Tasting Independence in Beaufortain

By Philippe Barret, ARC2020

Philippe Barret tells the story of Beaufortain, a community in the French Alps that has been coming together to practice rural sustainability since the 17th century.

Pond Life Revives Hope for On-Farm Wildlife

By Ursula Billington, ARC2020

Where ponds are cleared, wildlife and biodiversity return rapidly to farmland. Plants recolonise within just 6 months, creating rustic oases amidst bland fields of monocrop.

Young farmers in Ladakh: the future of our food

By Kunzang Deachen, Chozin Palmo, Jigmet Singge, Local Futures

We are realising the true value of working on the land to grow food – an activity that has been the cornerstone of Ladakhi culture forever. A young farmers’ movement is emerging in Ladakh – a movement that we showcase and celebrate in our film.

Labour on the farm

By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future

So there is no virtue in having a labour-lean, capital-intensive agriculture when labour is abundant and capital is thin on the ground. It will not improve quality of life, which is a more powerful underlying aim than mere ‘efficiency’.

Mexico Makes Strides in Agroecology

By Victor M. Toledo, Esperanza Project

Agroecology has arrived at Mexico’s 4T government. It has arrived not as an explicit and coherent State policy, but rather as a set of actions that get better as they are articulated and consolidated.

Around the world, Indigenous seed banks are helping to preserve culture, boost nutrition and protect the environment

By Andrew Wight, Ensia

From Guatemala to Oklahoma, communities are tackling multiple challenges by saving seeds of traditional agricultural crops.

Donations to Black-Led Food and Land Organizations Shift from Charitable Giving to True Reparations

By Ruth Terry, YES! magazine

Transferring wealth to Black-led groups is a particularly potent form of reparations with immediate benefits to communities of color.

Planet Farm

By Rob Wallace, New Internationalist

As industrial agriculture encroaches into the last wild places of the Earth, it’s unleashing dangerous pathogens. Time to heal the metabolic rift between ecology and economy

Resources for a better future: Permaculture

By Rebecca Ellis, Uneven Earth

Permaculture has transformative potential when practitioners move away from promoting it as a depoliticized set of ecological design practices and principles.

Swidden as politics

By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future

But the choice of swidden that interests me most for my present purposes is when it’s adopted as a way to avoid being caught in a political net of constant productivity gain and, ultimately, state centralization and ‘modernization’.

The Gift of Ecological Humility

By Leah Penniman, YES! magazine

Many of us have forgotten that our cultural heritage as Black people includes ecological humility, the idea that humans are kin to, not masters of, nature.

Tribes Revive Traditional Hemp Economies

By Winona LaDuke, YES! magazine

With 10,000 uses, hemp is one of the most versatile plants to grow—and in many ways can be a catalyst for change for Native peoples.