#foodforests — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #foodforests, aggregated by home.social.
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A Week At Lovebrook
"Lovebrook is a for-benefit organisation based across thirty three acres in the beautiful South Downs village of Kingston. This ambitious project includes agro-ecological farm, food forest, therapeutic work, wellbeing activities, trainee farmers course, farm shop and cafe, camping and a programme of rewilding, ponds and tree planting."
https://www.lovebrook.org/#SolarPunkSunday #Volunteer #Trees #ReWilding #LoveBrook #AgroEcology #FoodForests #Farming
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RE: https://masto.nu/@greenyouthmovement/117296470423545081
Help GYM achieve #FoodSecurity ! Every little bit helps!
"Imagine a family in central Uganda that struggles every day to provide enough nutritious food for their children. Through the #GreenYouthMovement, this family gains more than just a meal; they engage their Head by acquiring vital agricultural knowledge, pour their Heart into restoring degraded land, use their Hands to cultivate sustainable crops, and build long-term Health for their household and community.
What begins as a single garden plot leads to immediate improvements in family well-being, lower household costs, and new income opportunities. Operating on just a single acre with 15 dedicated volunteers, GYM's proven model has already produced and distributed over 1.2 tons of food crops like maize, tomatoes, and spinach, deployed 25 fruit trees to initiate community food forests, and partnered with Moonlight Nursery & Primary School to provide hands-on agricultural education to students.
Now, we are ready to scale this success. A $16,000 investment will secure three acres of contiguous land, unlocking the ability to establish a permanent educational headquarters and a significantly larger fruit tree nursery. This expansion will allow GYM to provide seedlings to hundreds of households and enroll four additional schools in its outreach programs, turning this successful pilot into a regional movement that provides the foundation for families to move from #FoodInsecurity to long-term #SelfSufficiency."
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Growing #Indigenous #ForestGardens
January 12, 2023, #UBC Forestry
Excerpt: "Prior to #colonization, #IndigenousPeoples managed their lands extensively, placing certain plant species at various intensities in different locations to provide food and medicines on a broad scale, Jennifer explains. Forest soil was fertilized with fish bones, similar to how gardeners use fish emulsion to fertilize their backyard plants. Fire was used to conduct quick burns to open up the forest canopy, sweeten the soil (improve fertility) and remove dry woody debris that could ignite into a major blaze.
"Many of these practices are being reclaimed and adapted in the modern context by Indigenous communities, says Jennifer, yet few are currently integrated into non-Indigenous-led, large- and small-scale forestry operations, despite their potential to improve #ClimateResiliency.
"Indigenous #ForestGardening was developed and passed down over millennia, which accounts for the sophistication and ingenuity of #ForestGarden practices."
Learn more:
https://forestry.ubc.ca/branchlines-articles/growing-indigenous-forest-gardens/#SolarPunkSunday #FirstNations #FoodForests #FoodSecurity #CulturalPreservation
#IndigenousGardening #IndigenousHistory #Resiliency #TraditionalPractices #TEK -
The Forest Garden: An Unsung Hero
August 19, 2020
"Poor nutrition and food insecurity have rocked rural areas across #Africa for years and, at the same time, smallholder farmers are seeing less success in the increasingly challenging world of agriculture. Regenerative #agroforestry nonprofit #TreesForTheFuture ( #TREES ) recognizes the connection between agriculture and chronic hunger and poverty. If we change the way we farm, entire swaths of rural communities stand to benefit and that’s exactly what Trees for the Future is doing.
"Consider #Uganda, where more than 30% of the population faces some level of chronic #FoodInsecurity. Hunger and poverty are tied to a number of factors, including farming practices, natural disasters, #ClimateChange, high food prices, and lack of education. Fortunately, there’s a proven solution. Farming has the potential to mitigate climate change, protect families from volatile markets, and offer resources and pathways out of hunger and poverty. As it happens, farming is the most common occupation in Uganda and makes up 24% of the country’s GDP. 84% of the national population lives in rural areas, but despite the prevalence of farmers and farmland in this East African nation, there is not enough food to go around. Studies have shown that most rural families are not eating essential nutritious food and are also living in extreme poverty which is less than $1.90 (Ush 7030 Uganda shillings) a day. (USAID, 2018)
"TREES has been training farmers in what they call the #ForestGarden approach since 2015 (introducing it to Ugandan farming communities in 2016). The Forest Garden Approach uses #agroforestry and #SustainableFarming practices to protect land, diversify crops, and optimize space. Farmers are trained in the Forest Garden Approach over a four-year period and TREES provides all the training, seeds, tools and materials.
"Through the Forest Garden Approach, farmers plant thousands of trees that protect and bring nutrients back to the soil and make the farmer more resilient to climate change-related weather patterns like drought or flooding. As their soil health improves, farmers grow a variety of fruits and vegetables, which in turn increases income and #FoodSecurity for the farmers.
