Food & Farming – Seeding Our Future

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

UK Food Strategy: the Dimbleby Report offers a clear, positive direction

It was only last year that Professor Tim Lang, one of the UK’s top experts in this field, published Feeding Britain, an exhaustive and exhausting 567-page account of why our food system is so dysfunctional: see blog here. Henry Dimbleby and team deserve a lot of credit for crystallising a set of major issues, and … Read more

Food security: how your community can take the initiative

There are many aspects of the Covid and climate crises where you may feel disempowered, dependent on government responses. However, food security is an issue where individuals and communities have scope for positive action now! Britain’s food self-sufficiency has declined from 80% to 60% in the past thirty years. We’re especially vulnerable on vegetables and … 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

Digging deeper into local food

Online briefing and discussion:Tuesday January 12, 7.00-8.30pm Organised and hosted by Transition Town Bridport and Seeding our Future Our food supply is more fragile than it appears. Some 40% of our food comes from abroad,and depends on good harvests, stable climate and frictionless borders. Covid, ClimateChange and Brexit are make feeding Britain even more precarious. … Read more

Why local food matters for Bridport

Bridport has a reputation as a foodie centre, but how solid is our local food security? Several local organisations believe we need to grow and buy more of our produce locally: you can find out more at their stall on Barrack Street in the December 12 Farmers Market. The main problem from climate change for … Read more

Food Security: Opportunity, Research, Action

It’s easy to feel disempowered these days, but this is an issue where we can all do something. Food security means reliable access to enough good quality, affordable, sustainably produced food. Many experts believe that food shortages and price rises will be a major impact of climate change during the next few years. You may … Read more

Perspectives from Bridport Local Food Group

This month’s Seeding Our Future webinar has started an important exploration of how our local food system can adapt to the coming challenges of climate change, just as the recent pressures of Covid-19 are revealing how adeptly the Bridport area’s independent food and drink producers and suppliers can innovate during exceptional times. Short supply chains … Read more

Six big questions for our times

and some ways to explore answers Have you ever had the experience of wandering, lost in the mist, and emerging to find you’re at a vantage point where you can see at least broadly where you are, and where you want to go? That’s the place I’ve reached recently, and I’m sharing my perspectives in the hope that … Read more

Nature Immersion Course for GPs: March 21-22, October 13-14, 2022

The Devon venue and facilitators for these programmes will be the same as the October 2021 group described below, and the content will be broadly the same. Details of how to book will be available in early 2022. For details of the March course, see here. Please note that the course is only open to Tamar and Wessex Faculty members.
... Read more
Nature Immersion for Climate Distress

A CPA-sponsored workshop for therapists and counsellors Tues May 17 – Wed May 18: Hazel Hill Wood, near Salisbury We can see that the climate crisis is worsening, and we need new ways to respond to rising climate distress. This experiential workshop is designed for therapists, counsellors and other professionals, offering you a chance to explore and learn how Nature immersion can be part of your approach, both with individuals and groups, drawing on many years of this work by the facilitators and at this unique venue. We will shape the content to the interests of participants, and provide space for everyone to share their experience on this topic. This event positively welcomes people from any racial, gender, religious, age and other backgrounds. We actively encourage you to enquire about concessions if you are interested but cannot afford the workshop. We have two lower fee places for unwaged or low-waged participants. This event is only open to booking from CPA members until March 12: if there are places available after this date, others are welcome to book. The approaches we aim to explore include: How Nature immersion can enable specific climate response processes, such as The Work that Reconnects (deep ecology) and Deep Adaptation. Methods of Nature immersion, including forest bathing, micro-quests, tree connection, symbol walks, reality shifts (campfires, night walks, etc), Alan Heeks’ ecosystem model for human resilience, and rewilding. Ways to tailor nature immersion to a range of clients, including one-to-one therapy, young people, high-stress professionals such as doctors, and special needs groups. How to use Nature immersion in the urban outdoors, online, and for indoor groups. Facilitators Alan Heeks: has used nature contact in facilitating groups and individual coaching for 25 years. He set up the retreat centre at Hazel Hill, and has pioneered many groups and processes here, often using his Natural Happiness model of ecosystems as a guide to human resilience. He co-developed the Nature Resilience Immersion groups for doctors. See more at www.naturalhappiness.net and www.seedingourfuture.org.uk. Deeply involved in climate responses, member of CPA, and of the Deep Adaptation Holding Group. Jane Sanders: has worked as a mindfulness-based psychotherapist for over 30 years. She first came across eco-psychology and deep ecology in the 1980s reading John Seed and Joanna Macy and then training as a ‘Work that Reconnects’ facilitator. Over the last 10 years, she joined the teaching staff at Sweetrack Counselling training – helping develop one of the first curriculums integrating ecopsychology into trainee counsellors’ development. She currently offers Rewilding Therapy CPD trainings and has an outdoor psychotherapy and supervision practice at Hallr Wood in Somerset. She is a CPA member. Marcos Frangos: Marcos works as a counsellor, constellations coach and group facilitator, with wide experience in nature immersions including many groups at Hazel Hill. He was General Manager of Hazel Hill Trust 2015-2019, and has worked with Alan and Jane on Nature Resilience Immersions and other events. See www.wellspringchange.com. Hazel Hill Wood: Hazel Hill is a magical 70-acre conservation woodland and retreat centre, 7 miles from Salisbury, which has evolved since 1993 as a place for catalytic connections between people of many kinds and the natural world. It has a wide range of woodland habitats, open spaces, a pond, and a campfire amid beech trees in the heart of the wood. It has simple, yet beautifully crafted off-grid wooden buildings with lovely indoor and outdoor group spaces, basic accommodation in bedrooms and sleeping lofts (or camping), good hot showers and compost loos. Please note there are deer ticks at the wood which can carry Lyme disease: we will brief you on precautions in the joining instructions. See more about the wood at www.hazelhill.org.uk. Timings: From 11.30am on Tuesday May 17 to 3.30pm on Wednesday May 18. Cost: £280, including single room accommodation, food and facilitation. Two concessionary places available at £94, please apply via Alan. Covid precautions: Covid precautions will include: 1-metre distancing when indoors, all single bedrooms, holding group sessions outdoors where possible. Bookings and enquiries: Please contact Alan Heeks via alanheeks@gmail.com or 07976 602787. Group size limited to 14 participants. Only available for bookings by CPA members until March 12 2022.
... Read more
Soul Resilience Retreat: How your core self can help you grow through storms – Feb 25-27, 2022

