How urban food growing brings people together to respond to big changes

Maniffesto Bwyd | Food Manifesto

By Jane Powell. This article was originally published by Renew Wales

Aberystwyth resident Tom Thomas leans on his hoe and remembers how he got involved with the Penparcau Planting Project back in the spring. “It was soon after lockdown started, and I was just popping out to get a paper,” he says, “then I noticed that someone had been clearing the ground around the community hub, so I stopped for a chat. Jon, the caretaker, asked me if I wanted to help which of course I did, and now I do two mornings a week. I love it – it’s great to be outside and doing something for the local area.”

Tom has taken over the wildlife garden near the entrance, which is now a mass of flowers feeding bees and other pollinators. A former farmworker who worked for many years as a groundsman at Aberystwyth University until his retirement…

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Building Our Own Zero Carbon Homes

The Most Revolutionary Act

What is a Colloquium?

Matt Anderson (2020)

Film Review

This documentary is about a 20 year old group, “The Natural Building Colloquium,” dedicated to improving and teaching natural building technology, as well as sharing their skills with various Third World countries in crisis.

Members believe industrialized society needs to consume less to help conserve scarce resources, to reduce environmental destruction, and to prevent catastrophic climate change. They point out that humankind lived sustainably without damaging the planet for 250,000 years. It’s only with the rise of civilization they have begun destroying it. They also emphasize the importance of learning and teaching natural building techniques in strengthening community building, as well as providing emergency housing when mainstream culture is in crisis.

There seems to be consensus that “natural” buildings need to be constructed of locally available materials, be they straw bales, cob,* cordwood,** or bags of compact gravel.

Some of the…

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How urban food growing brings people together to respond to big changes

Maniffesto Bwyd | Food Manifesto

By Jane Powell. This article was originally published by Renew Wales

Aberystwyth resident Tom Thomas leans on his hoe and remembers how he got involved with the Penparcau Planting Project back in the spring. “It was soon after lockdown started, and I was just popping out to get a paper,” he says, “then I noticed that someone had been clearing the ground around the community hub, so I stopped for a chat. Jon, the caretaker, asked me if I wanted to help which of course I did, and now I do two mornings a week. I love it – it’s great to be outside and doing something for the local area.”

Tom has taken over the wildlife garden near the entrance, which is now a mass of flowers feeding bees and other pollinators. A former farmworker who worked for many years as a groundsman at Aberystwyth University until his retirement…

View original post 1,074 more words

The future of farming will depend on what the public asks for

Maniffesto Bwyd | Food Manifesto

This article by Jane Powell was first published in the Cambrian News 

When NFU Cymru Livestock Board chairman Wyn Evans was growing up, his grandparents’ upland farm near Aberystwyth was a model of self-sufficiency. They grew grain, hay and green fodder for their animals, just buying in a little extra feed for a milking herd of 20-25 cows, and sent their small flock of sheep up the hill to graze in the summer. The land supported four people working full-time on a wide variety of tasks and produced milk, beef, lamb and potatoes for local consumption.

Wyn Evans on his farm

It’s a way of farming that has vanished. Speaking at February’s Let’s Talk About Food event in Aberystwyth, Wyn described how he and his wife combined that farm with other land they bought and now keep sheep and beef cattle on 230 acres, sending lambs to the abattoir in…

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