From extractive agrobusiness to permaculture abundance, with Ripura Hewicke

Welcome back to another episode in our panel discussion series. In this edition we’ll be focusing on the challenges and opportunities of climate adaptation with examples of farmers in different key and representative zones of Europe. There's no question that the climate is shifting in severe and unpredictable ways. The question is how can agriculture adapt to this new reality. Like all systemic challenges we'll take a look at this broad topic from a number of farmer perspectives as we explore the adaptations that can be made on the land, in the business, and the support mechanisms needed from the wider agri-food sector to assist in the transition.

Alex got a chance to follow up with Luwayo Biswick in Malawi. Luwayo had been on the Regenerative Skills podcast when it was still Abundant Edge for episode 71 in 2018.    As the Founder of the Permaculture Paradise Institute, Luwayo and his family have built an enterprise that helps local farmers throughout the whole country learn how to integrate regenerative practices. The Institute works on a trainer model that helps farmers get access to the tools, seedstock and livestock they need to create a steady stream of productive, diverse foodcrops. As a country with thousands of smallholders, the gap between conventional agricultural practices and resilient abundance requires peer learning, and access to new tools and techniques.   You can learn more and support the institute on their website: https://permacultureinstitutemw.com/ -- you can also learn how to sponsor farmers and farm training there! 

In our tour of Sub Saharran Africa, Alex followed a recommendation from Thiang’o to talk with Ripura Hewick. Ripura is based in Namibia, and manages a dryland farm for the non-profit Steps for Children.   Ripura started as a traditional Agrobusiness management student University of Science and Technology (NUST) graduate with a Bachelors of Agriculture  but left conventional agriculture, disappointed in the business. After a hiatus he returned to as a farm manager of a permaculture project connected to one of Steps for Children’s schools.    In this interview, Ripura describes the unlearning and relearning process he had to go through to figure out how to successfully build a community integrated market garden, that provides nutrition, education and seedlings for the local community.

400 episodes down and some big changes coming.  It's been almost 9 full years since I started this little show and I'm amazed at the journey that it's accompanied me on, from my apprenticeship in bamboo building in Guatemala, to starting a homestead, leaving it to move to Spain just ahead of the pandemic, and where I am now, putting down roots in central Catalunya on my little farm with my partner Alba.  This is hardly then end though. despite a tough year where I've even considered shutting down the show, some new opportunities have come up that will take this podcast in a new direction.  I would love for you to be a part of how the show takes a new shape in the coming year. Please take the time to fill in the short survey here if you'd like to guide our new direction.  And of course, a sincere thank you to all of you who've supported this podcast and it's growth over 9 years. There's no way I would have persisted this long without you. 

Welcome back everyone and welcome back to the monthly panel sessions. In this session that I hosted with Climate Farmers, we dive into the lives of three passionate farmers, Julia, Anne, and Mateo, who are not only dedicated to regenerative agriculture but also deeply invested in their communities. Each farmer shares their unique journey, challenges, and successes, from establishing cooperative farms to activities that bring people to participate in the work and bounty that they’re creating.    This conversation explores the essential role of social design, community engagement, and the diverse activities that make their farms resilient and impactful. We also go into practical steps on everything from building relationships with local communities to navigating cultural differences, all while highlighting the importance of personal growth and understanding in fostering a thriving, regenerative ecosystem.

You may remember a handful of weeks back when I interviewed Kristina Villa about the work of the Farmer’s Land Trust, and how they’re helping to make farmland affordable as well as giving new options to retiring farmers to preserve the legacy of their farms. Today will be a continuation of that discussion but with a practical example. I’m joined today by both Ian McSweeny, the co-founder and co-director of the Farmer’s Land Trust along with Kristina, and also by Alex Tanke, a farmer specializing in tree nut breeding who is now in the process of setting his farm up as an agricultural land trust and working with Ian and Kristina along with other local stakeholders to make that happen. In today’s session we’ll take a deep dive into Alex’s case study of how he came to decide to put his land into a trust, and the process of doing so, which is still ongoing. Both he and Ian also explain the considerations and options that others can choose from and the expectations one should have before entering into a process like this. Because of the hurdles to creating an agricultural land trust in US the Carya Farmland Commons, the Trust that Alex has fully donated his 43 acre farm to create, they’re looking for donations to conserve the farm and turn it into a resource for the region and serve as an option for other farms to also be held as commons. They only need 20 or more people to donate $50 or more to reach their goal. So if you feel inclined to help them out by the end of this episode, you can go to thefarmerslandtrust.org/commons/carya to learn more and donate. Don’t worry, I’ve put all the links in the show notes for the episode to make it easy. Carya Farmland Commons   Carya Farmland Commons financial sheet   Carya Farmland Commons donate link

Thiong'o Gachie is a permaculture trainer in Kenya, focused on inspiring smallholder farmers on how to apply permaculture principles, such as crop diversity, to strengthen their yields and build greater community.   Alex sat down to talk to Thiong’o about his own process about setting up a small 1 acre farm, developing community, and understanding the larger agriculture-sector wide changes happening in Kenya, such as seed sovereignty and ubiquitous agrochemica use.   If you want to help Thiong’o, he has a really active LinkedIn and Instagram highlighting education and insights for communities in Africa. He recently started a GoFundMe focused on funding a pond-liner, which is comparatively hard to purchase in Kenya. 

