Farmer Focus: To really learn we must realise our ignorance
Andy Barr © MAG/Colin Miller Fifteen years ago I read a book which seemed to join up the swarm of random dots in my head called Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows.
At its simplest, systems theory uses concepts such as stocks, inflows and outflows from this stock, and feedback loops that either increase or decrease it.
However, it can get as complex as the systems it describes, and this is where we can start to learn practical lessons.
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Despite our inherent wish for uniformity, we need to embrace the complexity of the biological systems we deal with.
We need to keep every part of these that have built up over aeons if we want a truly resilient system.
We need to use energy from the sun to drive it, rather than finite resources mined from the ground, as these can never, by definition, be the foundations of a sustainable system.
The theory points out that there are leverage points within systems we can use if we want to change the outcomes being produced.
However, while we may intuitively know where they are, the way to push is sometimes staggeringly counterintuitive.
When I was younger, I could never have imagined that cultivating less would give me a better seed-bed, or not spraying for insect pests could actually lead to fewer pests, but that has been the case.
A classic global error is to push for maximum, never-ending growth despite its impossibility and the destruction it brings. In fact, slow or negative growth may be needed.
It teaches us that too often we automatically treat the symptoms of problems rather than find the root causes of them, and to truly understand the system we need to open our minds and forget our conditioned paradigms.
To really learn, we need to realise our ignorance and positively value every mistake we make. Stupidly, what I didn’t learn was to remember all this. Next year, definitely…
