Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
I often just say gardening is standing back and taking a look and seeing what nature’s already doing and not stand in its way. That’s it in a nutshell. If I had to put it all into one sentence, it would be that one.
Severe weather, shifting trade policies, and a lack of support for small farmers are driving coffee prices sky high. Without urgent investment, your daily brew could become a luxury.
There is no “if we all just did x” solution, shorn of local context, to the unravelling of the high-energy global economy. This kind of contextless thinking exemplifies what I call in my forthcoming book the ‘world environmental problems’ framework. It signally fails to provide plausible solutions.
Situated within a bioregion populated by a multitude of small-scale nested ecosystems that grow food and create useful materials alongside textile fibres the fashion farm will require integration into wider production systems and seasons. It will require learning to be we not I. This dream is too big for one person and a single farm, it is something we must manifest together.
This manifesto is a call for constructive defiance. We cannot wait for top-down solutions. The future must be built from below—by cultivating water, restoring land, training youth, and constructing homes that regenerate rather than consume.
Crafting a story and connecting people are centrally important to successfully cultivating biodiversity, as Belgian farmer Tijs Boelens has found out in his work to integrate heritage grains into the supply chain.
Agroecology is a science, a set of practices, and a movement that is critical to the transition to sustainable food systems.
To sum up, I believe the recommendations for healthy food neglects the realities and limitations of the production system as well as of the market place. In addition, some of them are also based on flawed or weakly supported assumptions.
And the Gilgamesh epic as we have received it from the ancient cuneiform tablets is excellent propaganda supporting the idea that cities are better than nomadism and we must have kings ruling us. But my question is: What is a more realistic story about how the conflict played out between the city states in Mesopotamia and the older nomadic culture of the surrounding area?
The more I hear from farmers in the Midwest and elsewhere, the more I see people reimagining what legacy looks like and prioritizing the needs of future farmers. It’s encouraging to know so many people are thinking outside the box and working toward solutions that will help evolve agriculture.
Humans and human societies are ecologically active and dependent agents and the food-agro-ecosystems need to follow similar principles as other ecosystems in order to be sustainable in the long run.
How can the necessary relocalisation of food systems be reconciled with a need for exchange based on mutual aid, complementarity, and reciprocity? Can local biodiversity (and its products) support territorially grounded agricultural economies while also nurturing the emergence of spaces for innovation and cooperation across diverse realities?
