practising regenerative agriculture, improving soil fertility (e.g. no-till, aerobic composting, biochar) and focused on producing sustainable, nutritious food.
Photo: West County Community Farm
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What is sustainable food production?
A Farm to Fork strategy that aims to reduce the environmental and climate impact of primary production whilst ensuring fair economic returns for farmers. It is focused on significantly reducing the use and risk of chemical pesticides, the use of fertilisers and sales of antimicrobials as well as increase agricultural land under organic farming. It also seeks to improve animal welfare, protect plant health and promote adoption of new green business models, circular bio-based economy and, in the world’s oceans, the shift to sustainable fish and seafood production.
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THE UNITED KINGDOM:
The Social Democratic Party: ‘Farms, Fields & Food’ – its new Green Paper on agriculture and the countryside (Feb. 2024).
Farms, Fields & Food tackles the crisis in agriculture, the rural environment and Britain’s food system – a system which is harmful to animal welfare, public health, food security and degrades our fields, rivers and wildlife. For every £1 we spend on food, we spend another £1 in hidden costs. Successive governments have sacrificed long-term prosperity – our natural capital – for short-term gain.
Britain has become a country of food banks and yet over 25% of food is wasted in the home and 9% before leaving the farm gate. Britain’s farmers – squeezed by the supermarkets and food cartels – struggle to make a living and most make more from subsidies than from farming itself. The abuse of antibiotics, pesticides and nitrate fertilisers has made farming neither economically secure nor ecologically viable.
Farms, Fields & Food makes the case that the primary causes of our difficulties – ignored for a generation by our political class – relate to the structure of our farming and food systems and the incentives they apply. The solutions lie in facing up to the true cost of good food, the value of ecological restoration and the necessity of trade policies aimed at greater national food security.
The Green Paper advocates a comprehensive re-balance to achieve four targets:
* Affordable healthy food and fair prices to producers.
* Sustainable farming and environmental restoration.
* Thriving rural communities and a small farm future.
* UK food security in a global market.
SDP Leader William Clouston comments:
“Farming and food has – rightly – become a massive political issue and so the SDP’s new Green Paper is timely. Our farmers are struggling, our fields and rivers are degraded and many fellow citizens find it hard to source good quality nutritious food. The Government’s answer is to ignore these problems and rely even more heavily on food imports – a massive economic and strategic mistake.”
“We must stop deceiving ourselves. The crisis in our farming and food system is both an economic and a cultural problem – partly the marker of a throwaway society. We must face up to the true cost of healthy food and the need for trade policies that protect British producers and consumers.”
The Full Report: https://sdp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/farms-fields-and-food-sdp-green-paper-on-agriculture-feb-2024.pdf
The important of soil health for our civilisation’s future
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https://www.carboncowboys.org/
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Sustainable agroecosystems: Cropping using regenerative agricultural principles
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The problems associated with industrial agriculture
Industrial agriculture is increasingly dominating the world market. It’s forcing small farmers to quit and taking over vast swathes of land. This documentary illustrates how destructive the lucrative agribusiness is, especially in terms of the cheap but low nutrition food being produced.
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The Power of Rainwater Harvesting Practices
“More than one billion people around the world now live in water-stressed regions, a number that is expected to double by 2050, when an estimated nine billion people will inhabit the planet.”
World Health Organization
The site also acts as information resource for farmers wanting to discover more about rainwater harvesting techniques for arid and semi-arid areas. It provides information and case studies from countries around the world, with Ethiopia as a leading example. In addition, it features a range of information sources on increasing global water scarcity and pollution and how this is impacting local rural communities.
Guided by Paani Foundation’s chief advisor, Dr. Avinash Pol, we visit the work and see the effects of a watershed-scale groundwater restoration project that has dramatically improved the lives, economy, ecology and stability of this village, all in 45 days!
Kitui Sand Dams [1.12.2011]
Small-scale sand dams on seasonal rivers are proving an effective method of holding water in the ground and protecting it against evaporation, thus benefitting the local communities involved in their construction, improving their livelihoods and stimulating regional economic growth.
https://youtu.be/r-FqlHQxvGk
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Financing and expanding rural and agricultural markets in developing countries
Connexus Corporation’s mission is to provide high quality global consulting services to transform international development and build local capacity.
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What should be the future of farming?
THE UNITED STATES: A NEW FARM BILL
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Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson – A 50-year Farm Bill
THE extraordinary rainstorms last June caused catastrophic soil erosion in the grain lands of Iowa, where there were gullies 200 feet wide. But even worse damage is done over the long term under normal rainfall by the little rills and sheets of erosion on incompletely covered or denuded cropland, and by various degradations resulting from industrial procedures and technologies alien to both agriculture and nature.
Soil that is used and abused in this way is as nonrenewable as (and far more valuable than) oil. Unlike oil, it has no technological substitute and no powerful friends in the halls of government.
Agriculture has too often involved an insupportable abuse and waste of soil, ever since the first farmers took away the soil-saving cover and roots of perennial plants. Civilizations have destroyed themselves by destroying their farmland. This irremediable loss, never enough noticed, has been made worse by the huge monocultures and continuous soil-exposure of the agriculture we now practice.
Read more
Wendell Berry’s Right Kind of Farming [1.10.2018]
Agricultural choices must be made by these inescapable standards: the ecological health of the farm and the economic health of the farmer.
How we farm matters. For the past two centuries, America’s farms have expanded and homogenized, and farming equipment and chemicals have replaced personnel. Farmers have grown older and more isolated and are retiring without successors.
Our embrace of industrialization and “factory farming” has not resulted in greater economic security for most American farmers. The nation has suffered a historic slump in prices for corn, soybeans, milk, wheat and other commodities. It has lost half its dairy farmers in the past 18 years. And The Wall Street Journal warned in early 2017 that “the next few years could bring the biggest wave of farm closures since the 1980s.”
The farmer, essayist and poet Wendell Berry has long argued that today’s agricultural practices are detrimental to ecology, community and the local economies that farms once served. A native Kentuckian, Mr. Berry has written over 40 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and has received a Guggenheim fellowship, the National Humanities Medal and the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
Read more
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A model for restoring once vibrant rural towns
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An example of a socially and environmentally responsible company
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David Holmgren and Retrosuburbia
https://retrosuburbia.com/
David Holmgren
co-originator of the permaculture concept
RetroSuburbia is part manual and part manifesto. The book shows how Australian suburbs can be transformed to become productive and resilient in an energy descent future. It focuses on what can be done by an individual at the household level (rather than community or government levels).
RetroSuburbia is a source of inspiration, introducing concepts and outlining patterns and practical solutions. It empowers people to make positive changes in their lives. As with David’s previous work, it is thought provoking and provocative.
If you are already on the path of downshifting and living simply, exploring RetroSuburbia will be a confirmation and celebration that you are on the right track and guide you on the next steps forward. If you are just beginning this journey, it provides a guide to the diversity of options and helps work out priorities for action. For people concerned about making ends meet in more challenging times, RetroSuburbia provides a new lens for creatively sidestepping the obstacles.
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