2022/05/23

홍성 풀무학교 교육이야기 첫번째 홍순명 선생님


==
Posted by at

지속 가능한 농업을 위한 목소리 '보존 농업'

"더이상 토양이 못 버틴다", 지속 가능한 농업을 위한 목소리 '보존 농업' : 네이버 포스트

"더이상 토양이 못 버틴다"
, 지속 가능한 농업을 위한 목소리 '보존 농업'
더농부 4만 팔로워
2020.06.24.  
5,152 읽음

기술 발전과 함께 농업은 ‘생산성 증대'라는 목표를 향해 달려왔다. 이를 위해 단일 작물 재배, 기계화, 화학 살충제와 비료, 생명공학 등 가능한 모든 방법을 동원했다. 하지만 환경 위기에 대한 문제의식이 커지면서 이 같은 농업 형태의 부작용을 우려하는 목소리가 커지고 있다. 토양 침식과 황폐화를 가져와 장기적으로는 오히려 생산성이 떨어질 수 있다는 것이다. 단일 작물 집약적인 현재 방식이 기상이변이나 해충 등에 취약하다는 점도 문제점으로 꼽힌다.

보존 농업이란... 지속 가능한 농업 위해 '건강한 토양' 추구
이해를 돕기 위한 사진입니다 @게티이미지뱅크

대안으로 주목받고 있는 것이 ‘보존 농업(Conservation Agriculture)’이다. 보존 농업은 지속 가능한 농업을 위해 ‘건강한 토양’에 집중한다. 유엔 식량농업기구(FAO)는 보존 농업을 장려하면서 3가지 기본 원칙을 제시하고 있다. 토양 훼손을 막기 위한 "경운 기계 사용 최소화와 토양 유기체 덮개 유지, 그리고 생물 다양성 유지"다.

보존 농업 3가지 기본 원칙 @FAO <Conservation Agriculture>

3가지 원칙은 다음과 같은 방법들로 행해진다.
'경운 기계 사용 최소화'를 위해 '직접 파종(직파)'과 '무경운(no-tillage)' 방식을 사용한다. '무경운 재배'는 농업 포장작업에서 경운, 정지 과정을 생략하는 재배 방식이다. 수확물 잔재를 포장 전면에 그대로 남겨두기 때문에 '간이 경운 재배'라고도 부른다. 미국 농무부(USDA)는 무경운 재배법을 경제적인 면에서 가장 유효한 토양침식 방지책으로 꼽기도 했다.
'유기체 덮개'는 기존 농업 방식과 보존 농업의 가장 큰 차이점으로 꼽힌다. 작물 부산물, 나뭇가지 등의식물성 재료로 이뤄진 덮개로 겉흙을 덮는 것을 말한다. 덮개는 잡초를 억제하고 기후 변화의 영향으로부터 토양을 보호해 준다. FAO는 보존 농업의 경우, 유기체 덮개가 경작지의 30% 이상을 덮어야 한다고
설명하고 있다. 유기체 덮개는 토양 유기물질을 풍부하게 만들어 각종 생물들이 모이도록 해 '생물 다양성유지'에도 기여한다.
'생물 다양성 유지'는 유기체 덮개 외에도 3개 이상의 다양한 작물을 포함한 윤작을 통해 이뤄진다. 기존농업은 생산성 극대화를 위해 단일 작물을 기르는 경우가 많다. 이와 달리 보존 농업은 윤작을 행한다. 이를 통해 특정 병해충에 치명적이지 않도록 방지한다. 또한 다양한 작물들을 함께 기름으로써 생물 다양성을 보존한다.
보존 농업의 장점... 환경 보호하며 생산성도 증진
FAO는 보존 농업의 장점을 크게 3가지 측면으로 나눠 설명한다.

 
먼저 '환경적 장점'이다. 토양을 보호해 농업을 더 지속 가능하게 만든다. 토양 침식을 줄이고 수질 개선과 대기질 개선을 가져온다. 생물 다양성을 증진시키는 데 도움을 준다. 토양 표면의 유기물 덮개가 강우와  바람의 위력을 분산시켜 토양 침식을 막는다. 온실가스 배출을 줄이는 데 도움을 준다. 유기물질들이 토양 내부까지 축적되면 탄소가 대기로 빠져나가는 것을 막기 때문이다. 또한, 다양한 생물종들에게 거주지를 제공한다. 이를 통해 해충을 잡아먹는 새, 다른 동물들을 끌어들여 생물 다양성 보존에 기여한다.

