I am sure I am not the only one who found last nights episode of Natural World – A Farm for the Future incredibly important and somewhat frightening.
If you didn’t see it – do have a look – it is available on iPlayer (for those in the UK at least) until 7:49pm Tuesday 17th March 2009.
You may recall the name Rebecca Hoskins? She was the wildlife documentary maker (one of only three female wildlife documentary film makers in the UK!) who went to Hawaii and was moved to tears by the impact our carrier bags are having on the marine environment. She came back and became the ‘bag lady of Modbury‘.
In May 2007 she convinced all the 1,500 residences and traders of her home town of Modbury to stop using plastic bags in favour of more sustainable long lasting alternatives. This made Modbury the first town in the Europe to become plastic bag free.
Here’s the synopsis from the BBC:
“Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key.
With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family’s wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year’s high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is.
Alarmed by the answers, she explores ways of farming without using fossil fuel. With the help of pioneering farmers and growers, Rebecca learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a low-energy future.”
Are we really going to bury our heads in the (oil) sands right up till the day where we are 9 meals from anarchy? I really hope not.
There is still a chance of turning it around, but we won’t find the answer at Tesco – or even at Waitrose!
Be very prepared for change. It’s just a question of whether we can make the steps to transition before it is too painful.
Just watched it and loved it in many ways: and in many others it’s brought home how far I am from really surviving. I write about bringing down the industrial system, spend a lot of time campaigning and writing in fact, all time I could be spending putting me and my family in a more survivable position. It’s a real gut-wrencher, but a sacrifice I think the people who have the communication skills (like yourself and Rebecca) need to make to a certain extent, because I would rather a sizeable lump of humanity survived. It’s a herd thing.
K.
Hi Keith – thanks very much for the comment – although I wouldn’t really class my blogging here as ‘serious’ – it is very encouraging to get a supportive comment from anyone – but even more so from someone who I *would* class as a serious environmental blogger.
I am totally with you on the gut wrenching sacrifice thing. A long time ago I decided that it would be for the best to focus on my own family and friends and try to set up and live a resilient, low-impact lifestyle, and lead by example. I do not feel I am able to lead by example at this stage in my life – even though I fully envisioned that I would be living with my family in a self-build cob/timber-frame permaculture based smallholding by this time (my daughters are almost grown up for goodness sake!)… the irony is that money is the main thing stopping me, and what stops me earning the money? Well – I don’t like what money does for a start! If it was a form of ‘sustainability token’ or ‘frugality reward’ scheme – that would be great, but it isn’t is it? Most money goes on far more pointless and destructive greed based things… the bulk of it squirrelled away into offshore accounts, bank executive’s pensions and such 😉
So – we focus on the small things. I can’t really call it voluntary downsizing, as we have never had anything big to downsize from! But cutting down on consuming, eating local food, growing our own, recycling etc. I would love to live in my own little ecotopia and believe that I am helping to spread the ‘good life’ meme – but land costs money – that’s the centuries old system and so far I haven’t figured out a way around that apart from saving up the cash for a deposit on a mortgage (when capitalism is in a more forthcoming mood than it is currently of course). No point not learning the skills that might be required when we get there though! Learning to grow stuff is a good place to start – you can’t beat veg grown in your own garden for low carbon input.
I am grateful for the time you have put into campaigning and writing anyway Keith – and if it comes to it – you and your family are welcome to the spare rooms in my cob/timber frame smallholding farmhouse… when I have built it 🙂
I look forward to reading your Time’s Up book BTW
Aw, I just noticed your response – I do get lost on the Internet. Thank you for the very kind offer; I’ll keep it in mind 🙂