This Island Life
Ours is a particular kind of small farm. It’s been called diverse, traditional, insignificant, wonderful, productive, inefficient, and a subdivision waiting to happen. We call it home, of course.
Food & Water
Farming and Food for the Soul
I feel very blessed to be a Cuban woman, a farmer, and a teacher. I wake up early, I spend all day on the farm, working hard, managing the workers, planting, harvesting, selling, teaching—I do all of this out of love for my work. My work is my life.
California is Turning Farms into Carbon-sucking Factories
In a grand experiment, California switched on a fleet of high-tech greenhouse gas removal machines last month. Funded by the state’s cap-and-trade program, they’re designed to reverse climate change by sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These wonderfully complex machines are more high-tech than anything humans have designed. They’re called plants.
Supporting Organic Agriculture “Is Truly Putting America First”
As organic agriculture is the fastest growing agricultural sector—the majority of new farmers are choosing to farm using organic practices and organic farm management offers a long list of environmental benefits—I am hopeful Congress will incorporate Farm Bill policies that allow for continued and supported growth of the industry.
Scaling Global Solutions Is a Local Proposition
A native Argentinean, Daniela is an agronomist by profession and holds a MS in Natural Resource Management and Economics. With over 25 years of international experience in ranching, Holistic Management, and collaborative ecosystem restoration programs, Daniela cofounded the Savory Institute in 2009, and became its CEO in 2011.
America’s ‘Cadillac Desert’: Is there a substitute for fresh water?
There is no substitute for potable water—despite what economic theory may wish to assert. To get enough of it in many locales will be increasingly expensive as we turn to ever more exotic means to extract water while both population grows and climate-enhanced droughts diminish replenishment of existing sources.
Igniting a Revolution in the Way Humanity Feeds Itself
There is a level of unforeseen radicalization just beginning to occur in the emergence of highly localized regional food systems which is not only heartening but may point to a a clear pathway forward for the evolution of humanity. This is a local food revolution. It’s already underway, and it’s contagious.
The Future of UK Farming
The Future of UK Farming conference, organised by the SFT, took place this past weekend with over 300 people attending. Hosted by Sir Alan and Lady Parker at Fir Farm in the beautiful Cotswolds, it was a lively two days of meaningful debate and deep conversations on how we best grasp the opportunity that Brexit offers to transform the UK food system.
Think Globally, Eat Glocally!
Can a new ethic about “ethnic” foods transform our food system to be more diverse, inclusive & local? Can heritage Mexican, African or Chinese foods be grown in a cold North American or European climate — enough food at a good enough price to meet food security, multicultural, sustainable and affordability needs of a modern cosmopolitan city?
A Small Farm Utopia
When I made a case for a small farm future somewhere or other a while back, I got a tweeted reply “Your utopia is my dystopia”. I found this slightly odd since the case I try to make for small-scale farming isn’t that it’s the best of all possible worlds – more like the best of a bad job given the circumstances we face.
The Biggest Thing We Forget When Talking About Food Justice
The food justice movement is one of the most promising political developments of the last generation. It has broadened and deepened environmentalism by knitting together concerns about economic inequality, labor rights, environmental health, and sustainable agriculture.
A View from the Air: Carbon Sequestration, Midwestern Farms and Biodiversity
This is where large-scale regenerative land management comes into play: it is the most effective tool for carbon sequestration that presently exists. Carbon sequestration through natural means includes not only vitally important conservation and restoration, but necessitates incorporation into all landscape management.