두 번째는 '경제적 장점'이다. 장기적으로 3가지 측면에서 생산 효율성을 증대시킨다. 시간 절약과 노동요구량 감소, 그리고 비용 감소다. 무경운 방식을 사용하기 때문에 토지 개간과 파종 등 노동 수요가 가장 큰 작업에 드는 시간과 노동이 절약된다. 또한 경운 기계 운용비와 연료 사용이 줄어든다. 기계 유지 비용도 절약된다. 장기적으로 토양에 유기물질이 풍부해져 비료 사용량도 줄어든다.

세 번째는 '토양 생산성 증진'이다. 보존 농업은 낮은 생산성이 아닌 지속 가능한 방식으로 생산성 증진을 추구한다. 보존 농업을 도입한 사례를 살펴보면 장기적으로 생산성이 상승하는 경향을 보였다고 한다. 또 한 생산량의 변동성이 줄어들었다. 그 이유는 유기물 덮개 사용에 있다. 유기물 덮개를 사용하면 토양 유기물질이 증가한다. 이를 통해 토양 내 수분 보존량과 영양분이 증가해 생산성이 증가한다. 유기물질들을 통해 친환경 비료의 효율, 수분 수용량, 뿌리의 환경이 개선되기 때문이다.
FAO에 따르면 멕시코에서 옥수수와 콩을 윤작했더니 토양 유기물과 질소 축적을 촉진시켰다. 그 결과 옥수수 수확량이 25% 늘었다. 또한 무경운 농법은 6~10%까지 밀 수확량을 늘리는 데 기여했다. 노동 시간과 연료 등 트랙터 사용에 따른 비용도 크게 절감시켰다. 인도-갠지스 평원(Indo-Gangetic Plains)의 경우, 무경운 농법의 도입으로 밀 생산에서 농부의 비용을 1ha(헥타르) 당 20%까지 감소시켰다. 그 결과 농부의 소득은 28%까지 증가했다.

'지속 가능성'이라는 화두 농업에 던져... 생산성 부족하다는 지적도
이해를 돕기 위한 사진입니다 @게티이미지뱅크

물론 보존 농업이 만능은 아니다. 기존 농업 방식에 비해 작물 생산량은 줄어들고 더 많은 토지를 필요로 하게 될 것이라는 우려 섞인 목소리도 있다. 모든 농업이 보존 농업의 형태로 이뤄진다면 2030년이면 80억을 넘길 것으로 예상되는 인류에게 식량난을 초래할 것이라는 비판적인 전망도 있다. 보존 농업 지지자들은 지속 가능한 농업을 통해 생산성이 증진된 사례를 들며 이에 대해 반박하고 있다.
논쟁은 있지만 보존 농업이 농업에 던지는 화두는 명확하다. 이상 기후 등 환경 문제가 눈앞에 닥친 상황에서 농업도 지속 가능한 길로 나가야 한다는 것이다. FAO는 "보존 농업을 시작하고자 한다면 달성 가능한 목표에 집중하라, 먼저 경작지 일부에서 시작해 경험을 쌓으라"고 조언한다. FAO가 강조한 '달성 가능
한 목표'와 '작은 부분부터 시작하기'에 농업 분야 종사자만이 아니라, 지속 가능한 지구를 위해 노력해야 할 우리 모두가 귀 기울여야 하지 않을까.

FARM 인턴 이주현
제작 총괄 : FARM 에디터 이지훈
nong-up@naver.com
더농부
참고=
FAO, <Save and Grow>, <Conservation Agriculture>
FAO 홈페이지, <Benefits of CA>, <Principles of CA>, <Why we do it>
농사로 홈페이지, <작목기술정보 - 콩 -재배·생리 -무경운 재배>
National Geographic, <Reference : Sustainable Agriculture>
International Journal of Environmental Studies, <Global spread of Conservation Agriculture>

#더농부 #해외농업이야기 #지속가능한 #농업 #보존농업 #무경운재배 #유기물덮개 #윤작

베란다 텃밭에서 스마트팜까지, 네이버 FARM판 공
식포스트 '더농부' 입니다. 농업과 농어촌 속 다채…
팔로우
4만 팔로워
시리즈 해외 농업 이야기
61 세계 최대 맥주회사, AB인베브가 농업에 적극적으로 투자하는 이유는
60 늙어가는 '일본 농촌', '스마트 농업'서 해법 찾는다!
59 "더이상 토양이 못 버틴다", 지속 가능한 농업을 위한 목소리 '보존 농업'
58 사막에 꽃피운다, 미래의 첨단산업 아그리테크(AgriTech)로 달려가는 세계
57 농업용 드론 판매 급증, 온라인 유통 확산… 코로나가 앞당긴 글로벌 농업 혁신
더보기
댓글 4

