Closed Loop System

As it applies to a farm/garden, a “closed-loop” food system encompasses all stages of growing, preparing, and recycling (food) plant matter.

Example:

Farmer Keith plants seeds, and nurtures them until they produce fruit.  Farmer Keith then harvests the fruit, and takes it in the house to prepare a delicious meal for his amazing friends.  Friends are appreciative!  After dinner, friends scrape the food scraps into a bin which then gets taken out to the on-premises compost pile.  The compost pile, over time, produces rich fertilizer which then blankets the next round of food crops the following season, thus closing the loop.

This is a very simplified example, and there are all manner of ways to adjust it according to one’s own situation.  Adding a rainwater collection system for watering the crops, for instance; or utilizing a flock of chickens to compost the food scraps with their scratching, eating, and subsequent *ahem* fertilizer production.  (Not to mention the valuable eggs they’ll give you, too.)  Saving seeds from spent crops to use for the following year’s planting is another important step.

No matter the adjustments/additions, the basic premise is the same: to get the most out of every step of the process, while bringing in the least from outside the premises.  By using compost/chicken manure, Farmer Keith (and you) can forgo store-bought organic fertilizers.  Using the seeds saved from the previous year’s crops not only reduces the cost of buying seeds, it also enables a healthy crop–by saving seeds from strong, disease- and pest-resistant plants, you’ve self-selected for those desirable traits to be present in subsequent crops.

The members of the Austin Growers Guild represent organizations and personal interests from all steps of the larger closed-loop food system: Farmers, Distributors, Consumers, Composters, Seed Savers.  One of our goals is to increase the opportunities available for Austin residents to learn about and implement a closed-loop system on their land–whether that’s a 4×8′ raised bed garden, a front yard, or a 15-acre+ farm.