Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It looks set to be another stimulating start to the year for real foodies and regenerative farmers as the Oxford Real Farming Conference, “the largest gathering of the agroecological movement on the planet”, returns from 4 – 6 January 2023.
In short, keeping animals teaches you how to respect life. You respect it when you raise it, and you respect it if you take it, and you certainly do not look at food in the same way.
Looking at the food system in a holistic manner and employing a diverse set of strategies is the best way to ensure lasting and stable change.
Building resilient local communities is at the heart of Transition; and access to good quality, fresh food that is healthy, for people and planet, is a core element.
Founded in 2010, SCF is run as a community benefit society, a type of co-operative, whereby the farm business is owned by roughly 400 members of the public and counting.
In French, the word for food processing is the same as the word for sweeping social change: transformation. Alex Beaudin dreams of doing both.
The war demonstrated that smallholders can better adapt and survive in extreme conditions by relying on short food chains, alternative farm inputs, mutual help and reciprocity.
Finding a way out of this “polycrisis” requires a deep transformation in how energy and food are produced and distributed, with actions that challenge corporate control head on.
McGhee and her neighbors are participating in a pilot program to build zero-waste systems for Detroit. It’s something they say the city sorely needs. For decades, Detroit was home to one of the country’s largest waste incinerators.
A need for balance, a redefined social contract, and local movements inspiring and empowering other local movements has been recognized, and now it’s time for it to take root.
“But we desperately need climate investments that are part of a safety net for farmers, so they can continue stewarding the land when a disaster strikes.”
A recent rural resilience gathering in the Loire-Atlantique, France saw farmers, cooks, elected officials, analysts, rural activists, volunteers and others drawn from the local and European agroecology and rural resilience movements, meet to work on the future of the socio-ecological transition.