21 4
철난농부
전 현장의 농부로써 논리는 좋지만 현실은 동떨어진 얘기라고 봅니다. 경운기 트렉터없이 얼마나 노동력을 통해 경작할 수 있나요, 토양은 좋아질지모르지만 농부의 허리는 휘고 끊어집니다. 문제는 농산물의 가격입니다. 대량생산없이 소규모농업 ㅡ 즉 내몸이 고생하여 일군 노력의 산물이 제값을 받을 수 있느냐의 문제죠.
농사는 답이 없습니다. 그래서 소농들이 대량생산을 위해 기계를 의존할 수 밖에 없는 구조가 되는 겁니디ㅡ.
2020-12-30 08:46 신고
---
서윤
포스팅 잘 읽었습니다~~! 혹시 이 글을 가지고 카드뉴스 제작해도 될까요~? 영리적 사용이 아닌 대학교 동아리 활
동으로 블로그에 기재만 하려고 합니다. 혹시 출처 남기고 주제로 써도 되는지 여쭤봐요
2020-06-27 23:20 신고
===
heo_****
좋은 포스팅 감사히 잘 읽었습니다 ^^ 보존농업을 통해서 우리 인류가 미래시대에 식량위기라는 비전통적 안보 위험에서 자유로워지고 모든 이가 기아와 빈곤이라는 재앙으로부터 성공적이고 안전하게 보호되어졌으면 하는 바람을 세계시민으로서 적고 갑니다. 다시 한 번 유익하고 좋은 포스팅 감사히 잘 읽고 갑니다. 아울러 9월에 코엑스에
서 열릴 더농부 귀농박람회도 성공적으로 잘 진행되기를 바라겠습니다. 더농부 구성원들의 행복과 건강 그리고 평화를 기원합니다.
2020-06-26 21:50 신고
===
Kor Mighty Mouse
와아. 더농부에서 '보존농업'을 다뤄주셨네요. 개도국은 말할 것도 없고, 미국같은 선진국(노스다코다 주를 비롯해)의 대규모 경작지에도 유용하다고, 계속 확산되고 있습니다. 국내 보존농업 포스팅은 거의 최초일 것 같은데, 깔끔한 정리 고맙습니다. 참고자료 목록을 보니 이주현 인턴님 수고많이 하셨겠네요. 😊
2020-06-25 14:16 신고
====

보존 농업이란?

CA라고도하는 보존 농업은 토양 건강을 보장하고 지속 가능한 농업을 촉진하며 토지의 과도한 사용을 방지하기위한 농업 형태입니다. 21 세기에 인기를 얻은 보존 농업은 지속 가능한 재배 방법을 유지함으로써 농부들이 땅을 건강하고 생산적으로 유지하도록 돕는 것을 목표로합니다. 보존 농업을 통해 토지의 건강과 지속적인 비옥함을 보장하기위한 몇 가지 전략이 있으며, 그 중 다수는 유엔 식량 농업기구의 지침에 요약되어 있습니다.

CA의 중추를 형성하는 가장 중요한 원칙 중 하나는 경작을 억제하여 토양 손상을 줄이는 것입니다. 경작 과정에서 씨앗을 심을 때 표면에 영양분을 공급하기 위해 토양을 손이나 기계로 뒤집습니다. 단기적으로 이것은 현재 농작물에 도움이 될 수 있지만, 많은 과학자들은 그것이 토양의 장기적인 분해로 이어지고 결국에는 사용할 수 없게한다고 제안합니다. 경작을 자제함으로써, 작물 조각이 토양 위에 보호 뿌리 덮개를 형성함에 따라 유기 토양 물질이 실제로 유리할 수있다.

보존 농업의 두 번째 주요 요인은 표지 작물 심기입니다. 가능한 경우,이 작물은 바람, 태양 및 비로부터 상부 토양을 보호하여 토양 침식을 방지합니다. 덮개 작물은 또한 토양의 유기체에 영양분을 공급하여 작물에 공급합니다. CA에 관한 UN 지침은 상업적 농작물에 농약의 일부 적용이 필요할 수 있음을 인정하지만, 농부는 토양과 지역 환경의 자연 생물 다양성을 보호하기 위해 제초제 사용을 최소화하는 것이 좋습니다. 토양을 보호하고 건강하고 번성하는 바이오 시스템을 확보함으로써 많은 전문가들은 작물이 번성 할 가능성이 높다고 생각합니다.