"The Forest Garden Approach has proven to be a hero for farming families and their communities across sub-Saharan Africa - in #Senegal, #Cameroon, #Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. To date, TREES has helped 142,400 people in these countries. In Uganda, 2,291 families have participated in TREES’ program and more than 13,000 people have benefited.
" 'The work we are doing as an organisation is greatly impacting these communities and will have a lasting effect on so many smallholder farmers in these areas,' says Ivan Tumuhimbise, Country Director at Trees for the Future Uganda, adding that the Forest Garden Approach is an easy technique that any farmer can use to improve and change their livelihood.
"As each Forest Garden grows and matures, so will the resilience of each Forest Garden family. What was once degraded and unproductive land is now rich with nutrients and bursting with life. Farmers are harvesting dozens of crops instead of just one or two, which means that many more paydays and more dietary diversity. TREES is continually reaching out to more farming communities to provide Forest Garden training, with the goal to give all farmers the opportunity to revitalize their land and their livelihoods."
Source:
https://trees.org/stories/forest-garden-unsung-hero#SolarPunkSunday #Biodiversity #GrowYourOwn #ClimateChangeGardening #FoodForests #ForestGardens
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#IndigenousPeoples in #BritishColumbia Tended #ForestGardens
Found near villages, research suggests the Indigenous population intentionally planted and maintained these patches of fruit and nut trees
Alex Fox | Correspondent
April 29, 2021"Along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, former villages of the #Tsmsyen and #CoastSalish Indigenous peoples are flanked by what researchers have termed
'forest gardens.' On lands covered in forests dominated by #hemlock and #cedar trees, these forest gardens represent abrupt departures from the surrounding #ecosystem. The dark, closed canopy of the conifer forest opens up and is replaced by a sunny, orchard-like spread of food-producing trees and shrubs, such as #crabapple, #hazelnut, #cranberry, #WildPlum and #WildCherry."#SolarPunkSunday #LandBack #FirstNations #FoodForests #FoodSecurity #CulturalPreservation
#IndigenousGardening #IndigenousHistory -
A garden doesn't just grow plants,it grows peace of mind.
#gardening #farming #agriculture #food #sustainability #Climate #nature #NaturePhotography #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateDiary #climateemergency #Photography #mastodon #Fediverse #linux #USA #uk #garden #plants #vegetables #vegetarian #permaculture #foodforests #homesteading @Kathymahan1234 @thechattygardener @GardenGuides @HomesGardens @gardening @foodpluswords_ @sarahtaber @camaleon @fuglede @gentlegardener @chris @agri -
The Orchard Project
Community Food Forests: A Guide to Creating Your Own
https://www.theorchardproject.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/A-Guide-to-Creating-Community-Food-Forests.pdf#SolarPunkSunday #Trees #FoodForests #UrbanForests #Forests #EcoSystems #Community #Food #Orchards
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The #Indigenous Roots of #RegenerativeAgriculture
“All flourishing is mutual.”
– Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding SweetgrassAugust 9, 2023
"While a new wave of enthusiasm has crested in recent years, regenerative agriculture is an ancient concept that originated with #IndigenousPeoples around the world more than a thousand years ago. In many Indigenous world views, humans and nature are not separate forces, but parts of a whole that need each other to thrive. Regenerative agriculture supports this by promoting farming methods that enrich the land—so it can continue to provide for present and future generations.
"Embracing #TraditionalKnowledge
"Due to the long and horrific history of #StolenLand and #colonization, the Global North often refers to #IndigenousPeoples’ culture and knowledge in the past tense. Yet today, Indigenous peoples are indisputably the best guardians of our world’s most precious #ecosystems. When you take into account that the few remaining Indigenous lands are home to 80 percent of the world’s #Biodiversity, while modern #IndustrialAgriculture is responsible for 80 percent of global #deforestation, it’s clear that Western society still desperately needs to learn what Indigenous people have known for millennia: that human beings must live in a reciprocal relationship with the Earth.
"Around the world, Indigenous peoples have long practiced the key elements of regenerative agriculture. Here are just a few examples:
The art of #agroforestry
Some Indigenous communities, like the #Lenca people in #Honduras, know agroforestry simply as 'traditional technique.' Agroforestry—or the concept of growing crops in a way that mimics the forest and offers shade, protection, and nutrients—is such common practice there is no special name for it.
"Our lead for sustainable forest management, Emmanuelle Bérenger, explains the importance of Indigenous growing methods: 'By using #sustainable practices taught from one generation to another, [Indigenous peoples] actively safeguard forests, preserving biodiversity and keeping a delicate balance essential for both the environment and their own sustenance.' "
Learn more:
https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/insights/the-indigenous-roots-of-regenerative-agriculture/#SolarPunkSunday #Intercropping #FoodForests #ProtectNature #ProtectBiodiversity
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Nutrition programs work better when they include #Indigenous food knowledge
Researchers found nutrition programs work better when they include Indigenous food knowledge, local languages, and traditional practices.
