We propose Co-operative Community Buy Outs of the Co-operative Group’s Farms and putting the farm land into co-operative trusteeship beyond the market, rather than a fire distress sale of our mutual national asset to hedge funds and predatory banks for asset stripping, tax avoidance, loss of jobs and land speculation. …Continue reading Co-op Farms Community Buy Out Proposal
Regional Groups
One of the things we are learning both from this Gruntvig work (including specifically from Terre de Liens the French small farm land trust) and from our experience here in the UK is the value of setting up regional groups. These values include: Raising the awareness of how land has become an commodity and financial…Continue reading Regional Groups
Ty`r Eithin: An Essay in Common Land and Sustainable Communities
By Tony Matthews. There are two beautiful river valleys in Carmarthenshire, South West Wales, the Gwendraeth Fawr and the Gwendraeth Fach, separated by the Carboniferous Limestone ridge which surfaces all around the South Wales coalfield. The two rivers join by Kidwelly castle then flow into Carmarthen bay. Ty`r Eithin farm, 80 acres in all, looks…Continue reading Ty`r Eithin: An Essay in Common Land and Sustainable Communities
Building Alliances
There is a tendency, in any circle of people, for the construct of an ‘us’ and ‘them’ delineation. Playground squabbles, family factions and wars are based on this construct. In agricultural groups, these lines may be drawn between biodynamic and organic practitioners, use of hybrid seeds or open pollinated varieties, hand milkers or machine milkers, conventional or unconventional. The list goes on, yet the pattern is the same….Continue reading Building Alliances