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Gunnar Rundgren

Gunnar Rundgren has worked with most parts of the organic farmer sector – from farming to policy - since 1977, starting on the pioneer organic farm, Torfolk. Founder and Senior Consultant of Grolink AB, he worked for several United Nations agencies and development cooperation organizations including the World Bank. He was a World Board member of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements 1998 and the president 2000-2005. He has written several books, the latest being Global Eating Disorder. Curretly, he runs a small farm with vegetables, fruits and nuts as well as a handful of cows.

San Francisco earthquake

There is No Such Thing as a Business as Usual Scenario

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

One of the firm rules of systems is that you can’t change just one thing. Why do we keep on discussing options compared to a business as usual scenario? There will be no business as usual scenario when climate change hits and there will be no business as usual scenario if human society takes appropriate action. 

  • November 20, 2019
Consumers buying local organic produce at the authors farm photo: Ann-Helen Meyer von Bremen

Towards a Landscape Diet and Communal Landscape Management

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

In my vision we see farming as landscape management and food is based on the landscape diet, i.e. that you eat food from the landscape you live in. Communities are jointly deciding on major principles of how the landscape is managed and take responsibility for that farmers can do their job in a good way – and eat the stuff from that land.

  • August 5, 2019
fertilizer use

Beware of the N-bomb

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

There are good, and frightening, reasons to closely follow the changes in the nitrogen cycle. We should not be surprised if the effects and costs of disturbing it turn out to be as dramatic as those for the carbon cycle.

  • July 5, 2019
cassava

Five Dollars a Day is Not Enough for Five a Day

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

Very few traditional farming systems have had a high share of fruits and vegetables unless you include starchy crops like plantains, potatoes, cassava or yams in your definition.

  • April 24, 2019
Swedish Friesian

The Planet of the Cows

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

Learning to know each other (the cows and us) and see how we together shape the farm made us think more about cows and cow-man interaction and dependency.

  • March 28, 2019

Only Possible to Feed People Sustainably in an Equitable Society

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

A recent report from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirms that the current food system isn’t sustainable neither for the environment nor for our health. Organic agriculture, conservation farming and agro-ecology are key technologies for a transition to a sustainable food system, which also has to shun artificial nitrogen fertilizers.

  • March 4, 2019
Emporer's New Clothes

You Say You Love your Children Above All Else

By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth

Sometimes, one event or action can trigger a cascade of events which will bring down even the mightiest empire. The school strike of 15-year old Greta Thunberg can be such an event, even if we will not know until later.

  • January 30, 2019
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