morethanorganic

For over-consuming countries, who are beginning to see their situation reflected by imbalance in the wellbeing of people, environment and planet, a revolution is at hand.  This is not about over-throwing governments or annahilating capitalism - this is a revolution of minds: how we view ourselves and our place within our living world system.

Every new generation experiences different conditions that help shape their view of the world.  Along with these d...

This land is a canvas

This land is clay to sculpt

Work without interuption anchors this wild monkey

Persevearance brings focus

Held here, the mountain is familiar

strong and deep

Held here, the connection is authentic

We´ve met before

Dearest friend, know me

There are many sincere people working hard to convince others that our societies and therefore ourselves need to make changes if we are to begin to restore balance to our planet´s ecosystems.  Their case is irrefutable -- we have gone too far already: having destroyed much of our primary forests and dependent ecosystems, and being hell bent on poisioning the land, water and air that support us.  I feel I can relate to many of these people and their causes, and yet it seems they...

One of the crucial points with certified organic farming is that it places an emphasis on the interdependence of living systems.  When we consider just some of the conditions that have to come together to create our food: seed, soil, water, sunlight, warmth, air and farmer, we can see that the food itself cannot be independent or be disconnected from everything else.

Then, when we look deeper into these conditions that create our food, we can see that they also do not appear withou...

There is a clear hole in the logic behind a suggestion made in my previous post  "Just ordinary food".

While waiting to talk with the manager at a large private compost producing company, two trucks arrived with burned residue from a municipal dump!  There´s no need to go into what that burned residue may have contained, I´m sure you get the picture when you consider what gets thrown away.

So what´s the point of that: producing pote...

While we continue to make organic food sound special, it will stay entombed within a niche market, only appealing to sufficiently affluent & / or educated people.  This is fine if you´re one of those people, but most people don´t fall into this category and they need feeding.

It saddens me when we use our interest in organic food to puff up our ´goodness´, wearing it like a badge, while we launch attacks at the ´bad´ farmers who us...

It seems that for many people in over-consuming countries, there is a definite divide between their work and home life.  Many people see work as a necessary evil, and spend much of their time wishing they were doing something else, and in many cases money is the only motivator to continue doing a job.  I like money and it does motivate me, but it seems that when it becomes the only motivator, we can accentuate a sense of disconnectio...

As your farm is a business, you need to communicate with your customers.  People will buy our foods if what we offer matches their needs, is the right price and offers better value than the alternatives.  As small-scale farmers, we have the advantage of having to put ourselves whole-heartedly into this process of communication:  whether it works or not is down to us.

As a farmer, your customers are interested in you, as you control how your food is being grow...

Social Enterprises (SE), are those that benefit a defined cause, often at grass-roots level, and usually seek to empower people to help themselves.

Most new SE, face the challenge of effectively communicating their mission to a pre-defined target group of people who must be convinced to part with more of their hard earned cash, that they currently have less of, and are more likely to give to well established charities.

But for SE, being small has it´s ...

Working pruning olive trees brings a sense of heritage: a heritage of extraordinary value.  Many of these trees are well over 100 years old, some possibly several hundreds.  Each knarled trunk and crooked branch come together to give each tree a character of it´s own.  So many seasons have gone into creating these characters, yet they are still only young adults and with care could well still be around in the next millenium.

The noble generations that pl...

Ever consider why society developed like it has?  Here, society means over-consuming countries such as UK and USA, where life is automated.  Make no mistake about this, making a living from farming the land is probably the hardest phyiscal work you´ll get.  Manual building work may be more intense, but that´s a 9-5 job, whereas farming is a lifestyle, all hours, all weathers, all days.

By now you´re wondering where this is going?  You know ...

Guest blog by Heather Flournoy, @katonahgreen

Heather, blogs on local enviromental issues at www.KatonahGreen.com. Besides being a social media strategist, a mother and a community activist, she has spent over 30 years riding and training and learning from horses and the natural environment. She has apprenticed with numerous holistic healers, practices herbalism and other healing modalities, and is an advocate for sustainable agriculture.

How Horses Ca...

It seems that you´re generally interested in more collaborating.  Different levels, different areas of focus, but you see the point in collaborating to achieve more tangible action.  Yes?

So how do we take this forward?  Here are some initial suggestions to get the ball moving and stir you into bringing your own ideas forward.

In using social media, as a collaborative vehicle to help drive transition to sustainable farming and food, my ...

The soil here in South Catalunya leaves a lot to be desired. Generally, abundant top soil is difficult to track down.  On my land, that had remained fallow for twelve years, the resulting humus had barely made an impact on the deep red clay base. Generally here in Spain, we find that areas rich in fertile top soil command a market premium price - that´s if  this type of land makes it onto the market  - the local people know what´s a good long term investment and hold onto it!  This sit...

So the drive to sustainable food is beginning to appear on the general public´s radar - all the pan banging has created enough noise to get us this far.  That´s positive, a move in the right direction, but how do we develop our cause - make it tangible enough to kickstart some real change, real momentum?  How do we really get our claws into some deep societal action?

Twitter as a connecting tool is good, but we´re harnessing all this connectiv...

To communicate my perspective on the monetary value of food, you´ll need a little insight into my view and what goes into forming that.  Your own perspective is unique to you and I´m not expecting you to see things the way I do, but by giving you some background to what forms mine, I may add enough credibility to these ideas that you choose to give them some consideration.

Like it or not, your view of me as the author of this article will influence what you ge...

Have just watched a short film about the importance of listening to indigenous peoples` views on climate change.  What strikes me as being particularly important is that usually, in asking science to provide answers, we are ignoring the people living close enough to the earth that will have a real experiential view of what is happening.  For me this has implications because I´ve learnt that hands-on experience is a far better teacher than academic study, even though the latter...

Unless you´re rich, one challenge you will definitely face in starting a new sustainable farm is getting access to capital.  Woody Tasche, of the Slow Money movement, talks about how sustainable farms just arn´t getting the investment.  So I´d like to suggest ways we can encourage potential investers to sit up and listen to us in a way that you can initiate yourself.

So what are the basics that will eat up your capital?  Well, lets say you&...

For a moment, let go of everything you´ve been told about food.  Sit down somewhere comfortable, alone and away from distractions.  Relax and become aware of your breathing, letting thoughts arise without getting involved with them.  How are you today?  Can you feel what´s happening in your body?  Gently bring your awareness to focus on your feet - how are they feeling?  Move your awareness slowly up through your legs and entire body, right to the top o...

Capitalism ephasizes quantity.  In our over consuming Western Nations, quantity is seen as a core value.  Accumulating material wealth as a facet of desiring quantity, drives our economies and plays a large part in our lives which are managed and run based on quantities of time.  Wherever we look, it´s not difficult to find quantity as a core value. So is it really so surprising that agriculture and food systems reflect this core value of quantity?

Our so...