A new paradigm

As I sit here writing, I'm feeling rather tired from 5 speaking engagements at Groundswell Festival, a podcast interview and an interview with the BBC (Airing on BBC Radio 4's Food Programme on July 18th). However, my mind is alive with ideas as I vision something rather hopeful for my future, that of my family, our community, and hopefully something that will give hope to many others. For a while now I've felt an impetus to inspire, empower, and enable through my work. Whether that's by exemplifying, talking or teaching.

At Groundswell I often found myself wondering (and indeed asking a few) what are you regenerating and how do you know? There are these 5 regenerative principles, but my sense is that there can open itself up to a bit of greenwashing. Unlike a certification, currently you can do a bit of one principle or a bit less of others and then make regen claims.

Much of what I was saying at Groundswell in terms of farming included some of the thoughts I will share here. They came through me at the event as I was visioning a new venture that I'll get to shortly. Things that have been stewing away in the far reaches of my mind, but without any outlet.

For too long we have been growing in a way that focuses on feeding the plant or the animal, all the while starving the soil.

When put like that, it should seem abundantly clear that it is entirely unsustainable to steward land or produce food in this manner, at least in the long term. It is my hope that humanity can continue on a for a long while yet.

Seeing that soil is the most abundant and diverse ecosystem on earth and that it's natural processes cycle nutrients, build structure, and sequester carbon. Indeed 59% of known species live in the soil - and we're still identifying them, perhaps we should try and harness these natural forces, growing with them and not fighting against.

What would a soil first agriculture look like?

Restoration agriculture, as laid out my Mark Sheppard? Agriwilding, as I've personally been learning at Henbant Farm in North Wales?

Agriwilding was a term originally coined by a woman called Rebecca Hoskins, who stated that "We should not simply set aside farms to make way for wildlife. Instead, we should see agriculture and ourselves as part of nature and integrate".

This sentiment resonates strongly with me. For the longest time I have supported rewilding, with my only reservation being that it can strengthen the notion that nature is everything else, and that humans are apart from it. Inspired by the team of gardeners at Knepp by their approach to seeing themselves as the keystone species, acting like the boar or other animals in that rewilded croquet lawn, they create niches and help balance and maintain a garden that is both beautiful from the human gaze and teeming with life. It has resilience that many other gardens do not. This got me thinking how we might apply this in an agricultural setting?

Imagine human activity that focusses on a soil first approach. Where we see ourselves as microbe farmers (lets aim for 1 billion in a teaspoon of soil) building soil, accelerating diverse ground cover and abundance of plants, insects, and animals. Where we observe and interact to manifest abundance and diversity from the soil, to the plants, the animals and our communities. We can facilitate nature's gift, its magical abundance and vitality, as part of that system.

We can produce food for ourselves in a way that goes far beyond the imagination of many, due to our lives of convenience culture and disconnection from the natural world. I'd recommend watching a film called Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective, a film that had a profound impact on me 10 years ago. The film includes Mark Sheppard and Ben Falk, both teachers on the Regenerative Farming training that I've been doing this year. I'll be returning to Henbant Farm on Wednesday for the remainder of the week to deep dive with my fellow students.

In future posts, I'll be sharing with you how I see this soil first approach in the context of a farm in East Sussex when myself and my family are moving imminently. I'll be documenting the emergence of the landscape as we transform it from overgrazed fields to what I'm visioning, as hinted at above.