유엔 보존 농업에 관한 UN 지침에 의해 선전 된 세 번째 원칙은 작물의 회전에 관한 것이다. 같은 작물로 같은 땅을 반복적으로 심으면 토양에 영양분이 고갈 될 수 있습니다. 같은 필드를 통해 다른 영양소가 필요한 작물을 순환시킴으로써 토양은 영양소를 쉬고 보충 할 시간이 있습니다.

일부 CA 조직은 또한 자연 생태계의 성장을 장려하기 위해 토지 일부를 예약하는 것을 장려합니다. 농경지가없는 땅을 유지함으로써 주변 농지에는 야생 동물, 곤충 및 토착 식물의 균형이 적절할 것입니다. 많은 경우에 토지를 절약하는 것이 실질적인 옵션이 아닐 수도 있지만, 일부 전문가들은 자연 보호 구역과 같은 적절한 보존 노력이 농업 운영을 환경 파괴에서 환경 인식으로 전환하는 데 도움이 될 것이라고 제안합니다.


Posted by at

‘An invaluable lesson and example to Ireland’ – Grundtvig, the Danish folk movement and Ireland – The Irish Story

‘An invaluable lesson and example to Ireland’ – Grundtvig, the Danish folk movement and Ireland – The Irish Story

‘An invaluable lesson and example to Ireland’ – Grundtvig, the Danish folk movement and IrelandBarry Sheppard 28 July, 2018 Irish History

Share25
A scene from rural Ireland in the early 1900s.
The influence of the Danish ‘folk high school’ movement in 1930s Ireland. By Barry Sheppard.

The early decades of Irish independence have often been associated with insular cultural nationalism and economic protectionist policies which set the state adrift somewhat from the wider world.

The charge of being insular could also be applied to the Northern Irish state. Despite being part of a Union which still had interests across the globe, it was still very much a parochial society, especially in rural communities.

While there is little doubt that in the main, the focus of the burgeoning Irish Free State was squarely on domestic matters, it is unfair to label it completely adrift of wider international concerns or influences.

The same can also be said of the Northern state, which willingly adapted outside influences, despite its focus on provincial matters. Transnational influences were to be increasingly found in a number of areas of public life on both sides of the Irish border in the first half of the twentieth century, not least when it came to rural matters. This was especially true during the Great Depression of the 1920s and 30s.


The Aftermath of the Crash

Fianna Fail’s 1932 pamphlet.

Motivated by the effects of high unemployment and a severe lack of opportunities since the economic crash, individuals and organisations across Europe began to look beyond their borders for answers on how to alleviate societal problems in rural communities.

On the island of Ireland a number of individuals who were motivated by promoting rural life, active citizenship, and a means of making a living from the land, came to prominence in both states. Not only this, they actively sought out international examples which could be adapted to suit Irish conditions.

The negative effects of the depression years on rural areas in both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland were quite similar. In Northern Ireland there were approximately 100,000 small holdings scattered across the state, many farming on a subsistence basis.[1] While in the southern counties there were approximately 258,000 farms, with 230,000 of them under 100 acres and experiencing similar conditions as their northern counterparts.[2]




Across Ireland, poor productivity, and a lack of knowledge in modern farming methods were major factors in the desperate state of the small farms.



Across the island poor productivity, and a lack of knowledge in modern farming methods were major factors in the desperate state of the smaller holdings, with the majority of small farms being classed as ‘uneconomic’. The 1923 Irish Land Act in the Free State attempted to address the ongoing problem of poor productivity by acquisition and redistribution of larger lands. The act, described as an ‘ambitious attempt to solve the land question once and for all’ ultimately stalled.

The slow progress of land acquisition and division soured relations between the electorate and the Cumann na nGaedheal government in the 1920s.[3] While this work significantly increased under Fianna Fáil after 1932, it too slowed considerably after 1936, leading to a notable decrease in support for the party among small farmers in the west.[4]

A decade after the 1923 Land Act, the picture didn’t look good for the many small holdings, with little prospect for any improvement. Areas such as Dunfanaghy in Co Donegal were said to be ‘little removed from the subsistence level’ in 1933. This was the case in many areas down the western seaboard, and in many other parts of the country small holdings were still squeezed by livestock farming, which had almost doubled in size since the mid-nineteenth century.[5]

In Northern Ireland, land reform schemes which had begun under the same acts as those in the south from the late nineteenth century, were being wound down in the early years of the state’s existence by new legislation. A 1925 Land Act saw the compulsory purchase of any remaining tenanted land in Northern Ireland. Under this legislation the remaining 38,500 tenants purchased their holdings until the scheme was finally wound down in 1935.[6]

However, like provisions in the 1923 Land Act, the 1925 Northern Ireland act prohibited the confiscation of untenanted land in certain situations, making precious resources unattainable for some landless people, leaving emigration a more viable option.

