FIELDCLUB

Dietary Requirements
We have chosen to set our daily calorific requirement at 3000Kcals and 2600Kcals for one adult male and one adult female, respectively. This is high compared to World Health Organization recommendations, but allows for contingencies such as crop failures and spoilage in storage. We have also chosen a low protein intake compared to normal Western dietary standards, but it is still more than double the WHO and UNHCR dietary levels for overseas aid rations.

We have chosen a balanced diet including a selection of fruit, nuts, grains, beans, and vegetables that successfully grow in our area of the UK. The female Unit member is vegetarian and achieves her main protein requirement from pulses. The male Unit member is omnivorous and has chosen to include modest amounts of goat and chicken meats in his diet.  Both FIELDCLUB protagonists include eggs, and goat milk, cheese and yogurt in their diets. 

The animals raised at FIELDCLUB will be grazed on a wildflower meadow, and will have their diets supplemented with fodder crops, rye grains and field beans.

Fuel Requirements
We have estimated our fuel requirements based on the heat-loss calculations for a small, shared straw bale house. Fuel requirements for cooking are based on using a ‘Rocket’ stove (http://www.stovetec.net/us/index.php) and an earth oven. The Rocket stove’s fuel consumption is estimated, but we are currently doing research to verify our figures. 

We have chosen to use wood primarily obtained from red alder and willow coppices.  A small percentage of our fuel requirements will come from native-broadleaved woodland – a comparatively inefficient way of growing biomass, but important for reasons of native species bio-diversity. We have included space in our Unit design for a small crop of biofuel in order to make ethanol to power small machines which will assist us in growing crops – a practice which will be the locus for future study and analysis.  

Permanent pasture/Herb-rich grazing
Wildflower meadows for grazing animals and producing hay are also successional. When the FIELDCLUB site was purchased, the site was a single improved pasture field. Over the last 6 years the areas designated as permanent pasture have been cut for hay annually, but as no fertilizer has been applied, the 'improved' status of the meadow has been compromised. As the fertility drops each year, the meadow becomes a more suitable environment for a greater variety of wild grasses and flowers which normally cannot compete with high nitrogen dependent improved grass species. The gradual denuding of nutrients, and re-establishment of local wild flower species is expected to take decades. Herb-rich grazing has a lower yield, i.e. less head of cattle can be raised per hectare, but the benefit to general bio-diversity is well documented.

Herb-rich grazing at FIELDCLUB: