Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
But how did we get from the Palaeolithic foraging of my last post to the very apogee of mixed agrarianism shown in the picture? I’m glad you asked. To answer it, I need to go to way back when and return to my main historical thread by looking at some of the tensions within…
In the beginning, there was a Miocene ape – the common ancestor of our genus Homo and our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and gorillas. It bequeathed to us its descendants, so the primatologists suggest, a tendency towards (particularly male, but also female) status ranking. Do we need to go that far back into our evolutionary past in order to understand the nature of status competition in contemporary societies? Perhaps it’s a sociological heresy to say so, but I think the answer is quite possibly yes.
Schwennesen is among a new cadre of farmers and ranchers that brings a more holistic, ecological way of thinking to land management.
I read an article on the DTN/Progressive Farming website that once again shows how difficult it is to resolve differences of opinion in farming disagreements. The article was an even-sided discussion of possible overproduction of organic crops, (which I plan to write about soon) but a respondent took the occasion to launch into a rather vitriolic attack on organic farming. He was irritated about the organic stand against herbicides.
By banning pesticides in a referendum, the community of Mals in Southern Tyrol is set to garner worldwide attention. That does not mean that the conflict is settled.
Most people know that there’s a huge wealth gap between the industrialized and so-called ‘developing’ worlds. But there’s another gap, one that’s rarely discussed in the media, or even by NGOs. It involves changing attitudes to farming, to the land and the soil.
Healthy land needs diversity. Have you ever seen a patch of wild nature occupied by just one species?
Pedaling our bicycles and gear across the American West at a steady 12 miles an hour, my friend Neil and I have begun to fathom just how much land our society dedicates to growing food, particularly grains.
This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, author Dean Kuipers, explores how farms get the money they need to grow the food we eat.
Let’s be clear from the outset: I’m no fan of conventional desalination.
“Agroecology applies the principles of ecology to the design and management of sustainable food systems.”
The old cliché of a mugger’s threat sums up well the choice before us in these times: "Your money or your life".
