A packed room for our Urbanising in Place workshop at @organiclea on Land, Soils & Nutrients! 
Graeme Willis from @CPRE kicking us off with some facts about the importance of soils ... something so fundamental to life that we rarely speak of - other than as ‘dirt’
We have started to realise that we need to care for the quality of our air and water - we need the same awareness about soils
Soils have a critical role in storing carbon and water. And the greater carbon content the greater the ability to retain water.... a potential climate #winwin
Policy makers don’t think about soils but they DO think about climate and water management
Maddy Longhurst kicking off the (unfinished) story of the Bristol Blue Finger Alliance
... a story of trying to save a small area of high quality agricultural land in Bristol from development
Fighting the failures of the planning system took protest and occupation. Collaboration with artists and being present on the land was important for personal welfare and replenishment
The development was stopped (well ... moved) and the land protected as Local Public Open Space for food growing.
Now mapping the food growing spaces in Bristol and looking to develop a Food Land Trust to hold it in trust for food growing
Some great questions in response to the presentations - about the role of researchers, citizens, central and local government in making change happen
And now Marjolein Visser from the Free University of Brussels with some challenge and inspiration about the meaning of agroecology ... the ecosystem of food - or of farming
We have lost our knowledge of growing food .... and our farmers
The focus of farming is the “Ager”... the field. It is a sink of fertility: the crop is harvested and exported and needs feeding. So where are the sources of fertility...?
One is the forest... the “Silva”.
One act of colonisation has been to create the ‘ager’ by clearing the ‘silva’
One act of colonisation has been to create the ‘ager’ by clearing the ‘silva’
The other is the ‘saltus’ - the more open herbaceous land that is a source of cellulose (cf login produced by forests)
Grazing ruminants on the saltus acted as the means by which cellulose is made usable on the crops.
In the UK we have disconnected livestock farming (in the west) from vegetables and arable farming in the east. We have broken the link and made ourselves reliant on artificial inputs
Raul Terrile from the Muncipality of Rosario with the startling observation that agroecology is based on promoting life whereas as industrial agriculture talks only of death
... inert commodities, biocides, pest control, harvest, products ...
Agroecology seeks to utilise the nutrients from natural cycles. Urban agroecology thinks of the city as a metabolism. In Rosario seeks to use resources from the city: brewing waste, leaves, abattoir waste etc to build the soils.
.. and teach local farmers to make their own green fertilisers
Healthy soils > healthy plants > healthy people
... and a healthy @organiclea lunch!
And this afternoon we’re exploring how you tell of your soul is healthy with Tim from @organiclea
Trying the knife test!!
Oh. Soil. Not soul. But hey #samesame
Options for the Urbanising in Place debut album cover
This site was the kitchen garden of the old minor house and the soils here are some of the best on @organiclea - still benefiting from stewardship that happened 70 years ago
... getting stuck into the compost heap
Hearing from Javier from @QuantumWasteLtd talking composting commercial food waste and testing its effectiveness
@QuantumWasteLtd @threadreaderapp unroll