One individual who was determined to stem the rural decline, and introduce a new form of adult education to rural dwellers was William Stavely Armour, journalist, educator, and the founder of the rural organisation The Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster. Armour had travelled extensively in the first two decades of the twentieth century seeking out new educational experiences which he would attempt to introduce back home.

One destination in particular was to have a profound effect upon his efforts, Denmark. It was here he was introduced to the ‘Danish Folk High School Movement’ founded by Bishop Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783 – 1872).
Grundtvig and the Danish Folk High School movement

Grundtvig, founder of the ‘folk school’ movement.

Grundtvig was an educational reformer who railed against the established system in his country. He witnessed a system which catered for the elite, and those who could afford a formal university education. A country where Latin had been placed over the mother tongue for centuries.

Grundtvig saw this education system as failing the rural population. While his concerns were wide, he was particularly scathing of the Latin Grammar Schools which, in an echo of Pádraig Pearse’s ‘the Murder Machine’ in Ireland, labelled them ‘The Schools for Death’.[7]

Grundtvig engaged in developing a community education system which worked for the rural population, farmers, and workers in Denmark. His movement by and large represented the interests of the ‘disenfranchised majority’ of nineteenth century Denmark, and ‘sought to build democratic egalitarian societies where none would starve or be forced to emigrate for lack of opportunity or human dignity’.[8]




Grundtvig engaged in developing a community education system which worked for the rural population, farmers, and workers in Denmark



Grundtvig envisaged a community school system with popular education as its primary focus. A movement against the prevailing Danish conservative versions of both education and culture. It was at its heart it was a community movement against the ideals ‘of literacy and book-learning, of language unknown to common people and of learning where the primary relation was between the individual and the book alone’.[9] Discussion alongside national culture would be important factors in generating a rural community spirit which reinvigorated a rural population who had limited resources and opportunities.

This vision was given life in an informal atmosphere where people could temporarily live together, including teachers, and learn from one another in practical agricultural matters and Danish nationalist poetry and culture. It was a place where dialogue would be the tool of instruction, and where no formal tests would be taken. In this ‘school’ a live-in term would last no longer than three or four months. Students would work together on physical enterprise projects, and were encouraged to carry on the dialogue into everyday rural life.[10]

Back on Irish soil Armour became convinced that Grundtvig’s ideas of ‘people’s universities’ could one day be applied to Ireland. Writing in the official history of the Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster in 1978, S. Alexander Blair tells how greatly interested Armour was in this endeavour, and the more he read about Grundtvig himself, the more impressed he became.


‘He (Stavely) agreed with the concept of the Folk High Schools as ‘people’s universities’, and was convinced that the high standard achieved in Danish agriculture resulted from work done in these schools’.[11]

It was said that Grundtvig identified a growing democratic need in society – a need of enlightening the often both uneducated and poor peasantry. This social group had neither the time nor the money to enroll at a university and needed an alternative. The aim of the folk high school was to help people qualify as active and engaged members of society, to give them a movement and the means to change the political situation from below and be a place to meet across social barriers.[12] This philosophy was to be found in the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster motto ‘Better Farmers. Better Countrymen. Better Citizens’.

While Armour’s experiences in Denmark would bear fruit in the foundation of the Young Farmer’s Clubs, he was by no means the only one to see the merits of the organisation. Back in Belfast the Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University, Dr R.W. Livingstone spoke on the merits of the Danish Folk School model in a speech on education reform at the annual Belfast Royal Academy prize giving ceremony of 1929. The Belfast Newsletter reported that Dr Livingstone stated that the solution to adult education in the province lay with the Danish movement.[13]
‘An invaluable lesson and example to Ireland’

A Fianna Fail rally in the 1930s, the banner reads ‘Tir agus Teanga’ (Land and language). Courtesy of Irish History Links website.

In the early 1930s a series of lectures took place in Northern Ireland on the merits of the movement. In the Ulster Museum and Art Gallery, the Danish movement was debated in a lecture on ‘the most useful parts’ of adult education.[14]

While the aforementioned Dr Livingstone hosted a ‘principal’ of one of the Danish High Schools, Herr Niels Klostergaard in March 1930 for a lecture on the movement.[15]

Even before Stavely implemented Grundtvig’s ideas in Northern Ireland, they had been much debated throughout the island as a way of reinvigorating rural communities. A full decade before Stavely founded the Farmers Clubs, the merits of the movement were debated in Irish newspapers. The Nenagh Guardian in 1919 championed Denmark, and in particular Grundtvig’s ideas as ‘an invaluable lesson and example to Ireland’.




