The Future of Food and Farming: Creating a Resilient System

The Future of Food and Farming: Creating a Resilient System

Friday – April 13-20, 2012

Teachers: Colin Tudge, Martin Crawford, Peter Harper, Bethan Stagg and Rebecca Laughton

This course is open for bookings.

This course will explore food production in an ecological context which involves working with natural and biological cycles rather than imposing high-input systems on environments that they are not suited for. It will examine the vital role that ‘human scale’ horticulture and botanical diversity can play, in intensifying production without increasing environmental degradation, climate change or the consumption of finite resources, and discuss the wider socio-economic context within which this transformation could occur.

News >> Schumacher College is proud to offer a unique postgraduate course in sustainable horticulture – MSc Sustainable Horticulture and Food Production – growing low input, diverse and resilient food systems

Course outline

This course is in two parts, the first focusing on new methods of growing food, crop diversity etc. and the second looking at the food economy. Participants can attend either part or the whole course.

April 13-15 (weekend course): Diversity on the Land Bethan Stagg, Martin Crawford

Sustainable food production means moving away from monocultures to create farming “polycultures” where diverse crops are grown which build fertility and provide habitat as well as feeding people. This course provides an introduction to the many different techniques, crops and innovations that are being trialled by growers at a variety of scales from farm to smallholding to garden, including:

• Grass-fed agriculture, herb-rich pastures and browse

• Agroforestry and perennial crops

• Fertility-building plant species and botanical diversity

• Soil conservation and minimum tillage approaches

April 16-20 (Monday to Friday): Growing the New Food Economy Colin Tudge, Rebecca Laughton, Peter Harper

What would a truly sustainable food production system look like? This question encompasses a whole range of interconnected issues of scale, markets, diet, lifestyles and resource use, all of which will be addressed during this course. We will investigate the close connection between society’s economic system and its agriculture, and discuss the extent to which the free market is responsible for unsustainable practices. We will look at new models of local food production and distribution and discuss the extent to which they can feed current and future populations in a resource-efficient and carbon-neutral way. What does it take to survive and thrive on the land? Using examples from around the world, we’ll discuss the challenges smallholders face and strategies for making it work.

Teachers

Bethan Stagg co-ordinates the garden operations and teaches on the Diploma and Certificate courses in Sustainable Horticulture. The passion for plants started at the age of six, when she started to learn plant names and grow lemon pips, with the interest always being equally divided between native plant ecology and plant cultivation. Bethan has a BSc in biology from University of Bristol, an MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation from the University of Leeds and fifteen years experience in roles relating to ecology and local food initiatives, including allotment regeneration, production horticulture and farmers markets. Bethan also works part of the time at Plymouth University, researching botanical teaching methods and lives in Ashburton.

Martin Crawford runs the Agroforestry Research Trust. He has over 20 years’ experience of Organic horticulture, agriculture and agroforestry. The Agroforestry Research Trust is a non-profit making charity which researches into temperate agroforestry and into all aspects of plant cropping and uses, with a focus on tree, shrub and perennial crops.

Peter Harper is Head of Research and Innovation at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, UK, which he helped found and where he has worked for over 20 years (www.cat.org.uk). He is also a visiting lecturer at universities and other institutions around the world. His interests have ranged widely, including energy policy, sustainable lifestyles, ecovillages, alternative sanitation, landscape design, organic horticulture, and composting (with which he is mildly obsessed – don’t get him started). His publications include Radical Technology (1976) an influential early textbook of technical alternatives, The Natural Garden Book (1994) and Lifting the Lid (2000) on low-impact sanitation systems. He was co-author of Zero Carbon Britain 2030 and has spent a lot of time thinking about how we will feed ourselves in a world with very limited fossil fuel supplies.

Colin Tudge studied zoology and has since then made a living as a broadcaster and writer. He is the author of many books on birds, agriculture, natural history and economics, including most recently Good Food for Everyone Forever, Feeding People is Easy and The Secret Life of Trees. In 2009, he launched, with his wife Ruth, the Campaign for Real Farming (www.campaignforrealfarming.org), which incorporates the College for Enlightened Agriculture. Then in January 2010, together with Graham Harvey, they organized the first Oxford Real Farming Conference, which now has become an annual event.

Rebecca Laughton has always wanted to be a farmer, but really discovered her agricultural vocation while studying for a Geography degree at Newcastle University (1993-1996). Since then she has blended practical work on a variety of organic farms and market gardens, with academic study (MSc in Sustainable Agriculture at Wye College), writing and a spell working for Somerset Food Links. For five years she lived at Tinkers Bubble, a low impact community that manages 40 acres of gardens, orchards, fields and forest plantation using only hand and horse drawn tools. This experience inspired her to visit a number of smallholdings and land based communities around France and the UK to find out how other people balance their own needs with those of the land they manage, leading to her book “Surviving and Thriving on the Land”. Rebecca also writes agricultural appraisals to help low impact smallholders gain planning permission for an agricultural workers dwelling and works as a freelance researcher on small scale farming issues. She is currently trying to thrive, rather than merely survive, on the land as she establishes a small market garden in West Sussex.

Course Fees - All course fees include accommodation, food, field trips and all teaching sessions.

The Future of Food and Farming (seven day course): £750
Growing the New Food Economy (weekday course): £550
Diversity on the Land (weekend course): £250

Click here to access our on-line booking system

Visit: http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/the-future-of-food-and-farming-creating-a-resilient-system

Tel: +44 (0)1803 865934
Fax: +44 (0)1803 866899
Email: admin@schumachercollege.org.uk

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