Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Organic breeding techniques have a different relationship to time and place than genetic engineering methods; other aspects of being in a market economy and of using specialised machinery have their own relationships to time too.
The economy, aka capitalism, is governed by growth and competition. Therefore, the currently popular notion that businesses or the private sector will drive sustainability is delusional.
But… I have to admit that hope is not why I garden nor why I cook. Not really. I do these things because they make me happy.
I want my garden to be useful. And that means it should produce a harvest that I can use. It also means it should provide home and shelter to as many other beings as possible.
Wassailing is an old pagan tradition: villagers would visit the orchards on Twelfth Night to drive out the devil by creating a bit of a din and to appease good spirits by making offerings to the tree to ensure a good harvest. The word “wassail” is thought to be old English for good health.
If evidence collected in timely fashion by an independent agency stands up in court, legal routes to compensation become a viable option for customers. This in turn should provide a considerable motivation for water providers – private or otherwise – to finally start cleaning up their shit.
Our latest research shows farming and other human-driven ecosystem changes increased diversity as often as they reduced it.
We can farm like an ecosystem, we can hold onto the rainwater and disperse it when needed. And, with trees nearby, they do much of the work for us. Why aren’t we paying attention?
The Om Sleiman farm in the village of Bil’in is part of a growing agroecology movement in the occupied West Bank that is turning to sustainable farming as a way to resist the Israeli occupation and stay rooted to the land. Established in 2016, Om Sleiman—Arabic for “ladybug”—aims to connect Palestinians to the produce they consume and to promote food sovereignty.
In Catalonia, a community-driven initiative has produced a successful case of ecologically aware agriculture, centred around the principles of degrowth.
I thought I’d introduce a new element to the blog starting today with this first ‘news’ post. The idea is to intersperse my longer essay-style offerings with shorter postings on matters that seem newsworthy according to my idiosyncratic view of world affairs.
The rivers, those beings that have always inhabited different worlds, are the ones that suggest to me that if there is a future to imagine, it is ancestral, because it is already present.
