Creating an enabling policy environment for farmers
The application of True Cost Accounting can be used to re-establish farming systems that operate within planetary boundaries and produce food in harmony with nature across the globe.
Building resilient food and farming systems
The Collective, The Individual and the Big Man: A Note on Small Farms, Racism and the Media
I wannabe a voice as best I can for those tried and tested strategies of innumerable small-scale and peasant farmers down the ages who for the most part never left a script, never had a book to sell, a big idea or a guru to promote, but who I believe have nevertheless still left much from which people today can learn.
Least worst politics
Instead of the ‘best of all possible worlds’, then, the responsibility is to identify the ‘least bad of all likely worlds’ and the ways it may be realized.
How I grew, and lost, a rainforest
Between 2004 and 2007 we planted seven acres of young saplings on our site, which have now grown into some pretty hefty trees providing numerous benefits – constructional timber, firewood, food, wildlife habitat, wind protection and recreation among them.
Local Food Saves the Day (Again)
Disruptions like the cyberattack highlight the problems with an industrialized food system and the need for policies that support local food systems.
Forced farm labour: Exposing the hidden cost
On a basic level, the health, skills and number of workers affect the efficiency and functioning of the farm – a strong, healthy and skilled workforce is more likely to be resilient to the day-to-day challenges of farm life and especially new ones arising with climate change.Â
Finding meaning in the hard work of farming and growing: What will drive the next generation?
We need a movement, a movement with meaning, that tells the next generation that being a farmer, that being grower, can be great and immensely fulfilling even as it is hard as rocks, but also that the meaning it offers is embedded in the land, in nature and the very heart of the earth and that we are there to care for it.
A circular food system can withstand crises like COVID-19 — and provide delicious meals
In a circular food economy, food waste becomes valuable, affordable healthy food becomes accessible to everyone and innovation uses a regenerative approach to how food is produced, distributed and consumed.
There could be billions of dollars coming for conservation: What does that mean for rural communities?
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 Richmond Grows Seed Library
In May of 2010, spearheaded by Rebecca Newburn, the Richmond Rivets Transition Initiative opened the Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library.
Using farms as educational platforms
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.
Musselshell Watershed: Centered on the Next Generation
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.