Both north and south of the Irish border, many were impressed with Grundtvig’s ideas.



The Folk Schools’ combination of the principals of agriculture and emphasis on cultural education were a powerful combination to Irish eyes. Indeed the emphasis on the history, literature, songs and folk traditions of its native Denmark was a powerful example for those who had grown up in the Irish cultural revival a few decades previously.[16]
Denmark and Ireland



In terms of agriculture, there have been a number of comparative historical studies of Ireland and Denmark over the years, highlighting the similarities between the two nations. Both were mainly agricultural and competed for the lucrative British agriculture market.

As far back as 1908 the agricultural reformer Horace Plunkett had felt that comparing Ireland to Denmark was good practice for rural reformers.[17] Therefore, it is perhaps unsurprising that others would look to Denmark, when looking for guidance in relation to Irish rural matters.

Away from explicitly agricultural matters there were parallels to be drawn between Ireland and Denmark in terms of cultural nationalism and language revival. Indeed, it is arguable that the two countries had similar traits which saw them as ‘a place apart’ from mainstream European cultural history.




There were many parallels to be drawn between Ireland and Denmark in terms of cultural nationalism and language revival as well as agricultural matters.



It was suggested that Danish cultural history had ‘never quite been woven into the fabric of continental cultural history’. Factors such as the geographic position of Scandinavia in relation to the major continental centres, the small population, and the rural economy contributed to a form of isolation and distinctiveness, which was seized upon as sources of nationalist pride by Grundtvig. [18]

This of course mirrored what happened in Ireland in the late-nineteenth century in terms of cultural revival, especially in Irish-speaking districts. They were almost treated as a place apart by revivalists, ancient and removed from mainstream European and especially British cultural history. For cultural enthusiasts the Danish experience was an example to admire, especially when it came to the prominence they placed on native culture and language. It was stated that Grundtvig was ‘bound up with the idea of a Danish national character’ with a ‘mystic conception of the Danish language as an expression of Volkgeist (national spirit)’.[19]
Cultural nationalism



The nationalist leanings of Grundtvig’s movement found a willing audience in an Ireland fuelled by cultural nationalism which had fed so much into its recent revolutionary period. In 1926 the president of the Gaelic League, Seaghan P. MacEnri would endorse the Danish Folk movement as an example of a vehicle for promoting the native language and pastimes of Ireland. He stated:


“When Ireland was Irish-Speaking and had a practical monopoly of the English food markets, Denmark, with its barren soil, was plunged in poverty. Its upper classes despised their native language and sought “a sound French and German education.” Bishop Grundtvig changed all that when he founded the Danish Folk Schools where farmers’ sons and daughters were taught the language, history and folklore of their own country.

He said that to make good farmers he must first make good Danes, proud of their country and anxious-to promote its prosperity instead of having their eyes continually fixed across the frontier. He succeeded. Foreign influences were eliminated. Danes, from the king to the peasant, became more and more Danish in spirit and language”.[20]

During this same period the Irish Monthly journal would feature a number political figures writing on what the Danish Folk Movement could teach rural Ireland, indicating that intellectual and political circles were seriously taking notice.

This was mirrored on the ground among some farming communities. In 1926 a recommendation to the Co. Council of Mayo to establish a People’s High School for the area ‘on the lines of the Danish folk schools’ was unanimously passed at a conference of representatives of Mayo Co. Council. Co. Technical Committee and Co. Agricultural Committee.[21]

Despite the prevailing notion that those who were either promoting ‘Irish Ireland’, or concentrating on rural matters in Northern Ireland were loath to take on outside influences, there was a desire on both sides of the border to look beyond the island for inspiration in relation to rural reform and adult education.

It is significant that Grundtvig’s ideas would transcend internal borders on the island of Ireland, given that people who may have been diametrically opposed on matters of nationhood found common ground around the Danish bishop’s approach. This resulted in some cross-border cooperation among rural groups at a time when there was very little contact between the two jurisdictions at a state level.
Education



The central need of adult education, incorporating agricultural techniques and community cohesion which Grundtvig advanced in the Folk High Schools was also paramount for Irish rural organisations such as the Young Farmers’ Clubs, Macra na Feirme, and Cannon John Hayes’ organisation, Muintir na Tire.

