Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Tillage has become both excessively utilized and extreme in its damage to soil functions, especially with the development of more powerful equipment. Many growers are now seeking to limit this damage by being much more careful and judicious in their use of tillage equipment. This is often referred to as reduced tillage. When systems are developed that require essentially no disturbance of the soil, no-till has been achieved.
The polarisation of the meat debate is driving a dangerous divide between people united by the same aim: saving the planet. We need to stop demonising and start collaborating. Whether we choose to eat animal protein or not, the thing that really matters is that we think about our food choices. Forget omnivore, flexitarian, vegetarian, vegan – we should all be united as thoughtful eaters.
Preventing food waste and shortening the food chain from farmer to consumer is the driving force behind a sustainable Crowdfarming project in Valencia. The brainchild of Gonzalo and Gabriel Úrculo, who found themselves with a semi-abandoned orange farm just outside Valencia, has been so successful, they are now at the forefront of an agricultural revolution in rural Spain.
A new study reports that agroforestry—a method integrating trees with crops and livestock—is linked with more benefits for human and planetary health than previously thought. The study, conducted by a team of 21 researchers from World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, reveals agroforestry’s impacts on food and nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa.
With this free fertilizer scheme I can still garden successfully if I don’t have extra cash to spend on fertilizer. I can still garden if my local hardware store goes out of business and I lose easy access to purchased inputs. I can still garden if something goes really wrong with the world, supply chains fail and it’s no longer possible to buy fertilizer.
Bast fiber plants have proven their value throughout tens of thousands of years of relationship with humans. Their cultivation can be rooted in modern agroecological methods and offers a way to meet material needs with beautiful, natural textiles with a range of properties from breathability to biodegradation.
Mohammed Ruzzi is manager of the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA), a network of 51 cooperatives supporting 1200 farmers in the north of Palestine’s West Bank region. PFTA farmers export organic fairtrade olive oil and other products to the UK through Zaytoun, a UK social enterprise.
In many ways, COP is bad in that it’s failing to achieve the measures that are so desperately needed to avert the climate crisis and achieve climate justice. But, COP is an opportunity for us in the UK to push our politicians to take stronger action on climate change. ‘People Make Glasgow’ is the official slogan adopted by Glasgow City Council in 2013 – I don’t think it was meant to refer explicitly to the slave trade that helped to build the city but the council openly acknowledge this history, and COP26 is an opportunity to highlight the impacts of historical and current colonialism.
So, if you’re rich enough to think about these things, I’d commend the opening question as a handy personal resilience health-checker. Are there farms and gardens within walking distance of where you live that can provide for all your food needs, and those of all the other local residents? More to the point if you’re not yourself a farmer or a grower, are there people within walking distance of where you live who are likely to be willing to provide for your food needs in future scenarios of energy, climate or economic turbulence?
Unless land management strategies are overhauled to reduce the gap between forestry and agriculture, it will be impossible to feed and nourish the human population without further damaging the environment and forests, according to scientists.
The primarily low-tech, shovel-ready, affordable solutions that we need already exist in every nation and region. We don’t need to invent new techniques. We simply need to identify, publicize, replicate, and scale up currently existing best practices utilizing farmer-to-farmer education and training, with major support and funding from the public and private sectors.
As part of CAWR’s Stabilisation Agriculture Programme, I recently visited Chimanimani district in Zimbabwe to initiate comparative research on how conventional and agroecologically managed landscapes coped with the impacts of Cyclone Idai in March 2019. Idai deposited the total annual rainfall in the first twelve hours alone – yet sat over and devastated Chimanimani for three days.
