Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
As geopolitical tensions drive up resource costs and disrupt supply, fertilizer prices may soar, endangering farming systems dependent on imports. Regenerative solutions, like green manure and community finance, are expanding across African countries, restoring local control over food systems.
In Malawi, farmers who have embraced agroecology are navigating the challenges of climate change, market pressures, and community needs.
In Malawi, where agriculture is central to daily life, an internship with an agroecology organisation offers an inside look at farming practices that challenge industrial food systems and support food sovereignty.
What if, instead of going into debt to invest in their farms, farmers came together to pool equipment? What if, instead of struggling to run a small farm alone, there was extra help at hand? What if new entrants could draw on the experience of more established farmers in their local area? It may sound too good to be true, but this is the reality with France’s network of Agricultural Machinery Cooperatives (CUMA).
In Tughgoz village, located in the remote Ishkashim District of Tajikistan, agriculture is more than a livelihood — it is the foundation of daily life. Like many rural communities in the region, village residents rely on their land, local knowledge, and traditional seed varieties to sustain their families and protect their future.
We’d love you to follow our exciting journey into the specifics and challenges of vertically micro-manufacturing the first bioregional, ecological UK linen in decades!
If we take back control of our food and our water we stop environmental degradation. We cannot do it alone. But we can do it within a community.
There are many answers, and maybe none are completely right. But some of them are better than others. You find something that works for you and your land because you kept working at it. That is what most advice leaves out, and that is where the real work is.
To be clear, a sustainable farmer does not grow food. With adequate nutrition from the soil, with energy from the sun, and moisture from the rain, plants do all the growing by themselves. And animals grow by acquiring the energy and nutrition from plants.
As I’ve emphasized repeatedly here, the fundamental problem isn’t the contextual distinction between farming and foraging. It’s the way that predatory states exploit both. But now we need to find more resilient, local, stress-tolerant strategies.
It is time to examine how we live, where we live, where we draw the line. We can take our anxiety and move it into action. We can plan and protect ourselves. And, amazingly, wonderfully, saving rainwater is something every one of us can do. It’s time.
If we and our descendants succeed in realising this new green Earth, I think it will result from ordinary people sharing and distributing what they need locally to generate renewable communities oriented to practical livelihood.