By Raquel Brandao, July 24, 2026
Excerpt: "Cameras, cooking and conversation
"Some things worked. #Storytelling, #workshops, and #CookingDemonstrations turned up again and again across the 39 studies, alongside #TalkingCircles, #ShortFilms and #SmartphoneApps.
"The common thread is direction. Each of these methods lets people speak in their own words rather than sit and receive instruction.
"In #NewZealand ( #Aotearoa ), researchers built a mobile health app together with #Māori and #Pasifika partners. The language, the stories, and the pictures all came from the communities the app was meant for.
"Speaking with Earth.com, Rao described a project she led. 'In my own work, and one of the papers reviewed, I have used cameras and #DigitalTools with young women and men in an Indigenous community in #India to document their traditional food knowledges by speaking to the elders, visiting the forests and local markets, talking to women engaged in #foraging and #FoodPreparation.'
"That project is one of the 39 studies in the review. An earlier paper followed ten Santhal young people in eastern India who were trained to make films.
"They made nearly 50 films and screened them in their own villages. Older relatives supplied much of what went into them.
Elders as teachers
"Who holds the knowledge matters as much as what the knowledge is. #Elders, #healers, #farmers, and #women each carry different parts of it.
"None of it arrives as a curriculum. It moves between generations through cooking, gathering and long conversation, which is exactly what a nutrition leaflet cannot carry.
" 'Reclaiming and recognising #IndigenousKnowledge , values and practices to address the different elements of nutrition and health involves recognising intergenerational and wider social relations, and engaging everyone from the elders, healers, educators and farmers to service providers, policymakers and academics, to together raise issues and find solutions,' said Rao.
"Traditional foods carry knowledge of the local landscape in a way nothing else does. The review treats them as practical resources rather than heritage."
#SolarPunkSunday #Technology #IndigenousCommunities #TraditionalKnowledge #TraditionalDiets #FoodForests #Foraging #SharingKnowledge #PreservingCulture #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge #FoodKnowledge #TraditionalFoods
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From #Fairways to #FairUse: Repurposing #GolfCourses
How golf courses can be repurposed to meet the needs of people and planet
Autumn 2024
by Grace Crabtree & Dan Woolley"Back in April 2020, shortly after the UK had gone into lockdown for the first time, Guy Shrubsole, the campaigner and author of Who Owns England (2019), set out to map and investigate London’s golf courses. While a natural continuation of his wider work on land ownership, it was also given particular urgency in the moment – not least for those living in densely populated cities – as the nation began to ask questions about use of, and access to, #GreenSpace.
"The results of this research produced some surprising findings. For example, although a considerable number of golf courses in Greater London are held in private ownership, the figure is less than half, at 45%. This turns out to be only slightly larger than the number owned by councils (42%). After several decades in which councils, schools, and other public institutions have been forced to sell off green space – including school playing fields and county farms – it seems pertinent to ask why so many golf courses have remained untouched.
"Happily, there are signs of progress. In #Cheshire, the #WoodlandTrust recently purchased a former golf course, and have been busy planting trees. The vision is for the site to 'develop as native broadleaf woodland' and to link with other woodland sites as part of the larger #NorthernForest, providing green space and fighting #ClimateChange.
"And further east, on the #Lincolnshire coast, the #NationalTrust is busy converting a disused golf course – #Sandilands – to 'create new habitats for a variety of #wildlife, especially migrating birds like black-tailed #godwit, spotted #redshank and #spoonbills, along with breeding birds such as #snipe, #lapwings and #oystercatchers' This environmental mission is coupled with the social objective of providing 'a space where everyone can enjoy the benefits of being in nature.'
"More controversially, perhaps, the London-based architecture firm #RCKa has developed a proposal to build housing on an existing golf course in #Enfield, at the northern end of the city. Understandably, not everyone agrees with this vision, arguing that green space, once built upon, is lost forever. However, faced with an acute and growing housing crisis, it may be useful to ask whether some compromise solutions might begin to develop at the edges. [Yes, like housing with LOTS of Green Space, including #CommunityGardens , #FoodForests , and #WildlifeCorridors ! Problem solved!]
"What the above examples demonstrate is a growing interest in the potential for repurposing golf courses, for reasons ranging from climate change mitigation and biodiversity benefits, to providing space for housing and food growing.
"Which brings us to #Glasgow, where the #GlasgowCommunityFoodNetwork (#GCFN) are leading on a proposal to transform a disused golf course into a food growing space, with much of the land restored as a richly biodiverse space where wildlife can thrive."
Read more:
https://www.stirtoaction.com/articles/from-fairways-to-fair-use#SolarPunkSunday #MoreGreenSpace #LessGolfCourses #CommunitySpaces #CommunityGardens
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The “ #ForestGardens ” That Could Help #Canada’s #FirstNations Reclaim Their Land
For 3,000 years, the Sts’ailes Nation cultivated and nurtured plants for survival. Now researchers’ work about those forest gardens is being used to support a legal land claim by Canada’s Sts’ailes Nation against the province of British Columbia.
by Worldcrunch May 22, 2024
Excerpt: "The people of the Sts’ailes Nation have lived for 3,000 years on the banks of the Harrison River in #BritishColumbia, its icy blue waters framed by mountains and fir trees.
Evidence of their long presence on this land is visible in the remaining crabapple and nut trees that were once part of the nation’s forest gardens. What’s left today are some gnarled trees and overgrown bushes hidden among other old forest growth of pines and spruce. But these gardens were once full of plants carefully selected and nurtured to provide an important means of subsistence.Forest gardens were a method of agriculture in which practitioners cleared the land around or near villages, planted crops, and managed with agricultural methods like controlled burns and fertilization to increase the productivity of the plants. Traces of species like #PacificCrabapple, #BeakedHazelnut, #WildCherry, and others have been found in recent years — in some cases, still growing even more than a century after they were tended. They would have been selected for their nutritional value and, in some examples like the crabapple, long-term storage.
For anthropologists, ethnologists, and other scientists, the existence of these gardens belies the long-held hunter-gatherer theory that maintained that the region’s #IndigenousPeoples didn’t change and nurture their lands. Instead, experts now believe this method of #agriculture and land manipulation helped communities like the Sts’ailes thrive.
The traditional Sts’ailes territory of roughly 802,150 acres (324,620 hectares) — their current reserve is about 2,260 acres — was able to sustain its inhabitants through both good and difficult times because of its rich resources and the deep connection the community had to the land, said Kelsey Charlie Sr., who sits on the Sts’ailes Council, and whose traditional name is Teixweltel. The word lhemeqwatel, he said, 'means that you can get anything off of it, that it’s going to provide everything for you. And that includes those forest gardens and other cultivated things that they used for survival.'
Legal land claim
The land that was home to the Sts’ailes Nation is just one area where there is evidence that forest gardens were created and nurtured by communities of #FirstNations, the collective name given to most of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. While there is not a definitive catalog of the forest gardens, there are remains of them up and down the coast of British Columbia — some known, some still used by communities, some being rediscovered."
Read more:
https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/indigenous-forest-gardens-land-claim/#SolarPunkSunday #LandBack #StsailesNation #FoodForests #FoodSecurity #CulturalPreservation #IndigenousGardening #IndigenousHistory
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Boston Food Forest 🌱
"We are a coalition of neighbors working to transform vacant lots into locally-run, edible, public parks protected by our land trust."
https://www.bostonfoodforest.org/#SolarPunkSunday #BostonFoodForest #FoodForests #Food #Forests #FoodSecurity #FoodPlants #ForestGardens #Community #Gardens #Gardening #CommunityGardening
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‘Doves and food and fun’: the fight to save a farming pioneer
#Wakelyns needs £1.2m to save its diverse organic crops and ‘micro’ enterprises including a bakery and honeybee hives
"It’s almost a political project about land use – maximising the #sustainable productivity of the land." - David Wolfe
by Patrick Barkham
Tue 30 Jun 2026 06.00 EDT"The aerial view of Wakelyns matches the experience of visiting it at ground level: in a region dominated by prairie fields of industrial agriculture, here lies a vivid green lung of land. Its sounds and sights in summer – the sleepy purr of the turtle dove, the vivid pink flash of a bullfinch – have vanished from most of the British countryside.
"But Wakelyns is not a nature reserve – it is a thriving farm, a 'living laboratory' for #agroforestry and a hub for innovation and business. It is also under threat, and its owners must raise £1.2m to turn it into a charitable community benefit society.
"The 56-acre former pig farm in Suffolk was bought by Martin and Ann Wolfe in 1992. Martin was a government plant pathologist who wanted to do more innovative research than his employers had allowed. Seeking to farm crops with fewer pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, he created one of the first agroforestry schemes in Europe.
"Turning productive cereal-growing fields into 56 narrow 'alleys' of farmed land between rows of planted trees had been 'widely regarded as mad', said their son, #DavidWolfe, an environmental lawyer who now runs Wakelyns with his wife, Amanda Illing. 'The farmer who sold the land to them said: ‘You’ve ruined a perfectly good wheat field’.'
"Today, Wakelyns is an inspirational example of agroforestry, which has become official government policy. The government’s carbon delivery plan wants to turn 10% of arable land into agroforestry by 2050, with financial incentives to encourage more farmers to transition into something like Wakelyns.
