Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The food garden revolution that is stirring in South Africa is quiet, but it is rooted in dignity, agency, and transformation. In their gardens, these women are sowing more than seeds; they are sowing peace, power and the foundations for a better future.
We don’t have simple answers where we can just say, right, ‘That’s what we need to do’. So we need to do things locally, individually, in community from the grassroots.
Wangtak shares the inspiration behind the film, the community-led water conservation efforts in the region, and his dreams for a future where tourism can co-exist with conservation and preservation of the ecology and cultural traditions of Zanskar.
We need people to be involved, consumers to take a stand. We need a global, cross-sectoral movement for localisation.
After such an inspiring visit, the momentum can only build: the Institut de Tramayes will join us at the Gathering in Plessé in November. They’ll participate in our opening day, where we’ll collectively explore the question: What is a Université Paysanne?
I wonder, how do the swallowtails drink if too many people buy meat from grocery stores? How does the blood return to the soil? How do the coyotes and the vultures feast on the entrails from the farmer and the hunter? Our wedges, our separation, spills over into all of life. A chink in the chain. We cannot divide ourselves without dividing everything.
At Rural Watch Africa Initiative (RUWAI), we believe that empowering one young person can ignite transformation across generations.
The Caatinga’s story isn’t one of survival in a dryland ecosystem – it’s a lesson of looking for the hidden patterns, finding alliances, and being patient. Well, and about fate of course. Because, if a forgotten biome can regrow from dust, what else might be possible?
A diet is the wrong entry point in the analysis of the food system and planetary health.
Chris Smaje openly admits that there are too many contingent variables to predict the future; many scenarios are plausible. That said, Finding Lights in a Dark Age offers some thoughtful, erudite speculation about what a healthy, post-capitalist world might look like and the choices we may need to make.
But while we’re all yelling at each other about how our favoured politics are the best, the more important political story might lie with constituents, including the urban poor, who are quietly innovating their own welfare, perhaps by leaving town.
What matters above all is that people get occupancy rights that give them the long-term residential security to address their livelihood needs, and it’s entirely possible that these will sometimes be obtained in urban or suburban situations.
