Designing Regenerative Food Systems - Marina O'Connell

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Résumé :
Here is a toolkit for farmers and growers about tried and tested agroecological methods for transforming industrial food growing into a resilient agricultural revolution. The four challenges of climate change mitigation and adaptation, offsetting biodiversity loss and producing enough good food for a growing population are identified.

The author uses the case study of her Huxhams Cross Farm to show how dead soil was transformed into a thriving fertile land, drawing on a toolkit of biodynamic, organic, agroforestry, regenerative, agroecological and perma-cultural methods. The principles, methods and techniques of each approach are explained concisely, with illustrative case studies of successful examples and follow up resources such as film references.

The book concludes with the Huxhams Cross Farm case study with research evidence, reviewing the extent to which the four challenges are tackled successfully by the Toolkit...

Biographie:

Marina O'Connell (1961-2024) was a successful grower, farmer, and educator. Born of seven generations of Dutch nurserymen from Boskoop in Holland (famous for fruit trees), she celebrated the professional women who are pioneering the transition to resilient food production and to re-localizing our food economy.

O'Connell, the Apricot team, and her family turned the bare land at Huxhams Cross Farm, Totnes, Devon, UK, from a miserable bit of land (as a local farm contractor called it in 2015) into a productive, beautiful, community-connected, and profitable farm.

She action-researched the use of biodynamic, organic, permacultural, agroecological, regenerative, and agroforestry methods in her work. She always led by example. People from around the world have visited her farm and joined her courses and her Devon apprenticeship program for regenerative food systems. She was consulted by farmers, who asked her to help redesign their farms away from industrial farming, and by farm estates needing help to make a successful transition to resilient food systems by 2030.