"The lush trees that divide the alleys are all crops. After more than 30 years, some are tall trees for timber, while others provide #apples, #cherries and #plums. The most lucrative tree crop is #hazel, which is coppiced on a seven-year cycle to produce high-quality hazel stakes for traditional hedgelayers. Each stake is sold for £1.40 and Wakelyns cannot grow enough.
The farm’s motto is '#ResilienceThroughDiversity'. It pioneered the first commercial #lentil growing in the UK, and is still the country’s only commercial #BlackLentil grower. 'If Britain is serious about wanting to feed itself, we should stop growing oilseed rape for biodiesel and grow #pulses,' said Wolfe.
"Wakelyns’ diversity encompasses a uniquely genetically diverse population of wheat and multiple varieties of apple tree. When big orchards, which typically grow a narrow range of apple varieties, complain of a terrible harvest, a mixed orchard such as Wakelyns’ is fine, because every year some varieties thrive. #Monocultural farmers, says Wolfe, 'put it all on red or black'.
"Wolfe and Illing took over the farm in 2020 after Wolfe’s parents died. To the innovative farming principles, they added 'enterprise stacking', bringing people back to the land via a series of symbiotic relationships."
#SolarPunkSunday #Trees #UK #MutualAid #HempTextiles #FoodSecurity #FoodForests #CropRotation #CropDiversity #OrganicFarming #SupportUKFarms #SupportLocalFarmers
#Polyculture not #Monoculture -
A Brief History of the #Strawberry
By Peggy Trowbridge Filippone
Updated on June 24, 2022"The strawberry is a member of the rose family, with the most common varieties being a hybrid of the wild Virginia strawberry (native to North America) and a Chilean variety. The plant produces succulent, red, conical fruit from tiny white flowers, and sends out runners to propagate.
Why Are They Called Strawberries?
Most likely the word strawberry comes from the Old English streawberige because the plant sends out runners which could be likened to pieces of straw.
But others contend the practice of mulching strawberries with straw or finding them growing wild among matted hay or straw led to their name. And yet, other pundits believe the name came from the practice of selling the berries skewered on a piece of straw in open-air markets as a treat.
Where Do Strawberries Come From?
Strawberries are native to North America, and Indigenous peoples used them in many dishes. The first colonists in America shipped the native larger strawberry plants back to Europe as early as 1600. Another variety, also was discovered in Central and South America, is what the conquistadors called '#futilla.' Early Americans did not bother cultivating strawberries because they were abundant in the wilds.
Although they have been around for thousands of years, strawberries were not actively cultivated until the Renaissance period in Europe. The plants can last for five to six with careful cultivation, but most farmers use them as an annual crop, replanting yearly. Strawberries are social plants, requiring both a male and a female to produce fruit. Crops take eight to 14 months to mature."
Learn more:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/history-of-strawberry-1807668#SolarPunkSunday #HistoryOfPlants #NativePlants #WildStrawberries #FoodForests #TraditionalAgriculture #IndigenousFoods
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New publication: A scoping review of #temperate #food #forestry research: Key themes, methodological considerations and research priorities. #foodforests
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-025-01411-5 -
#Permaculture... And why #Maine is perfect for it
By Topher Belknap, November 2018
"THE TERM PERMACULTURE was coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s, but the concepts it embodies have been around for much longer. According to Holmgren, permaculture is, 'Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fiber and energy for provision of local needs.'
Permaculture design: a primer
"Permaculture is a form of landscape design intended to generate food for humans while simultaneously regenerating our soil and land. It aims to create environments that meet our needs in sustainable ways; repair damage to ecosystems; and maintain and return wild spaces. Or, as I like to say, 'Permaculture is farming with your head, your heart and ... trees.'
"With respect to ecosystem repair, there are several things we can easily do that nature struggles to accomplish—such as moving nutrients uphill; moving nutrients from the ocean back to land; slowing water on steep slopes; and planting trees appropriate to the changing climate. All these things can be done by people with just a small amount of planning and effort.
"Systems that mimic nature are more sustainable, whereas human-created systems tend to be linear in their design, consuming resources and creating unusable waste. Natural systems maintain a closed loop, where waste from one element becomes input for another element. Nothing is depleted, and nothing accumulates into pollution.
"In permaculture, before introducing a new element to the design it is important to consider what that element adds and what it takes away or consumes in relation to the other elements in the system.
