The Integrated Food Production System (IFPS)
The Mushroom and Poultry based Integrated Food Production System (IFPS) is based on Mushroom Production from agro-biomass and rearing of the Planetary Community Chickens (PCC) which enables the recycling of nutrients to create more value in form of animal feed and fertilizer for crops.
Why Mushrooms?
Mushrooms belong to one of the most interesting kingdoms of nature, the fungi kingdom that modern day science continues to highly embrace and appreciate beyond just the tasty and nutritious edible mushrooms but for its power to replenish the natural biodiversity of soils and even cleaning contaminated water. In our day and age, it is impossible to build a resilient environment, food, and nutrition system without looking to mushrooms given the harsh environmental conditions and the complete depletion of soils due to use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that hinder traditional food production.
Why specifically PCC?
Modern poultry flocks have become genetically impoverished due to industrialized farming and are at considerable risk of diseases. The PCC comes out of an artistic-philosophical crossbreeding work by Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen. A continuous crossbreeding of chicken species in the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (CCP), has resulted in the birth of chickens that show a remarkably higher genetic diversity.
Typically, every household maintains a flock on chickens in the areas where we work. The flocks are much threatened by diseases and slow growth due to inbreeding. In view of these challenges in our target areas, the PCC presents an opportunity as the breed easily adapts and thrives in different environmental conditions due to its vitality. The PCC counters genetic erosion of modern breeding systems by coupling the local Road Runner and Layers Chicken species to the CCP. The Road Runner and Layers chicken absorb the diverse genetic pool of the CCP rooster and produce a vital community chicken that can provide its host community with both eggs and meat more efficiently - building on what already works locally!