http://broadviewfromasmallfarm.blogspot.com/2020/04/
And that hope has by no means gone away, progress both political and practical has been made on many fronts.
There is certainly far greater recognition of the difficulties that farmers and growers face in bringing food to our plates.
From field to fork, so to speak.
We're not on quite this much of a slope btw..
The fact that the weather was pretty abysmal this spring is news to no one.
This really hampered us getting crops in, and those already growing overwinter were held back..
Or else dissolved all together. 🙁
On this little veg farm we were relatively lucky, a warmish climate, and south facing sandy loam.
But still the soil was cooler than usual, and battalions of enormous slugs munched their way through any fresh new growth.
I remember taking mesh covers off beds and thinking "I'm sure I planted lettuces here" and then wondering if I was mistaken as to where I'd put them.
It wasn't until I spied the chewed off nubs of what had been there that I realised that yes indeed. They were All Gone.
We usually plant an extra 20% or so extra crops, mindful of probable losses to the assorted wildlife, that of course we must regard as our brethren or earthly kin...When we're in appreciative enough mood .
Entitled we understand to eat also themselves..
But it gets a tad tricky to feel all that fuzzy 'Farming in harmony with nature' when the critters have eaten everything ...
Anyhow, looked at broadly the issues around food, sustainability, environmental concerns, and how do we get more people securely into this craft of producing good food, to feed people sufficiently and well haven't really changed.
If we do attract energetic switched on folk into this business, who see that there can be great satisfaction in feeding people well, how do we make it OK or even possible for them to stay?
The motivation to do this kind of work is unlikely to be entirely money driven. But boring old bills must be paid, living costs covered. Even nice times had, outside of the farming life, dare we suggest??
I've been asked to be part of a panel discussion later this year t the Organic growers Gathering on 'How do you keep going??"
That's not the actual session title but it's something like.
And yes it's a reasonable question - how do you??
When the first flush of adrenaline, the one that comes with setting up or taking on a business and somehow making it work has passed.
You're a little bit established, you may have had to go through some (or as in our case a lot) of planning battles to physically establish what you need to allow your productive enterprise endure.
You've spent no small amount of money, and done an unfathomable amount of work to get things going.
Now how to make it live-able in the long term.??
Enjoyable even!?
I've got quite a few ideas around this.
Not by any means a template for what others 'should' do.
But certainly some hard won experience of things to think about, and options to try.
Apologies to anyone hoping for another Pyrenean trip episode..I will get back to that - but no great rush right??
An addition to the above as I'm shortly taking part in a session on 'burnout' - at Oxford Real Farming Conference.
Experiences of, and approaches to avoiding or recovering from .
All this attaining and maintaining well being really seems to have become a theme over the last year or so. A combination of climactic economic and political challenges have driven many farmers and growers, even those of an 'agroecological' bent, to the edge, or over it..
There are so many aspects to the 'better' that we are striving for in our food and farming systems. Ecology, biodiversity, climate change, food quality and security, food and land justice, livable incomes, to name a few.
The likely reason that many of us got into these 'alternative' ways of doing things is because we were already people of conscience, active in making change in some way.
Trouble is that even when we feel we're doing OK in one or two aspect of all of these important things to consider, it won't take us long to find some other angle that also needs improvement.
So in addition we can beat ourselves up about, and strive on that front as well.
So there are rarely many feelings of 'Enoughness' or 'that will do'
Which can so easily lead to burnout, overwhelm and even losing interest in trying to further change.
How do we navigate that tension?? Keep on our paths to (what we believe is) a better way, without finding it all too much, and wanting to quit?
- Although it's also important to acknowledge that we are 'allowed' to stop if we really need or want to.
Unless you're the last heart surgeon in the country that can perform that life saving operation on a small child, you're not 'morally obliged' to keep doing a thing just because you started.
Retiring with grace and dignity is also 'permitted' - And when we acknowledge that then it somehow makes it a lighter decision to keep going, if that's what we actively choose.
It could be the case that even that tendency to vocalise what we feel are our shortcomings will by implication set the bar at a height that seems wholly unattainable to those around us.
It can be off-putting to others to witness our being on an endless treadmill of 'could always do better' never 'enough'
Social media is one factor that has driven us towards this.
We've gone from a time - when I was starting up - where we might have felt isolated in our slightly 'weird' hairy farming, to a time now when there are hundreds if not thousands of us.
Which of course is great in many ways, in terms of movement building, it's a sign of success we're going in the right direction aren't we??
But then publicly we all tend to outwardly show our 'best sides' when we talk about improving this that or the other.
Not that there's anything wrong with trying for better, but it can all start to feel rather competitive even.
We need to keep in mind acknowledging how we are 'doing a bit better' in our various fields, rather than endlessly criticising ourselves - and by extension others (whether implicitly or explicitly)
Otherwise we can end up exhausting ourselves totally and fruitlessly, whilst the industrialised food system juggernauts on past oblivious.
I've often talked before about how we can end up prostrating ourselves on the altar of 'organic growing' (or whatever our particular jam is)
Ultimately that's not good for us or the long term viability of our enterprises and projects.
Neither is it a 'good look' for anyone observing from the outside and considering coming into what might loosely be termed agroecology* or regenerative* food and farming.
And of course there are all sorts of wranglings over the definitions of those* terms..Which is another rabbit hole frequently delved at conferences such as this.🐰🌱
From back in the summer at a gathering on the land - when we had a very useful - and quite surprising discussion around all of the above - Its interesting how many people who you think have got it all sorted out have had some really quite dark and difficult struggles along the way.