"Chickens, for example, need food, but if you already have a surplus of grain and ticks, their food is provided in the system. They need a place to scratch, but if you have patches of land that need cleaning up, they will do the work for you. They produce manure, but if you have a garden, it needs the fertilizer. They produce eggs, but if you already have bacon... well then, you’ve got breakfast!"
https://greenmainehomes.com/blog/2018/11/20/permaculture-and-why-maine-is-perfect-for-it
#SolarPunkSunday #Homesteading #MoreTree #FoodForests #Agroforestry #AgroEcology #GrowYourOwnFood #PermacultureDesign #GardenDesign #ZeroWaste -
#Agroforestry may be just what #Maine needs for agricultural growth
By Marina Schauffler
Published on: January 24, 2021Excerpt: "Agroforestry, an age-old concept, could provide a path to Maine’s future. Part of the #RegenerativeAgriculture movement, it involves an integrated approach to cultivating #trees with #crops and – sometimes – #livestock. These diversified farm systems nourish #SoilHealth and #wildlife while offering more resilience in a warming world — locking up atmospheric carbon, absorbing floodwaters, and sheltering crops and animals from high winds and #ExtremeHeat.
" 'Diversity is really key to sustainability for small farms and the ecology of farms,' said vegetable farmer Max Boudreau of Winslow Farm in Falmouth. He sees many landowners and #homesteaders 'putting these principles into practice,' but said agroforestry is still 'a foreign concept' in farm service agencies.
"Being interdisciplinary, agroforestry challenges the siloed world of natural resource management. It is routinely ignored in college curricula and by technical service providers, said Meghan Giroux, an agroforestry researcher, technical service provider and practitioner in Vermont. Her nonprofit, #InterlaceCommons, seeks to fill that void by training farmers – including Boudreau – how to implement and maintain agroforestry practices.
"Boudreau was one of the 20 farmers selected among 92 applicants from around the Northeast for a free, agroforestry 'field consultancy' this year. Farmers are eager to learn about agroforestry’s potential to diversify income, and there’s growing consumer demand for its products – from nuts and uncommon fruits (like #honeyberry and #PawPaw) to #mushrooms and #MedicinalHerbs.
"Yet policymakers routinely tell Giroux there’s 'no interest in agroforestry,' she says. 'There’s no institutional will to move these practices forward primarily because people don’t understand them.'
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has supported agroforestry since the 1990 Farm Bill and does exceptional research, Giroux feels, but “a knowledge-exchange issue” prevents guidance from reaching most landowners. A network of trained farmers could help support and train peers – a process that happens informally, Boudreau says, in the permaculture community, a related landscape design approach modeled after natural systems.
"Research has already demonstrated that #NoTill agriculture improves crop yields, reduces costs and improves soil health. Even more economic and environmental benefits could flow from cultivating crops in a layered, integrated mix of annuals and perennials more reminiscent of natural plant communities."
Full article:
https://themainemonitor.org/sea-change-agroforestry-may-be-just-what-maine-needs-for-agricultural-growth/#SolarPunkSunday #NoMonoculture #Polyculture #AgroEcology #FoodForests
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The #SilentRevolution: #Agroecology is reshaping #agriculture and the food system across #Europe
26 February 2026
"Agroecology is gaining traction in Europe, with hundreds of initiatives emerging in different countries. These include forms of farming practices and developments in popular education, and they all share the global objective of transforming European food systems to be more sustainable and resilient.
"In 2021, researchers gathered around a European Horizon research call, #AE4EU, and started identifying agroecological initiatives in Europe. The third and final report has just been published, and it covers #Belgium, #Czechia, #Latvia, #Luxembourg, Norway, #Poland, #Serbia, #Slovakia, and #Switzerland. It completes the series of reports that now covers 33 countries.
"This thorough work was realised by local mappers for each country, overseen by researchers from the AE4EU project. Each report presents initiatives according to different categories: practices, education and training, #LivingLabs, science, and movement."
Read more:
https://www.agroecology-europe.org/the-silent-revolution-agroecology-is-reshaping-agriculture/#SolarPunkSunday #Agroecology #RegenerativeAgriculture
#GrowYourOwnFood #FoodForests #SustainableAgriculture -
[Thread] I came across some gems on the @AgroecologyMap website... Highlighting a few of them for #SolarPunkSunday...
#Agroecology #RegenerativeAgriculture #GrowYourOwnFood #FoodForests #SustainableAgriculture
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So, the @AgroecologyMap hasn't posted in a while... I do hope they return to Mastodon. Meanwhile, they do have a cool website that highlights #Agroecology projects around the world, and have an excellent resource page...
https://agroecologymap.org/en/home/index
#SolarPunkSunday #GrowYourOwn #GrowYourOwnFood #Resiliency #FoodSecurity #BuildingCommunity #SustainableAgriculture #FoodForests #Permaculture
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THIS EVENT HAS PASSED!
#SaintLouisMO - How to Start a #CommunityFoodProject
By #SeedSaintLouisJan 17 from 12:30pm to 2:30pm CST
"Overview: Learn the steps to successfully start your own community or school garden or orchard!
