Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
We have a chance to change the game when it comes to climate, conservation and jobs in rural America. These changes won’t solve every problem, but they can be an important step forward.
The Gila River Indian Community is ensuring that its members have long-term access to their own resources while helping solve broader water supply problems in the region.
Since my book A Small Farm Future makes quite a play for local self-reliance, I thought I should at least temporarily try to put my money (or, more pertinently, my produce) where my mouth is by only eating food produced on my farm for a week.
In May of 2010, spearheaded by Rebecca Newburn, the Richmond Rivets Transition Initiative opened the Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library.
If it is true that we only have 10 years or so to bring about the great transition towards regenerative and sustainable farming systems, then our need to create an informally coordinated network of beacon farms, hopefully working collectively to become more than the sum of their parts in the educational process, becomes absolutely imperative.
Imagine a tropical paradise alive with plants and animals, all living in perfect harmony and producing plentiful food for local people. You might be imagining somewhere like South America, but this story is actually set in Devon, England.
Where ponds are cleared, wildlife and biodiversity return rapidly to farmland. Plants recolonise within just 6 months, creating rustic oases amidst bland fields of monocrop.
Our crop of choice, hemp, stands to be a leading material in a transformation from fossil fuel dependence to renewable energy stability.
We are realising the true value of working on the land to grow food – an activity that has been the cornerstone of Ladakhi culture forever. A young farmers’ movement is emerging in Ladakh – a movement that we showcase and celebrate in our film.
We’re currently creating a model to match landowners who are wanting to retire with ranchers who are looking for grazing land. We think that this could be a model that could be adopted anywhere and help to keep grazing land as working lands, as well as bolstering opportunities for young producers.
But I don’t feel too guilty because, as I said above, I think Britain can feed itself well with low impact, low energy and low yield methods. The main problems lie elsewhere.
The establishment of parity pricing for farmers, coupled with supply management and food reserves, would eliminate the conditions for dumping and should smooth price spikes, whether caused by market conditions, or climate change, or shortsighted geopolitical posturing.