At Hazel Hill Wood near SalisburyWith Alan Heeks and Jane Sanders As life gets more turbulent, we need to go higher and dig deeper to find a quantum step up in our resilience. This retreat is a chance to explore how the deep wisdom of your soul can help you to stay centred and positive, and clarify your purpose: why your soul has chosen to be here in a time of huge change. The intention for this retreat is to create a safe space for shared exploration, with guided processes, sharing time, and solo space to reflect, rest, and draw insights from Nature. The ingredients will include: Finding your own sense of your soul, and creating a dialogue.Ways to deepen soul connection, including calling on a guide, Nature immersion, sacred chants, soul groups and Gaia connection.Helping soul and body to cohabit, and create shared resilience.Why am I here? Find your soul’s view on how to live with and grow through climate crisis.Nourishing the soul, individually and collectively, as a key to everyday resilience. Alan Heeks has been exploring resilience, climate responses, and the soul’s journey for many years. He is a widely experienced group and retreat leader, whose interest in soul resilience has grown as a positive response to the climate crisis. See www.soulresilience.net and www.naturalhappiness.net. Jane Sanders has over 25 years’ experience in working with a mindfulness-based approach to wellbeing with groups and individuals, and draws on ecospirituality, deep ecology, rewilding and Nature immersion. Hazel Hill: is a magical 70-acre conservation woodland and retreat centre, 7 miles from Salisbury. It has simple, yet beautifully crafted off-grid wooden buildings with lovely indoor and outdoor group spaces, heated accommodation in bedrooms (or camping), good hot showers and compost loos. Please note there are deer ticks at the wood which can carry Lyme disease: we will brief you on precautions in the joining instructions. See more about the wood at www.hazelhill.org.uk. Practicalities: Start time: 4pm on Friday February 25, finishing after lunch at 2pm on Sunday February 27. Price: £260 including single bedroom, food and facilitation. Concessions £220. We will be asking everyone to help with practical tasks such as washing up, lighting stoves, etc. Covid: Covid precautions will include: 1-metre distancing when indoors, all single bedrooms, holding group sessions outdoors where possible. Everyone is asked to do a lateral flow test before coming to the group. Booking: For bookings or enquiries, please contact Alan on data@workingvision.com or 07976 602787.
... Read more
Grow your own Happiness

In these stormy times, we need new skills to stay happy. A cultivated ecosystem, like a garden, is a role model for human nature: this workshop shows how gardening methods can help you grow your own happiness and deepen the roots of your resilience.
... Read more

COP 26; A Professional’s view
By Raja Jarrah Raja Jarrah has attended several previous COP meetings as a professional participant, working with CARE International for several years. He is now based in Bridport, and part of the Seeding our Future team. COP26 was not a resounding success in advancing the global effort to deal with climate change. For some observers, their expectations of COP26 were not very high, and so the end result was perhaps not as great a disappointment as it was for many others. There were no real binding commitments made, no money put on on the table, and very little guarantee of action to follow on from the agreed words. Big gaps still remain between what needs to be done and what governments are committing to do. Astonishingly there was hardly any discussion about food and agriculture at COP, even though sustainable food systems had been discussed at a different UN summit earlier in the year. Nevertheless there are some new markers in the Glasgow pact that might allow progress in future, albeit with glaring loopholes that must be confronted. For example, action on “fossil fuels” is mentioned in a climate agreement for the first time; yet, phrased as phasing out “inefficient” subsidies, with no action until next year, it is tantamount to justifying business as usual for the time being. And though somewhat firmer action was agreed on coal, that too carries no urgency. Also there now seems to be consensus that the magic number is 1.5oC, not the 2oC that has dogged us since Paris. (Of course, opinions still vary about what to do about that number, how fast to avoid it, or if it’s OK to overshoot it by a bit or a lot, or not). On issues where agreement couldn’t be reached, there was at least agreement on the need to talk some more. This includes firmer targets for cutting emissions, more funding for adaptation, and establishing a fund that recognises the loss and damage that climate change has already unleashed on much of the developing world. But as experience shows, declarations and voluntary agreements do not routinely turn into actual action. Many observers of COP see the limited progress as confirming how essential action is by communities and local individuals, both to reduce emissions and adapt to worsening climate events, but also to keep pressure on national governments. Probably the most encouraging thing about COP26 was the extent that organisations of concerned citizens, many ably led by youth, women, and indigenous people, continually sought to exert pressure on the delegates during the negotiations, perhaps more so than at any previous COP. The challenge now is how to keep up that pressure so that the words of the politicians can turn into real action, prior to another COP next year.
... Read more