In this class, we will go over the steps to successfully start your own community or school garden, or orchard. This class synthesizes our 40 years of organizational experience supporting groups to make successful projects. We will go over our documents, examples, and other resources so you can utilize them to start your own project. We will also have time to allow you to meet other attendees to collaborate, and we will do some hands-on activities to help you plan your site."
Date: January 17, 2025, 12:30-2:30 pm
Location: Ameren Community Room, Delmar DivineThe Delmar Divine is at 5501 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63112. There is free street parking all along Belt Avenue.
Preregistration required. Cost is free.
"Since 1984 Seed St. Louis has connected people to the land, to their food, and to each other. We are a 501c3 nonprofit who supports a network of over 250 #CommunityGardens, #SchoolGardens, and #UrbanOrchards in neighborhoods throughout the St. Louis region. Our purpose is to provide communities with the tools, education, and empowerment to grow their own food."
#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSecurity #FoodInsecurity #GrowYourOwn #GrowingFood #FoodForests #Missouri
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How #Indigenous #FoodSovereignty can improve #FoodSecurity
Sustainable Bites: Food and Our Future What can we do to help make our food systems more sustainable? UBC researchers share small steps that can make a big collective impact.
March 24, 2025
"Indigenous households experience food insecurity at rates two to three times higher than non-Indigenous households in Canada. #Agroecologist Dr. #JenniferGrenz, an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Forestry and Faculty of Land and Food Systems, studies Indigenous food sovereignty and food systems, and how to revitalize them.
Did you know?
#Kwetlal, or #camas, a lily-like plant with a starchy bulb, was an important staple for #IndigenousPeoples along the #SalishSea.
Kwetlal was cultivated in Garry oak #ecosystems by #W̱SÁNEĆ and Quw’utsun Peoples, until #colonization nearly destroyed these unique food systems.What does Indigenous food sovereignty mean?
" 'Indigenous food sovereignty is the reclamation and revitalization of our food systems,' says Dr. Grenz, who is Nlaka’pamux of mixed ancestry, whose family comes from the #Lytton First Nation. She grew up and lives on the coast of BC.
"The lands across #BritishColumbia, Dr. Grenz explains, were purposefully shaped since time immemorial for foods, medicines and technologies by the Indigenous Peoples who lived there until colonial settlers dispossessed them of their lands, culture and traditions.
" 'Indigenous food sovereignty is also about #CulturalResurgence: being able to access those foods and medicines again and find new ones as we face a changing climate,' said Dr. Grenz. 'Heal the people, heal the land. Heal the land, heal the people. I think that’s really what food sovereignty is about.'
"Revitalizing Indigenous food systems can help diversify and localize food systems in ways that could buffer against #FoodInsecurity in a changing climate.
"Dr. Grenz’s research team is working alongside Indigenous communities impacted by the 2021 heat dome and wildfires to understand the effects on culturally important plants.
" 'If you think of land as just vegetation and an aesthetic notion of what belongs, you’re going to have very different approaches and different outcomes to recovery than if you see that land as a food system, not just for humans, but for our animal, bird, fish and insect relations,' says Dr. Grenz. 'We’re working alongside communities to develop those Indigenized processes around wildfire recovery that honour Indigenous food systems, sustainability and resiliency.”'
How can #Settlers support the revitalization of Indigenous food systems?"Learn about the histories of the lands you live on and what the traditional food systems were, what they are now and what they could be, says Dr. Grenz.
"Incorporating reciprocity into your relationship with the land is also important. 'Learn about the plants of those lands and find a way to invite them into your life. How can you take care of them, nurture them and steward them?' asks Dr. Grenz.
"One way might be to Indigenize your own back yard or community garden. Or learn about Indigenous food system protocols and the concept of '#HonourableHarvest.'
How can land-based learning support Indigenous food sovereignty?"Land-based learning is an opportunity to get students and people out on the land—and start taking steps to give back while they are learning.
"At #UBCFarm, Dr. Grenz and students are starting two different Indigenous food systems to work as part of the agrarian food system that exists there — 'essentially bridging two food systems, #decolonizing and #Indigenizing our understandings of what foods are and how those two systems work together to benefit both.'
"In one, they are establishing a Garry oak ecosystem and growing camas, which is a traditional food system of the W̱SÁNEĆ and Quw’utsun Peoples. Another type of #ForestGarden, similar to other Coast #Salish, #Tsimshian or #Haida food systems, will see the forest shaped by different plants like beaked #hazelnut, #elderberry, #salmonberry and #thimbleberry.The students will be able to practice how to care for plants ordinarily thought of as forest plants, and 'learn how to reclaim traditional #LandStewardship practices to actually increase the production of those berries.' "
Source [includes video links]:
https://beyond.ubc.ca/how-indigenous-food-sovereignty-can-improve-food-security/#SolarPunkSunday #FirstNations #Quwutsun #ClimateChange #Resilience #DecolonizeYourDiet #HonorIndigenousFoodSystems #LandBasedLearning #IndigenousFoodSovereignty #IndigenousFoods #BuildingCommunity #CommunityGardens #FoodForests
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#NewZealand / #Aotearoa - The transformative power of urban #FoodForests
1 April 2025
"#IndustrialFarms depend on #FossilFuels – making them significant contributors to climate change, says University of #Auckland professional teaching fellow Daniel Kelly.
