The Land Workers Alliance gathered yesterday at DEFRA's London HQ to protest at the corrupt relationship between Government and corporate agriculture - and the deliberate marginalisation of small farmers, our most sustainable producers. Ed Hamer explains ...
The practical evidence suggests agroforestry in the UK has got something to offer both commercial farmers and smallholders alike. The challenge now, says Ed Hamer, is how to encourage sceptical farmers that planting trees across farmland is a good idea
With controversial plans to allow farmers to cull badgers later this year, Ed Hamer asks whether Bovine TB is really a health problem for either cows or humans
Drawing from 40 years of composting experience, Nicky Scott's latest book will inspire confidence in beginners and give new techniques to veteran composters
All sectors must play their part in a global emissions deal, but could including agriculture in the mix lead to an intensification of farming and money for GM crops?
Meat, dairy... in fact, livestock in general has in recent years joined the ranks of the 4x4 and the short-haul flight. But could a change in the way we graze animals not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but even remove them from the atmosphere?
Travelling from the UK to the Australia by land and sea is a mission - but it is possible. Ed Hamer is impressed by this travelogue which describes one woman's journey
The uniting of 800 million rural workers against the loss of their traditional way of life gives lie to globalisation’s claims to beneficence. Resistance is far from futile, says Ed Hamer
The community supports the farmer and the farmer supports the community. Why isn't everyone taking part in the latest agricultural revolution, wonders Ed Hamer
Ed Hamer questions the sanity of agricultural policies that increasingly threaten the sovereignty of the British farmer, as well as the food security of the nation
What could be more cheerful than this ubiquitous breakfast fruit? But if you’re not buying them Fairtrade and organic, argues Ed Hamer, then you’re buying into a modern agricultural scandal
The Seeds of Change trademark was created in the 1980s by a small organic seed cooperative from Santa Fe, New Mexico, which set out ‘to help people and future generations improve their lives and enjoy wholesome, natural, chemical-free foods’. Seeds of Change expanded its enterprise in 1996 to include a range of organic soups, cereal bars, pastas and sauces. A year later it was bought by Mars and launched in the UK in 1999.
In 1952, Rachel Rowlands’ mother Dinah established the UK’s first organic dairy farm near Aberystwyth with a small herd of Guernsey cows, working ‘in harmony with nature, the elements, the seasons and wildlife’. In 1966, Rachel took over the farm and founded the Rachel’s Organic Dairy brand, which was sold to Horizon, a subsidiary of Dean Foods, in 1999.
Founded in 1991 by Craig Sams and his wife Josephine Fairley, Green & Black’s brand was conceived to represent the ‘green’ concerns of its founders and the ‘black’ of the cocoa bean.
February 1968. From South Vietnam the explosive Teêt Offensive has dealt a final blow to shattered US troops and sparked a worldwide appetite for insurrection. Left destitute by standards of living and provoked by a three-year war on their ideological comrades, student leaders across Europe rise up with a single voice ‘We shall fight. We will win. Paris, London, Rome, Berlin.’ Within six weeks, 20,000 protesters will besiege the American embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square. It is the Spring of Discontent, and revolution is the air.
From theory to practice, how one man in Totnes is helping a community respond to the threat of peak oil – from its own currency to relearning lost arts. Ed Hamer reports
