原文作者George Young, 即farmingGeorge，是一名來自英國東南部的農(nóng)民。他曾經(jīng)是一名銀行業(yè)從業(yè)者，后來轉(zhuǎn)行從事農(nóng)業(yè)。George熱衷于種植各類環(huán)境友好，富有營養(yǎng)的又可持續(xù)的食物，也喜歡參與社區(qū)建設(shè)。

I never dreamt of becoming a farmer. Growing up my plans were always to be a film editor or professional jazz musician. However, life had other plans!

我從未夢想過成為一名農(nóng)民。從小到大，我的夢想一直是成為一名電影剪輯師或職業(yè)爵士樂手。然而，生活另有安排！

Whilst in London in my early twenties, I had a career in banking, earning cash on the side playing music, whilst editing short films in my spare time. When the banking career trajectory stalled, aged 27, I began pondering if I should be doing something else with my life. The lifestyle of farming appealed to me greatly, but still I never imagined that I would actually enjoy farming. At that time, the way my dad farmed was disconnected from growing food, and had little connection to the greater community. It was a job whose role stopped when the commodity grain left the farm gate.

20歲出頭時，我在倫敦從事銀行業(yè)，一邊演奏音樂一邊編輯短片賺錢。當銀行業(yè)的職業(yè)軌跡停滯不前時，我在27歲時開始思考我是否應(yīng)該做點別的事情。務(wù)農(nóng)的生活方式極大地吸引了我，但我從未想過我會真的喜歡務(wù)農(nóng)。那時，我父親的耕作方式與種植糧食是脫節(jié)的，與更大的社區(qū)幾乎沒有聯(lián)系。當種植的作物離開農(nóng)場大門時，他的工作角色就停止了。

However, I still assumed that a farming life would be more rewarding than the somewhat soulless banking job, and made the decision to quit London, moving back to the farm. Before long I began taking the reins and making some significant changes.

然而，我仍然認為務(wù)農(nóng)生活會比沒有靈魂的銀行工作更有回報，并決定離開倫敦，搬回農(nóng)場。不久之后，我開始管理農(nóng)場，并做出了一些重大改變。

The cropping and style of farming was reasonably conventional when I came home. We grew milling wheat, oilseed rapeand peas, with some cattle. The livestock primarily remained on permanent rough grazing, and were not a part of the arable rotation. We ploughed rotationally,and operated a min-till method of establishment the rest of the time. Pesticide inputs and fertiliser use were high too, based on the assumed wisdom of their necessity to produce yield.

當我回家的時候，種植和耕作方式相當傳統(tǒng)。我們種植小麥、油菜和豌豆，還養(yǎng)了一些牛。牲畜主要是多年生草場放養(yǎng)，不屬于可耕地輪作。我們輪流犁地，在其余的時間里，我們采用最小化耕作法?；谔岣弋a(chǎn)量必須使用殺蟲劑和化肥的假設(shè)，我們大量投入殺蟲劑和化肥。

Not long into my farming career I visited local farmer Simon Cowell, who practiced no-till arable farming. Seeing how successful his system was without the need for any cultivations tipped me over the edge into the rabbit hole, and my whole agricultural mindset shifted to beginning to work with nature as much as possible. This also began my penchant for visiting as many farmers as possible, in the UK and around the world, inorder to act like a magpie and “steal” their best ideas to implement on my farmback home.

在我從事農(nóng)業(yè)不久，我拜訪了當?shù)剞r(nóng)民Simon Cowell，他實行免耕農(nóng)業(yè)?？吹剿南到y(tǒng)在不需要任何耕作的情況下如此成功，我的整個農(nóng)業(yè)思維開始轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)楸M可能多地順應(yīng)自然。這也讓我開始喜歡盡可能多的拜訪英國和世界其他地方的農(nóng)場，以便像喜鵲一樣“竊取”他們最好的想法，在我的農(nóng)場實施。

I visited conventional farmers,zero-tillage farms, mixed farms, market gardens and orchards – if someone was growing something, I wanted to see how they did it. Interestingly, all the organic farms I visited at this time were rather disappointing, with a dearth of wildlife on the land, which puzzled me. Much as though they were farming without synthetic inputs, they were still failing to farm with nature.

我參觀了常規(guī)農(nóng)場、免耕農(nóng)場、混合農(nóng)場、商品菜園和果園——如果有人在種植某種東西，我想看看他們是怎么做的。有趣的是，我當時參觀的所有有機農(nóng)場都相當令人失望，土地上缺乏野生動物，這讓我感到困惑。雖然他們沒有用合成投入品，但是他們?nèi)匀粵]能將耕作融入自然。

Having stopped tillage six and a half yearsago, I stopped using insecticides very soon after, as my focus began to be on building a healthy, functioning ecosystem on my farm.  And it wasn’t long before I began to see some biodiversity gains, with increases in mammal and bird life – a sure sign of positive increases in soil life and insects. I had also managed to slash my fertiliser use by 30%, and fungicide use by 50%. However, something was still missing in my farming system. I had an itch I couldn’t quite scratch…

