Regenerating, de-stocking and diversifying in suburbia

Recently I joined an online event at Moral Fairground that took a closer look at taking steps towards creating safer and healthier urban landscapes for us all, by us all  

Being able to access the knowledge of this group was empowering and humbling.  Being able to ask the tough questions about where we were headed and get honest answers was refreshing and educational. Understanding that industrial global agriculture has been the driver for the climatic and societal change we are experiencing. 

Note: Let me state clearly that I do not believe agriculture per se is the problem. It's where and how we grow food, how we transport food, and the complexity of the fossil fuelled supply chain that is. 

I know a few of you will jump to the defence of the way we live our lives but it's ok to change, to get to work learning and re-engaging with your community, to connect with the farmers that grow your food and to grow your own.  

Defining your success by how you have left your land for future generations is a big mind shift.  The work to get there is massive.  But I know you are not afraid of a little work.
 
You know I am passionate about food.  Growing it, preparing it, preserving it and yes, eating it. What comes out of the human body and how to use this waste is another Blog in another galaxy far far away.  

There are patterns that have been appearing in my reading.  Call of the ReedWarbler, Dark Emu, The Wooleen Way, Retrosuburbia and Permaculture.  The pattern is restoring historical degradation of lands, building resilience and demonstrating that alternative futures are possible, and necessary.

People have been practicing regenerative agriculture, Retrosuburbia and permaculture at their own cost.  Why? Because they knew it worked in the past and that it is a future that is sustainable and liveable.

Now getting back to those books I was reading, the patterns and frameworks forming as to how we could live our lives.  I started this particular article below last year in August after listening to Professor Tim Reeves give a presentation to a group of farmers and community at Hillsborough Quality Nuts in Stanley Victoria. I took out of the event that farmers needed help to change.  

Help was likely to come from two main angles - government, and community.  Industrial Ag have vested interests and will only support the status quo so let’s forget them for a minute. I didn't understand where the help was going to come from. Government supporting farmers or Community supporting farmers. 

It turns out that governments are supporting people right now during COVID 2020, so it's up to people and communities to support regenerative farmers directly.

We need to understand that using the word regenerate describes where we will be, the process of regeneration is actually evolving our capacity (thank you Carol Sanford and Dan Palmer for bringing the evolving capacity concept to my mind) and the capacity of the land and ecosystems to evolve and regenerate.  We cannot do the work for them, we can just create the right environments in which the work can be done.  And makes us humans realise how reliant we are on our natural world.

Now back to the Blog I drafted last year but didn’t post.

Stewardship tender.is mentioned in David Pollock’s book The Wooleen Way   Stewardship tender is governments paying individuals retrospectively for their commitment to managing pastoral leases sustainably.  Some pastoralists knew it was not sustainable with business as usual on their leases and began to change and diversify into tourism and landscape regeneration.  Landscape regeneration involves total destocking for up to 10-15 years to repair 130 years of denuding the flora.  Pastoralists are in effect caretakers of over 11% of Australia’s land.  Rewarding them for creating a sustainable future is logical and necessary.

Permaculturalist have been creating an alternative sustainable future too.  Now imagine if incentives or stewardship was available in the 1970’s when David Holmgren and Bill Mollison created permaculture.  Things would look a little different now.  But it’s not too late.  Governments could start now.  Rewarding individuals for shifting to sustainable living.  How would this look I hear you ask?
The big picture would be regenerative agriculture.  Any individual who changed their farming practices to build soil carbon and cover material, hold water on landscapes, produce food for local communities and support native diversity should be rewarded and championed.  If we don’t regenerate we won’t have a future. We have been taking too much for too long from the environment and not replenishing. It’s that simple. 
The little picture. Suburbia.  Regenerating suburbia or for you permaculturalist -Retrosuburbia.  Governments supporting people who build connections, community and practice sustainability. Demonstrate that incorporating renewable resources and practices of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair and Refuse is the future collectively we want. Life and sustainability not jobs and growth.

Individuals in their homes are evolving their capacity, de-stocking and diversifying.  They are practicing stewardship of their land.
Regenerating a suburban block, how do you do that?  Easy. Get rid of the grass and build native grasses, seasonal grasses like oats, rye, wheat, barley and millet. Composting and mulching.  Grow various nuts, full season fruits and citrus. Learn to preserve them. Grow vegetables. Herbs and perennials like rhubarb, asparagus and horseradish.

Destocking?  Get rid of wasted/pointless trees, areas and items.  If it doesn’t have a function or a yield then it goes.  Have a plan to replace it though.  Destocking is also related to your job.  If your job takes too much energy off your land then it should go too.  Work out how you can live a richer life working less. (Well this just happened with COVID-19 didn't it!)

Diversification-how to create small businesses from home.  How to turn what you do into a bread winner and work from home job, a skill share or job share.  You’re a nurse? Go and live with an elderly person and negotiate free or reduced rent.  Got a big shed with heaps of tools.  Rent it out.  Or them out.  Or your tradie skill out.  Run workshops on how to.  How to fix this or that, how to make a rocket stove or how to divert water from your roof or how to build a compost or bake bread.  These are all life skills we need to know so we can de-stock and diversify our lives.

People know the rewards are there for regenerating, destocking and diversifying - it’s call retirement.  So why not start early and enjoy your life, build community around you so that when it comes time to slowing down a little, there’s people around to support you and you’ll be there to support them and their kids and young ones.  This sounds much like the way Indigenous populations around Australia lived for 65,000 years.  It worked for them.  Maybe it could work for us too.