The Ulster Farmers’ Clubs sought to ‘promote the education and training of young people in agriculture and rural occupations’.[22] They did this in a similar way to the Danish Schools, with instruction being given in, sometimes purpose-built central community halls by an array of teachers and experts.




Macra ne Feirme and the Ulster Farmer’s clubs both sought to ‘promote the education and training of young people in agriculture and rural occupations



Like the Danish Folk Schools, Macra na Feirme also fostered ‘the constant interchange of ideas’.[23] It was noted: ‘As in Denmark with the High Schools, as in Antigonish with the university extension courses, (in Macra na Feirme) the result of education has been a realization of problems and an effort to deal with them’ as many rural problems couldn’t be fixed by legislation or Acts of Parliament.[24]

Armour’s ‘Farmers Clubs’, once they had established their own ‘people’s universities’ would reach out to their southern counterparts Muintir na Tire and Macra na Feirme. In 1942, a delegation from the Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster, headed by Armour’s successor Mr. William Rankin, attended Muintir na Tire’s annual education gathering, ‘Rural Week’ to make connections with like-minded rural organisations, and to promote their own organisation.

At this event it was reported that Rankin ‘was welcomed not as an outsider, even though he was new (to Muintir na Tire)’, and that ‘he brought to (Rural Week) all the drive, vigour, and practical attitude to life of the North-East corner’. Rankin’s personality was said to have left quite the impression on members of Muintir na Tire, as well as the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, for whom he sang two comic songs to ‘gales of laughter’ from the assembled attendees.[25]

The benefits of the Farmers’ Clubs was well known to the gathering’s attendees, as a telegram was read from an unnamed ‘influential person’ advising that Muintir na Tire founder, Fr Michael Hayes should follow the lead of the Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster, in that he should begin a Muintir na Tire high school on the lines of the Danish Folk Movement.[26]

This was echoed by Mr Rankin. Writing in the official Rural Week record for that year, he explained the educational approaches of the Young Farmers’ Clubs in Ulster and stated that if ever those in the South were to establish clubs in their jurisdiction they could ‘count on the friendly cooperation and assistance of the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster’.[27] Indeed, this is what happened, with regular educational and social exchanges and trips between Macra na Feirme and the Ulster Clubs right up until the beginning of the Troubles.
The Spread of Ideas

In the immediate years after Rankin’s appearance at ‘Rural Week’ there was a heightened interest in the Young Farmers’ Clubs south of the border. It is unclear if the appearance by the Rankin of the Young Farmers at the 1942 Rural Week had a direct bearing on the farmers clubs which had been forming in various counties, as newspapers and periodicals had discussed the benefits of establishing such organisations since the late 1910s. Nevertheless, action overtook discussion after the Rural Week appearance.

The earliest Farmers Clubs formed in the South in 1942 or 1943, with a small growth over the ‘Emergency’ years.[28] The Munster Express reported in March 1945: ‘A branch of the Young Farmers’ Organisation was formed at a representative meeting held in the City Hall, Waterford, on Wednesday night last, at which Mr. Maurice Murphy presided’.




The transfer of ideas across time and borders show an Ireland at the heart of rural educational reform across Europe and beyond.



The attendance included representatives of another branch of the Young Farmers’ Clubs which had recently been established in the town of Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny. The report continued: ‘The Chairman said that the meeting had been called for the purpose of organising a Young Farmers’ Club for Waterford and district. The club would be non-political and non-sectarian, (echoing the rules of the Young Farmers Clubs in Ulster) and would be the fourth of its kind established in this country’.[29]

While there was an appetite for this kind of organisation, expansion was slow to begin with, having established competition in Muintir na Tire. The call for Young Farmers’ Clubs would also be made by some of the leading politicians of the day.

In December 1945 Erskine H. Childers TD gave a speech at the Thomas Davis Centenary Celebrations in Athlone, in which he lamented that groups such as Muintir na Tire, successful as they were, had not made an even greater impact in Irish life. He argued that if there were several thousand Young Farmers’ Clubs in England, then why not ten times that amount in agricultural Ireland?[30]

A national executive of Farmers’ Clubs in the South formed in 1944. It has been suggested that the Second World War brought forward the need for Young Farmers’ Clubs in Ireland: ‘The war of 1939-45 highlighted the importance of the agricultural industry in Ireland and the pressing need to move away from the Cinderella image it had developed. In particular it was vital that proper agricultural education should be provided for those young people destined to work the land’.[31]

A report in the latter part of the 1940s argued that the growing organisation of the Young Farmers’ Clubs (Macra na Feirme) were willing to go ‘beyond their own borders in the search for information and truth’. It further stated that representatives of the organisation had gone to England, to Norway, to Denmark; and in turn, had ‘arranged for English, Danish and Norwegian farmers to visit this country’.

