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Soil Association Annual Conference

"Fossil fuel depletion, climate change, diminishing soil and water resources and population growth present an unprecedented threat to global food security. To address these challenges Britain and every country in the world needs a future food plan."

The above is taken from the Soil Association website who, over the past 2 days, have been holding their annual conference in Bristol.

It was a fantastic meeting ground for some brilliant people, and an opportunity to reconnect with old friends. I was thrilled to see Darina and Tim Allen from Ballymaloe Cookery School and meet some inspiring farmers, activists, people from the Food for Life partnership and listen to a range of incredible speakers such as Patrick Holden, Professor Tim Lang from City University, Dr Caroline Lucas the leader of the Green Party, Jeremy Leggett from Solarcentury, Professor Pete Smith, Dr Vandana Shiva and Rob Hopkins, the founder of Transition Towns to name but a few.

The first day I found quite disheartening, not in the sense of disappointment with the speakers or lectures, quite the opposite in fact, they were excellent; well-informed and well-delivered. What I am referring to instead is the feeling of being almost overwhelmed with our situation. Of course we are all aware of fossil fuels, of climate change, of depleted soil and water. However, it is another thing entirely to be in a room with hundreds of people and being confronted with these problems quite so succinctly, clearly and compellingly. Patrick Holden rather movingly hypothesized during the morning how long his own dairy farm might function if fuel was unobtainable tomorrow. His estimate was 12 hours.

These kind of statements I found most affecting. The information about the carbon storage in soil, of fossil fuels and how flow rates have spiked and diminished over the past century, of a burgeoning population and a food system unable to cope was almost too much to absorb. It was the questions like ‘how will I power my tractor?’ that put these quite difficult ideas into a startling and relevant context for me. I am also, of course, excessively stupid. It takes me a while to work these things out.

The desired response to these almost insurmountable challenges (I’m referring to fuel, climate and carbon now as opposed to my own lack of intelligent brain cells, which is insurmountable) was one similar to the response to food growing and distribution during WWII. There were a number of references to it in relation to how it is possible to put efficient systems in place quickly (which is what we need). However, Professor Tim Lang described the need for these to be democratically lead rather than centrally operated (I believe he put it far more succinctly!)

By the end of the second day I had heard the enthusiasm of Rob Hopkins who has written the transition manual taken up by hundreds, if not thousands, of towns across the world and Jane Sparling of Fairford Primary School in Gloucestershire (rather different but equally inspiring I found) who has joined the Food for Life Partnership and has her students visiting farms, growing fruit and vegetables at the school with the help of the local community gardening group, learning to cook them (the vegetables, not the gardeners. I hope), eating what they’ve grown and having surplus going towards the local meals on wheels. How fantastic is that?!

After the 2 days I am exhausted. I whimpered into bed last night and was fast asleep by 8:30. Despite this, I am also totally invigorated for action. We all need to be doing more. And I’m going to be doing more. Watch this space. Maybe not literally as I imagine that would be quite boring.

In the meantime, check out http://www.soilassociation.org/conference.

 

Nonie x

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