Food & Farming - Seeding Our Future

Is Britain heading for a food emergency?

Probably… and how can we prepare? By food emergency, I mean a prolonged period of serious food shortages, and/or extreme food price inflation. My glimmering worries about this were crystallised by a recent seminar at Abergavenny Food Festival, including Professor Tim Lang, one of the UK’s wisest experts on food security. Many of us … Read more

Sacred Land Cultivation

Restoring our bond with Mother Earth I’m writing to share a vision with you which feels increasingly vital for our survival. This vision interweaves two ideas which I see discussed increasingly, but only rarely connected. One is the urgent need to increase local food production in the UK (especially vegetables, fruit, proteins), as climate change … Read more

Is food security better in Wales?

Maybe: at least the outlook is promising… Food security is one of the issues which makes me compare the 2020s to the 1930s: there are huge problems looming, most people are in denial, but a few are making preparations which could be crucial. Some of these are in Wales, and as a fresh immigrant, I’m … Read more

Project profile: Bridport Food Matters

Three years on, what has worked, and what hasn’t In 2020, and before that, many experts on food security and climate change were warning of imminent problems, and sadly they were right. Covid has added to the challenges of extreme weather, but the UK has had it worse than some other countries, due to … Read more

Regenerative Agriculture: a way forward for sustainable farming

Guest blog As the world continues to grapple with the challenges of climate change, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we need to find new ways of farming that are more sustainable and regenerative. That’s where regenerative agriculture comes in – a way of farming that focuses on improving the health of the soil, increasing biodiversity, … Read more

Britain’s fragile food security: insights from Tim Lang

by Caroline Walker I have a nice personal memory of Professor Tim Lang. In 2001 I had just retired as head of the Small School in Hartland, North Devon, a very small independent secondary school where cooking the lunch together was a foundational practice. I heard about the Caroline Walker (no relation) Awards which recognise … Read more

Garden hamlets: a sane response to crazy times

Improving food security and affordable housing supply There’s a widespread view that strengthening local communities will be crucial in the years ahead, to help us all to adapt to increasing levels of disruption, including food supplies, utilities, weather patterns, and more. Clearly we need to raise the resilience of existing communities: but after three years … Read more

Creating community land for farms: online toolkit

For groups and communities wanting to buy land for local food production, there’s now a comprehensive online toolkit at www.communityfarm.land. It has been created by the Ecological Land Co-operative and Co-op Culture, who have assisted dozens of projects to get started. The website is well-organised, and includes sample document formats, lists of organisations and advisors, … Read more

Digging into Regenerative Agriculture

A model of de-intensification for humans too! Ever since I co-founded an organic farm in 1990, I’ve tried to stay aware of trends in sustainable farming. The latest is regenerative agriculture: there’s a lot of hype and froth around this, so I recently visited two farms who are doing it for real. One is a … Read more

Subtle Agroecology: another element in Regenerative Agriculture?

Subtle Agroecology is a new term, created by the editor of a recent book on the subject, Julia Wright, an expert in agroecology at Coventry University. SA is “the systematic study of the invisible world as it relates to agriculture”, and is highly relevant in these times when we urgently need to renew soils, cut … Read more

Elderhood: A Sacred, Earthy Calling?

Elderhood: A Sacred, Earthy Calling? A men’s peer group: December 1-3 Llanthony Valley, Black Mountains, Wales We’re living in a world of rising crisis and turmoil. We’re growing older, we have some talents and resources, but limited time here. How do we use them? What’s the balance between nourishing our souls/the inner life, and doing what we can for the troubles around us? Is elderhood, and the fellowship of elders, a path that can help? This will be a peer group for a maximum of seven men, organised by Alan Heeks: we will shape the way we use the time together. Our venue is Trwyn Tal, a 30-acre hill farm with amazing views and upland walks, set in the sacred landscape of the Llanthony Valley, in the Black Mountains, extremely quiet, but accessible: about half an hour from Abergavenny (nearest train station), and about 1.5 hours from Bristol by car. We will have a spacious self-catering cottage as our base, plus bedrooms in the farmhouse. See more at www.welshmountainretreat.com. The cost for accommodation will be £155, and we will share food purchases and cooking between us. For more info or bookings, please contact Alan Heeks: alanheeks@gmail.com or 07494 203014.
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The Seven Seeds Ecosystem Model: Cultivating resilience and sustainability for people and organisations

