Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In the words of Mathieu Hamon, another associate of La Ferme des 7 Chemins, if we are to tackle urgent issues: “We have to move fast but not too fast”. We can build rural resilience together, one act of unsung activism at a time.
Namely, if we switch from chemically dependent agriculture to biologically based farming systems operating in harmony with nature and within planetary boundaries, how much food could we produce on an acre, from a region, a country or the entire planet? And would this be enough to nourish us all?
Although often overlooked in discussions around climate policy, agriculture is beginning to earn recognition as both a driver of climate change and a key part of the solution.
Seeds for hope were sown this summer at the Seeds4all seminar, when cereal farmers and breeders from several countries gathered on the island of Pellworm in July to discuss the future of local organic seed production.
There are going to be people denying the existence of climate change or saying that we should redress it with next-generation nuclear energy or working-class revolutionary struggle until the waves close over their heads.
This project, run by Bristol Food Connections, aims to reconnect people with our rural hinterland by introducing some of the farmers and food producers in and around Bristol, capturing the stories of the people who feed us and why they farm, what their life as a farmer is like, and how COVID-19 has impacted them as producers.
As NAFSN highlighted the implications of the viral outbreak for the region, it also considered the crisis to be an opportunity to create an alternative to the current unjust and precarious systems we are living under.
We need to move forward with agroecological regenerative mixed rotational farming that embraces a holistic engagement with the land that is farmed, ensuring that everything in and on it has a place within a frame of practice that could be called ‘Ecology Now’.
We must adopt an ecosystem approach to identify sustainable food systems that can exist within our planet’s boundaries, argues Stuart Meikle in the first of a four-part series.
I’ve taken it upon myself to project a small farm future, not to produce some social blueprint of appropriate living arrangements as determined by myself.
Broadening the understanding of craft products to include raw and value-added products, as well as the shifting the focus away from chefs in urban areas gives a more holistic and diverse picture of what modern southern food looks like today and who is responsible for producing it.
I want to create a movement of families and communities who have these kinds of strong bonds, better health, greater happiness, and more self-sufficiency. I want people to come together to increase the value and meaning in their own lives.
