producing forests. All this occurred centuries ago, before the arrival of European explorers and conquerors.

Currently, the oldest known food forest is a man-made oasis in Morocco, which supposedly once fed an entire village. It is said to be about 2000 years old — and was still functional at the time of this writing. These systems were apparently even more common in Asia, such as a reportedly 300-year-old food forest in Vietnam.

The greater use of food forests and ecological gardens in Asian countries is not surprising because such systems utilize the same core principles as Taoism which has been practiced widely in the East for thousands of years.  Taoism is all about observing Nature and following her ways. Permaculture applies similar principles for food production.

Anthropologists visiting indigenous tribes in Africa, Asia and South America often did not realize that some of the surrounding jungle was actually a productive food forest, created by the locals. However, after the indigenous people became “modernized,” most of their methods were replaced by conventional agriculture that served the distant empires at the expense of the locals. The result? The one-time self-sustaining natives often became dependent on imported manufactured goods. They also became more vulnerable to drought, famine, poverty, and disease. Much of the poverty and food shortages in third world countries did not exist until the regions were influenced by developed nations.