Though there are only a handful of bugs and invertebrates that humans consider edible, productive, or beautiful, they are an essential element in any healthy ecosystem. All too often the ones that we don’t derive beauty from or direct use from are considered an annoyance at best or actively destroyed and eradicated in all too many cases. It’s long overdue that I highlight just how valuable insects are to out world and our own wellbeing on this show, and to help me to do that in this episode is Vicki Hird.  Vicki Hird is the Strategic Lead on Agriculture for The Wildlife Trusts UK and was until recently Head of the Sustainable Farming Campaign for Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming. She is also a published author and runs an independent consultancy. As an experienced and award-winning environmental campaigner, researcher, writer and strategist working for the past 30 years mainly on food, farming and environmental issues and solutions, Vicki has worked on government policy for many years authored ‘Perfectly Safe to Eat? The facts on food’ in 2000, and has led teams at FoE, War on Want, WSPA and SAFE Alliance. She has co-founded many organisations including Sustain, Hackney Food Partnership and the Eating Better Alliance – and has written and campaigned extensively at a global, EU and national level. Vicki’s other passion is insects and other invertebrates and she has a Masters in Pest Management and is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (FRES). Her new book – ‘Rebugging the Planet-The Remarkable Things that Insects (and Other Invertebrates) Do – and Why we need to love them more’ will be our focus of today’s conversation. Vicki helps me to understand the significance of invertebrates in ecosystems, exploring their role, challenges, and conservation efforts. Together we go over how promoting biodiversity, sustainable practices, and community engagement is crucial to protect these essential species and support whole ecosystem health.  We also cover practical actions that anyone can take to support insect habitats in their area such as adopting habitat-friendly gardening practices, advocating for conservation policies, and understanding the impact of individual actions on invertebrates to maintain the delicate balance of nature.

I’ve been so happy to see how popular the concept of growing one’s own food has become in recent years. Especially since the pandemic, a lot of us have connected deeply with the need to build food resilience by cultivating our own gardens, and quite a few have even gone further and started to grow at a market scale.  It’s a beautiful thing to be able to eat fresh healthy produce from your own land, but I’ve often wondered as well, how we can cross the long dark and cold period of winter, when fresh local veggies are tough to come by. Though there are quite a few volumes about season extension in the garden, I had never really come across anyone who was actively planting for deep months of winter, and so I was thrilled when I found that New Society publishers were putting out a whole book on exactly this subject. Building on years of research, experimentation, and collaboration, and co authored by Catherine Sylvestre and Jean Martin Fortier “The Winter Market Gardener” is a beautifully illustrated practical guide to winter vegetable production for small farmers growing in northern climates.  I got to speak with Catherine Sylvestre who is a professional agronomist and director of vegetable production and leader of the market garden team at la Ferme des Quatre-Temps (The Fours Seasons Farm) in Quebec, Canada. She develops, implements, and teaches best practices for cold-season growing, specializing in crop protection and greenhouse production for northern climates. In this episode we cover just about every focus in this very complete book, from where the interest and research into winter growing started, sources of knowledge and inspiration for their ongoing experiments into winter growing, strategies and season planning, and even sales and marketing advice for the off-season produce. Catherine also gives crucial advice on the very practical side for things like structures and season extension tools, greenhouse heating devices, disease and pest protection, harvesting and cold storage, and even lists of plants that have grown well for them as well as those which have struggled. This episode could very well be the key to extending your home production of fresh veggies, whether at home or in a market garden, for the entire year, so you may want to have a notebook for this one and follow the link in the show notes to get your own copy. 

This past month we took a look at the timely topic of agritourism and the potential for farms to serve as community and educational centers. This summer we saw a lot of protests against mass tourism and the effects that it's having on tourist centers like Barcelona near where I live. The antidote to this is something that we debate in past episodes I've done on the developing series on regenerative tourism and in this panel session, we'll take a look at it from a farm perspective.  In this session I speak to three people who either have integrated farm visits and agrotoursim as a significant part of their farm enterprise, or are working to empower farmers to integrate tourism and commuinity events into their operation.  I was lucky enough to get three fantastic guests who I happen to know personally and exemplify some of the best in entrepreneurial tenacity, creativity, and experience.