Inspiration, ideas, learning from others walking the walk ....
"We live in interesting times.
Britons of my era share the experience of having seen vast changes in technology, culture and language in our own lifetimes. The world of work has also been transformed.
Alongside the increasing domination of the world by our largest technocracies, we have also witnessed a growing awareness that social and environmental concerns are also supremely important. I am also aware that health, wealth and happiness are not equally shared out around the world.
This website brings together my thoughts, words and deeds as we work to address these issues and offer practical solutions through working in business and with the land".
Graham Bell Website www.grahambell.org
Agroforestry is the growing of both trees and agricultural / horticultural crops on the same piece of land. They are designed to provide tree and other crop products and at the same time protect, conserve, diversify and sustain vital economic, environmental, human and natural resources. Agroforestry differs from traditional forestry and agriculture by its focus on the interactions amoung components rather than just on the individual components themselves.
Martin Crawford Website www.agroforestry.co.uk
Patrick Whitefield passed away on 27th February 2015
Caroline Aitken is now the director, lead teacher and consultant.
Patrick created our residential and online courses during his 25 year career in Permaculture and wrote many articles and several books including The Earth Care Manual a comprehensive guide to practicing permaculture in a temperate climate. He was brought up on a smallholding in Somerset and qualified in agriculture at Shuttleworth College, Bedfordshire. After several years working in agriculture in the Middle East and Africa, he settled in central Somerset. In 1983 he bought a flower-rich hay meadow to save it from destruction and kept it as a nature reserve for 25 years before handing it on to the Somerset Wildlife Trust for safe keeping. He was always a keen vegetable gardener, a prominent member of the Green Party. From 1990 onwards he devoted himself to permaculture, especially to teaching it.
Website www.patrickwhitefield.co.uk
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is widely known for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food.
He has earned a huge following through his River Cottage TV series and books, as well as campaigns such as Hugh’s Fish Fight.
Hugh’s early smallholding experiences were shown in the Channel 4 River Cottage series and established River Cottage HQ in Dorset in 2004, and the operation is now based at Park Farm near Axminster in Devon. A working organic smallholding, HQ is also the base for a broad range of courses and events, and home to the newly launched River Cottage Chefs’ School.
Hugh’s broadcasting has earned him a BAFTA, and his TV work includes hard-hitting campaigns such as Chicken Out! which helped increase the proportion of higher welfare chicken sold in the UK and, most recently, the hugely influential Fish Fight, which brought about changes in law at the European level.
He is Patron of the National Farmers and of Switchback, a charity that helps young offenders find opportunities in the catering industry.
Website www.rivercottage.net
The Real Junk Food Project
The founder of a quietly-growing empire of social cafes has called on a change in the law to prevent the UK’s "criminal" levels of food waste - especially by supermarkets - while so many go hungry.
Adam Smith, founder of The Real Junk Food Project, in Armley, Leeds, feeds his punters on goods that would otherwise have been thrown away by supermarkets, independent grocers and food banks.
The 29-year-old trained chef cooks up stews, casseroles, soups and cakes with the unwanted food, charging a “pay as you feel” policy - allowing punters to pay what they feel they can, and if that is nothing, they can help with the washing up.
In just 10 months he has fed 10,000 people on 20 tonnes of unwanted food, raising over £30,000.
The cafe has had such resonance in a world with such high food wastage and high hunger levels it has inspired 47 other "pay as you feel" cafes to spring in the past few months in Manchester, Bristol, Saltaire – with the concept even exported as far away as Los Angeles and Brazil, Warsaw and Zurich. Website www.therealjunkfoodproject.org
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Permaculture, practical solutions for self-reliance, has been in print since 1992. Every issue brings you the best ideas, advice and inspiration from people who are actually creating a better world.
Permaculture's 88 full colour pages are packed with informative articles, readers' solutions, DIY designs, news, reviews, letters, classifieds and details of courses. it is also a hub for online as well as print media and a must have networking tool for all green and ethical businesses, social enterprises and projects.
Each issue of Permaculture has over 100,00 readers, it features practical articles on organic gardening, sustainable agriculture, agro forestry, climate change, peak oil, eco villages, alternative technology, eco-architecture, personal and community development and much more. Website www.permaculture.co.uk
Food For Free
Bridging the gap between waste and want since 1981
Food For Free rescues fresh food—food that might otherwise go to waste—and distributes it within the local emergency food system where it can reach those in need.
Through a combination of food rescue, farming, and transportation services, we give food programs year-round access to fresh fruits and vegetables, while our delivery program brings food directly to isolated seniors and people with disabilities.
Our programs address not only short-term hunger, but obesity, diet-related disease, and other long-term health effects of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
In addition, food rescue—also called salvage or gleaning—reduces food waste. Website www.foodforfree.org