"He is researching ways to produce food without fuelling climate change, while helping grow a food forest at #PapatūānukuKōkiriMarae in #Mangere.
" 'Growing food has given me faith that humans can be a positive force for #ecological #restoration.
" 'There’s this narrative that being human means being an ecosystem destroyer, but that’s only a story about one type of human.
" 'Perhaps the biggest challenge facing us as a society is learning how to become another type of human, who cares for and enriches their place,' says Kelly, who teaches psychology and sustainability and is involved with the University’s Centre for #Climate, #Biodiversity and Society – #NgāAraWhetū.
"Kelly stumbled across gardening while flatting in his early twenties and became focussed on climate change while completing an environmental law degree.
"Now 36, he’s trying to refine the art of growing food while sequestering carbon – and tackling social inequities in the process.
"Five years ago, Kelly learned about #syntropic #agroforestry at a workshop at PermaDynamics in Northland. It’s a new technique for growing trees and food that is inspired by pre-modern farming in Europe and contemporary #Indigenous practices in #Brazil.
"#SyntropicAgroforestry is aligned with #agroecology, a political movement that aims to hand control of land and food production back into the hands of ordinary people.
Agroecology aims to address hunger, #FoodInsecurity and ultimately #Social Inequality.
"In #Aotearoa, food inequality disproportionately affects urban #Māori and Pacific people, who more often live in areas with poorer access to healthy food and are less likely to be able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables, says Kelly.
" 'That can be traced back to #colonisation and the large-scale dispossession of Māori land to support the establishment of European farms from the 1860s onwards.'
"In 2020, Kelly started experimenting with growing a syntropic food forest at Papatūānuku Kōkiri marae in Mangere.
"That food forest has become part of his PhD thesis on #FoodSystemChange - and from bare clay five years ago, it has grown 12-metre tall trees, berries, bananas, peaches, figs, #pawpaw, peppers, and many other crops.
"The bounty is distributed by Papatūānuku marae as part of its efforts to support people facing hunger in the community."
Read more:
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2025/04/01/the-transformative-power-of-urban-forests.html#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSovereignty #Decolonization #FoodSecurity
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Working on cutting back both the #Blackberry and #Raspberry bushes (probably on Tuesday when things dry out a bit)...
Now Is the Best Time to Prune Raspberry Bushes For Better Harvests—Here's How
By Gemma Johnstone
Published on 12/11/24https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-prune-raspberries-like-a-pro-8751727
How and When to Prune Blackberry Bushes
April 11, 2025 by Heather Buckner
https://gardenerspath.com/plants/fruit/prune-blackberries/
#SolarPunkSunday #Gardening #GrowYourOwn #FoodForests #Bramble #Pruning #NorthernHemisphere
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New publication: The impact of decomposer size classes and #litter quality on litter decomposition in #foodforests. #agroforestry #litterquality #decomposition #nutrientcycling
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-025-01299-1 -
So, something else that is a key element of ensuring #HumanWelfare remains in the SW range is to make sure folks are fed -- without destroying the environment! That's where #RegenerativeAgriculture , #SustainableAgriculture, #FoodForests, #CommunityGardens, etc., come into play. But #Rewilding and restoring key natural systems are also very important!
7. #Wildlife faces #extinction cascades as #ecosystems collapse.
"Vertebrate populations have declined by an average of 69 percent since 1970, with some regions experiencing losses exceeding 90 percent as habitat destruction, climate change, #pollution, and direct #exploitation combine to trigger ecosystem-wide collapse that eliminates the #biodiversity necessary to maintain stable #FoodWebs. Species extinction rates now exceed background levels by 100 to 1,000 times, representing a mass extinction event comparable to the asteroid impact that eliminated the dinosaurs but compressed into a timeframe measured in decades rather than millennia.
"The collapse of insect populations threatens #pollination services essential for agricultural production, while marine ecosystems face #acidification, warming, and #overfishing that eliminate entire trophic levels and destabilize ocean food chains supporting billions of people. Domestic animals face parallel threats as #IndustrialAgriculture concentrates genetic diversity into vulnerable #monocultures while climate change disrupts feed production and increases disease pressure on livestock populations already stressed by intensive production methods designed to maximize short-term yields rather than long-term #resilience."
#Collapse #Change #TheLimitsToGrowth #PlanetaryBoundaries #WaterIsLife #NatureIsLife #Extinction
