Darwin Anderson: April 2007 Archives

The focus of this forum piece by KIS Collaborator Darwin Anderson is the application to prairie agriculture of an ecological theory put forward by C.S. (Buzz) Holling. Holling is a well-known ecologist, first with Forestry Canada, then at UBC, later at the U. of Florida, and now retired, still thinking and writing from a coastal community in Florida (Holling, 2006).

Holling's idea on ecological or environmental problem(s) is that as a resource-use problem is recognized, a solution is developed and implemented. The solution often works very well at first, but soon problems related to the application of the solution itself are apparent. The ecosystem(s) or land changes as well, often becoming less diverse and, consequently, less resilient. The solution becomes the new problem.

Anderson applies Holling's work to the adoption of summer fallow (SF) and how that ecological solution eventually became a problem that was solved by conservation tillage. Anderson then raises the question: Is conversation tillage following the same path as SF and becoming a problem that needs a new solution?