A sustainable future: what is a farm?

BJ Heinzen

07 June 2013

Analyst and consultant Barbara Heinzen concludes her account of the work of Barbets Duet, an experiment to find ways of living that put the earth's well-being at the heart of any economic activity.

"What is a farm, what is land for?" asked Chris Jones, farmer, when he spoke at a Barbets Duet presentation in London recently.

In the 1990s, the BSE epidemic in Britain meant even healthy animals, like those at Woodland Valley in Ladock in Cornwall, could not be sold at a profit.  While working on oil rigs to pay the bills, Chris thought about the farm.

A farm, he concluded, is more than a place to produce food.  The farmer is the steward of nature's vital life support systems, producing clean food, air, water and energy as well as protecting nature's biological diversity. 

By 2003, he'd turned Woodland Valley into a fully organic farm.  By 2009, the farm was also an outdoor classroom and the first Barbet site outside East Africa.

Learning from Africans came naturally to Chris Jones. Ugandan farmers visiting through the Grow it Global project had encouraged him to increase natural diversity.  He planted a hillside with fruit and nut trees, and created two permanent pastures using diverse plants.  Both the trees and pastures support the carbon cycle by sequestering CO2. The farm now stores more carbon than it emits - great for sustainable living in Ladock.

Fruit and nut trees sequester carbon, diversify food supply. (c) Barbara Heinzen

Since 2009, the Barbets Duet network has met once a year. Often, important principles emerge, such as "just begin - but with something that bears fruit quickly".   Our most important sharing is with our immediate neighbours who imitate what we do.  As we document and post our work, we are inspiring others further afield. 

Many people dismiss the Barbets Duet as small and insignificant.  "How will you scale up?" they ask.  Yet, with each new agreement we're creating new rules and new standards. With each new measurement, we're testing another accounting tool. 

Each time a new tool, a new agreement or new measurement succeeds, the environmental economy moves closer.  Each time a neighbour or stranger imitates us, it gets larger. This is the way societies learn.   

When I moved to Hannacroix Creek near the Hudson River eighteen months ago, I thought I'd made a dreadful mistake. I had invested in an idea, but was living right there. Ideas are easy, but "right there", is hard. Yet, like the others, I have "just begun". It is, I believe, the best thing I can do.

This is the last in Barbara Heinzen's series of blog posts about Barbets Duet. Catch up with the first two: "What does sustainable mean?" and "Restoring natural diversity: cultivating abundance in Molo, Uganda".

Barbara Heinzen has published a book about her research work "Feeling for Stones". For more information, including requests to visit any Barbet Learning Sites, contact [email protected].

Inspired by the work of Barbets Duet? Help defend human rights and the environment too, and take our actions on environmental justice.