The Seven Seeds is a unique approach using parallels with cultivated ecosystems to help individuals, teams and organisations to grow their resilience and their sustainability for both human and environmental resources. Alan Heeks has evolved this model through many years of workshops, and can facilitate tailored sessions for a range of client groups, from a half day to two days. About the model It’s clear that most of the situations and resources we’re engaged with can’t be controlled, only shaped. From his experience of starting an organic farm from scratch, Alan realised that cultivated ecosystems are a powerful model for people and organisations: they show us how to steer and shape a complex natural system to achieve outcomes we need, in a co-creative approach which adjusts to the realities of the situation. Alan’s first book, The Natural Advantage, uses organic farming as its model, and applies it for managers and work organisations. His fourth book, Natural Happiness, due for publication in March 2024, uses organic gardening as the main model, and is focussed more on individuals and community groups. For a summary of the current Seven Seeds model, click here. About Alan Alan had a highly successful business career, starting in marketing with Procter & Gamble, followed by a Harvard MBA, and including seven years as Managing Director of two businesses. He was a founder-director of Caradon plc, which has been described as “the most successful management buy-in ever”. Since then, Alan has worked as a consultant and group facilitator with businesses and non-profits. He has used some of his Caradon capital to set up two environmental charities: a 130-acre organic farm, and a 70-acre wood. See more at www.naturalhappiness.net and www.seedingourfuture.org.uk. Workshop options These are indicative: Alan is happy to tailor content to the group and its needs. His aim is always to make sessions highly participative, so the learning is experiential. Access to outdoor space is desirable: ideally a city farm or market garden, but anywhere with trees or plants will do. Alan with a Seven Seeds group at Hazel Hill Wood Seven Seeds: train the trainer This workshop would guide participants through the whole model, showing how to deliver it experientially, and how to tailor it to different needs.Duration: preferably 1 day. Seven Seeds for managers This would help participants to cultivate their own resilience and human sustainability, and to understand and nourish systemic resilience and wellbeing in the organisation.Duration: preferably 1 day, but a half-day taster is possible. Seven Seeds for coaches Here the focus is on enabling coaches to use elements of the model with their clients, addressing both clients’ own sustainability, and the organisational issues they are facing.Duration: 1 day preferable, half day possible. Change management, leadership, strategy Alan has wide experience of using the Seven Seeds as a catalyst for these and other themes, often co-facilitating with a consultant or manager familiar with the client organisation.Duration: overall 1-2 days. Seven Seeds for non-profits Alan has led workshops using the Seven Seeds model for NHS professionals (doctors and administrators), community groups, and NGOs and climate adaptation projects, shaping the model to a wide range of learning outcomes. Contact: for an exploratory discussion, please contact Alan: email alanheeks@gmail.com, phone 07494 203014.
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Tailored Retreats in the Welsh Mountains

Trwyn Tal Mountain Retreat Centre A tailored retreat means that an individual or small group choose their own dates for exclusive use of a magical small retreat centre in Wales. Alan will run a couple of sessions each day, drawing on his unique Natural Happiness model, and tailoring the retreat to your issues and questions. You will have most of each day free for walks in the extraordinary surrounding landscapes, or just to rest and reflect. Retreats can be run for one or two people, or up to five with private bedrooms at Trwyn Tal, or for groups of up to ten people using additional accommodation nearby. These retreats will be held at the Trwyn Tal mountain retreat centre where you can cultivate wellbeing and resilience through parallels with nature, drawing deep inspiration and insights from the beautiful setting. The retreat offers you the chance to relax, immerse yourself in nature, and slow down the pace of life in a spectacular setting. The retreat centre was founded and is run by Sarah Maliphant who writes: ‘Trwyn Tal is a peaceful mountain farm set in a gently curving valley on the Welsh Borders. It’s the ideal place to slow down – frankly, the views kind of do that for you.’ The location is Capel-y-ffin in the peaceful Llanthony valley on the eastern edge of the Brecon Beacons, with the Honddu river running below, Gospel Pass to the North, and the Vale of Ewyas on the doorstep. Easily reached by train to Abergavenny or Hereford. For further information on the venue, follow this link. If you would like to explore this possibility, please contact Alan.
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How can we raise community resilience?

