Enhanced sustainability for primary production enterprises
Sustainable food systems
Enhanced Plant Nutrient Cycling
Multifunction riparian margin development
Wetlands and waterways are principal pathways for loss of nutrients, undesirable genetic material and profit from primary production enterprises to the wider environment. Properly designed riparian margins bring multiple benefits to the farmer and the wider community:
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Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services are the services that nature provides that support humanity. They are defined in money terms, and it is estimated that relative to the traditional money economy, the global value of ecosystem services is three times higher.
Ecosystem services include provisioning services, such as release of plant nutrients in a form plants can useand capture of carbon from the atmosphere, regulating services such as control of water and wind, and cultural and leisure services, such as landscape enhancement. Money values range from $1000/ha/year for on-farm woodlots, to >$20,000/ha/year for estuaries that are critical breeding habitat for economic fisheries. An excellent description of the details can be found at http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org
- Food system sustainability depends on the efficiency and effectiveness with which human nutrition needs are met by a given environmental resource - land, water, plant nutrients and emissions. High quality protein is almost always the first limiting nutrient in wholefood ingredients. For a full discussion, see the attached report
Enhanced Plant Nutrient Cycling
- Ruminants are effective converters of plant materials with high dietary fibre content into useful human food, but also produce urine and faeces that are very effective as inoculants in composting systems.
- Careful attention to detail in solid-state plant nutrient cycling systems can lead to almost no loss of nutrients to the wider environment, with maximum extraction of economic value from purchased plant fertilisers and minimal environmental impact. Contact us for further details
Multifunction riparian margin development
Wetlands and waterways are principal pathways for loss of nutrients, undesirable genetic material and profit from primary production enterprises to the wider environment. Properly designed riparian margins bring multiple benefits to the farmer and the wider community:
- prevention of nutrient leaching and movement of seeds and other propagules from farmland into the wider environment;
- provision of greatly enhanced ecosystem services that can increase enterprise profitability, including shelter, pollinator and predator habitat, runoff management, high-value biomass production, landscape enhancement, security, leisure and alternative economic activities, from sport fishing to picnicking;
- provision of emergency feed and animal shelter.
Contact us for further details
Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services are the services that nature provides that support humanity. They are defined in money terms, and it is estimated that relative to the traditional money economy, the global value of ecosystem services is three times higher.
Ecosystem services include provisioning services, such as release of plant nutrients in a form plants can useand capture of carbon from the atmosphere, regulating services such as control of water and wind, and cultural and leisure services, such as landscape enhancement. Money values range from $1000/ha/year for on-farm woodlots, to >$20,000/ha/year for estuaries that are critical breeding habitat for economic fisheries. An excellent description of the details can be found at http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org