The report also emphasised the lengths the organisations had went to in exchanging information, organising lectures and discussions with other bodies, in an effort to further their aims.[32]

This in some ways completed a journey which began midway through the previous century. Grundtvig’s idea of rural education attracted educators like William Stavely Armour to Denmark to learn more about this non-traditional form of education, this in turn spread throughout the island of Ireland, before returning to Northern Europe and Denmark in particular.

The transfer of ideas across time and borders show an Ireland at the heart of rural educational reform across Europe and beyond, and go some way to dispelling the notion that Ireland was a place a part in a modernising Europe.


References

[1] S. Alexander Blair, “Ulster’s Country Youth”: the First Fifty Years of the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster (Belfast, 1979), p. 13.

[2] T. W. Freeman, ‘Emigration and rural Ireland’ in Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. XVII, Part 3, (1945/1946), pp 404-422.

[3] Terence Dooley, ‘Land and Politics in Independent Ireland, 1923-48: The Case for Reappraisal’ in Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 34, No. 134 (Nov., 2004), pp. 175-197

[4] Ibid.

[5] Freeman, T. W. ‘Emigration and rural Ireland’. – Dublin: Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. XVII, Part 3, 1945/1946, pp404-422

[6] Olwen Perdue ‘Confiscation or regeneration? Land purchase in the North of Ireland 1885 – 1925’

[7] M. Lawson, N.F.S. Grundtvig, in Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education vol. XXIII, no. 3/4, 1993, p. 613–23.

[8] Rolland G. Paulston (1980) Education as Anti‐structure: non‐formal education in social and ethnic movements, Comparative Education, 16:1, 55-66

[9] A brief history of the folk high school: https://www.danishfolkhighschools.com/about-folk-high-schools/history/

[10] Clay Warren, ‘Andragogy and N. F. S. Grundtvig: A Critical Link’ in Adult Education Quarterly, Vol 39, Issue 4, 1989.

[11] S. Alexander Blair, Ulster’s Country Youth: The First Fifty years of the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster, (Belfast, 1978), p. 18.

[12] A brief history of the folk high school: https://www.danishfolkhighschools.com/about-folk-high-schools/history/

[13] Belfast News Letter, 31 Oct. 1929.

[14] Belfast News Letter, 3 Dec. 1931.

[15] Belfast News Letter, 22 Mar. 1939.

[16] Nenagh Guardian, 27 Sept. 1919.

[17] Cormac Ó Gráda ‘The beginnings of the Irish creamery system, 1880–1914’ in

Economic History Review 30, (May, 1977), pp. 284–305.

[18] E. F. Fain Nationalist Origins of the Folk High School: The Romantic Visions of N.F.S. Grundtvig in British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Feb., 1971), pp. 70-90

[19] Ibid

[20] Meath Chronicle, 2 Jan. 1926.

[21] Irish Independent, 9 Jun. 1926.

[22] (P.R.O.N.I., Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster Reports 1943-1946, ED/13/1/2121)

[23] Louis P. F. Smith, The Role of Farmers Organizations in An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 44, No. 173 (Spring, 1955), pp. 49-56

[24] Ibid

[25] Irish Independent, 21 Aug. 1942.

[26] Irish Independent, 21 Aug. 1942.

[27] ‘MNT Rural Week Record 1942’ (Printed by the Limerick Leader, Limited) p 98.

[28] Michael Shiel, The Quiet Revolution: The Electrification of Rural Ireland 1946-76 (Dublin, 2003), p.183.

[29] Munster Express, 16 Mar. 1945.

[30] Longford Leader, 22 Dec. 1945.

[31] M. Shiel, The Quiet Revolution, p. 182.

[32] Kilkenny People, 17 Dec. 1949.


agriculture Alexander Blair Belfast News Letter Belfast Newsletter Better Farmers border communities community Comparative Education Cultural nationalism Danish Folk Movement Denmark Dr Livingstone Europe Irish Independent Irish Land Act Northern Ireland Rural Week Ulster William Stavely Armour


Did you like this article? Share it with your friends!
Posted by at
Labels: ,

Saving the American Farmer: The Impact of Danish Agricultural Practices on American Policy Direction

Saving the American Farmer: The Impact of Danish Agricultural Practices on American Policy Direction

2016 

Saving the American Farmer: The Impact of Danish Agricultural Practices on American Policy Direction 

Byron Rom-Jensen 2015 Bodtker Grant Recipient
==

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)