Research, reflections, riddles and more! As the pressures on all of us keep rising, we can see mounting discord about best priorities and solutions. One of the few topics on which almost everyone agrees is that increasing the resilience of local communities is getting ever more vital. This has been a focus of my work since 2012, so I’m offering an overview of some of my insights. As part of a project called Facing the 2020s, in 2012 I commissioned a substantial piece of action research on UK community resilience by Reos Partners, which included over thirty diagnostic interviews, extensive desk research, and exploratory workshops in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff with potential stakeholders, including national and local government, NGOs and community organisations. The main focus of this blog is the insights I gained from this research. The terms community and resilience are so heavily used that a short explanation of what I mean by community resilience may be wise: the collective capacity of a group of people to handle and grow through crises and challenges. I’ve set out below some of the main aspects of resilience in this context: part of this capacity could come from organisations, including local authority, public services and non-profit groups. Material: some capacity to respond locally to interruptions in food, energy supplies, especially for elderly and vulnerable people. Environmental: response to ecosystem damage, eg habitat loss, pollution and to extreme weather, eg floods, droughts. Wellbeing: for everyone’s emotional needs, especially those who have mental health or isolation issues. Inspirational: maintaining and renewing a sense of vision, cohesion and purpose in the community in the face of a crisis. Connective: good communication within the group, including the skills of hearing, voicing, reconciling strong differences in opinions and values. Reproducibility: On most aspects of community resilience, there are successful exemplar projects somewhere in the UK. For a concise, inspiring range of examples, see the book The New Road, by Alf and Ewan Young. Why have these not been widely reproduced? One reason is that many good community resilience initiatives have depended on a few superhuman people, who just kept going against impossible difficulties. How can such interventions be systematised so that regular humans could implement them in a bigger number of communities? Recording what was done in an accessible toolkit form would help a lot. Sustainable funding: Many good initiatives have also depended on funding that was not reproducible, e.g. a slab of one-off grant funding as part of a pilot programme by an NGO. Sustainable funding sources could include raising capital from local communities themselves, (eg crowdfunding), or a social enterprise model, or a couple of larger foundations offering a grant scheme plus support to use it. Professional services: Many community initiatives struggle to find professional support geared to their particular needs, in finance, legal, property, HR and other areas. The emergence of specialists for this sector would greatly assist reproductivity. Systemic catalysts: In my dream of raising UK community resilience, a focal role would be played by trained advocate-facilitators, who would go into a community to understand its needs and dynamics, help gather support and a project team and could provide access to reproducible role models, sustainable funding, professional services and more. Working with minority groups and communities of identity: Some communities will be more vulnerable to shocks than others, and history tells us that unresolved social tensions bubble up at times of stress. Resilient societies and communities rely heavily on social cohesion. The benefits of working on community resilience now include the opportunity to pre-empt more severe ruptures to social cohesion which are likely to arise from the major stresses ahead. It is important to involve minority communities in the resilience journey, and communities of identity such as LGBT, instead of focussing solely on geographic communities. Wider participation: Many places don’t have a strong sense of community, and in most of those that do, only a tiny percentage of people participate actively in community matters. How could larger numbers of communities, and larger numbers of people, have a motivation to participate in community resilience, including ethnic and low-income communities? This is a crucial issue, which will become more acute amid the pressures ahead: it would be great to see a couple of enlightened large NGOs fund pilot projects and gathering of best practice to move this forward. Engaging local authorities: As funding for services has moved from central government to local authorities, many local authorities have worked to further devolve decision-making and budgetary decisions to local communities. This means that in some parts of the country, local communities are strongly engaged with the local authority, and structures exist to support these partnerships. This move towards greater local control highlights the exciting potential to tackle many priorities (environmental, public service reform, etc.) by adopting a resilience approach and involving local people in community action and resilience building. In recent years, some local authorities have become real innovators in new forms of service delivery, partnership working and more. The replication issue applies here too. Is there currently an easy way to access best practice and role models in this area? Building national resilience: Most approaches towards community resilience take place at a geographic community level. However, examples from UK history and from other countries indicate real benefits in national-level approaches towards resilience. Some of the countries that are considered the most resilient, such as Japan, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, have a strong national resilience policy. If the UK had this too, it would make local initiatives more effective. Online resilience services: A massive opportunity for innovation! If I continue to dream, I imagine social entrepreneurs and progressive NGOs helping to create new apps and web services, alongside businesses. The research I’ve summarised above has prompted me to keep exploring community resilience, currently in my Seeding our Future project (see www.futurescanning.org). My work is on the scale of local pilot programmes and proof of concept. There’s a far bigger need and opportunity which I hope a few larger non-profit organisations will grasp soon.
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