停止耕地六年半后，我很快就停止使用殺蟲劑，因為我著力開始在我的農(nóng)場上建立一個健康、正常運轉(zhuǎn)的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。不久，我就開始看到生物多樣性的增加，哺乳動物和鳥類的數(shù)量增加——這是土壤生物和昆蟲數(shù)量增加的跡象。我還設(shè)法削減了30%的化肥用量，50%的殺菌劑用量。然而，我的耕作系統(tǒng)中仍然缺少一些東西。我有一種我抓不到的癢感。

Three years ago, I discovered what it was. Food. Up until that point I had been growing a few crops destined for commodity markets, with no say over where that product would end up, or how it would be processed: whether it would create a nutritional food product, or one full of sugar and salt which in the long term makes the consumer ill. This also coincided with me adding a lot more crops into my rotation: buckwheat, lentils,hemp, heritage cereals, linseed, sunflowers, millet, beans – with their primary destination set as a short supply-chain food product with my name still on the label.

三年前，我發(fā)現(xiàn)了我系統(tǒng)里缺少的是---食物。在那之前，我一直在種植一些面向大宗商品市場的作物，對這些產(chǎn)品的最終目的地或加工方式?jīng)]有發(fā)言權(quán):它會是一種營養(yǎng)食品，還是一種從長遠來看會讓消費者生病的高糖高鹽食物。因此同時，我也在我的輪作中加入了更多的作物：蕎麥、扁豆、麻、傳統(tǒng)谷物、亞麻籽、向日葵、小米、豆類——它們主要在短供應(yīng)鏈中銷售，標簽上仍有我的名字。

What’s more, I was now able to grow these new crops with virtually no synthetic inputs whatsoever. And the introduction of a more varied rotation combined with my ecological farm focus meant that the wildlife on my farm was now starting to really thrive.

更重要的是，我現(xiàn)在能夠在沒有任何合成投入品的情況下種植這些新作物。引入更多樣的輪作方式，再加上我對農(nóng)場生態(tài)的關(guān)注，意味著我農(nóng)場的野生動物開始茁壯成長。

A very recent decision was to take my input reduction that one stage further, and commit to becoming an organic farmer. Working directly with my customers showed me that they really wanted a fully organic product from me, but I was loath to end up like the ecologically dead organic farms I saw all those years ago. How could I keep the ecological gains made through zero-tillage and significant artificial input reduction?

我最近的一個決定是進一步減少投入品，并下決心成為一個有機農(nóng)民。直接接觸顧客讓我知道他們真的想從我這里買到完全有機的產(chǎn)品，但是我不愿意做一個多年前我見過的那種生態(tài)死亡的有機農(nóng)場。那我如何可以通過免耕和大量減少人工投入品使用來建立很好的農(nóng)場生態(tài)呢？

Thankfully the solution isn’t too tricky, and was cemented on a few farm visits last year: agroforestry, and mixed farming on the arable land. The system of agroforestry I am implementing meansthat, although some soil will be disturbed most years, about 30% of the soil will remain in permanent organic cover. I am also establishing a wild seam, designed to link every field in my farm, such that wildlife are always safe to traverse the land. Plus, there is the superb benefit that the addition of fruit and nut trees means that the nutritional output of my farm is considerably more varied, and I have even more options as to how I connect to my end consumer.

令人欣慰的是，這個解決方案并不太棘手，而且在過去幾年的幾次農(nóng)場考察中（解決方案）得到了鞏固---即在可耕地上混合林業(yè)與農(nóng)耕。我正在實施的農(nóng)林復(fù)合系統(tǒng)意味著，盡管一些土壤在大多數(shù)年份會受到干擾，但大約30%的土壤將長期被有機覆蓋。我還建立了一個野生帶，旨在連接我農(nóng)場的每一片田地，這樣野生動物就可以安全地穿梭在這片土地上。此外，還有一個極好的好處，那就是種植果樹和堅果樹意味著我的農(nóng)場產(chǎn)出的營養(yǎng)食物種類更加多樣化，我甚至因此有更多的選項來與我的最終消費者建立聯(lián)系。

Figuring out an holistic land management strategy for the farm means that I can proudly convert to organic farming, knowing I am doing my very best for the soil, wildlife, and the people who eat the food that I produce. I am able to be proud of the habitat that I am creating, and love that I can bring people along with me for the ride via blogs and videos. I may not be editing feature films, but it’s funny how some aspects of life always end up coming around full circle.

理解農(nóng)場的整體土地管理策略意味著我可以自豪地轉(zhuǎn)向有機農(nóng)業(yè)，因為我知道我正在盡最大努力保護土壤和野生動物，為消費者提供食物。我為自己在創(chuàng)造的棲息地感到自豪，也喜歡通過博客和視頻把我正在從事的事業(yè)展示給大家。雖然我沒有在剪輯電影，但是生活就是這么有意思，通過其他方式讓我從事了自己熱愛的事業(yè)。