The Source
Beautiful writing about delicious British food. Articles, comments and musings from our contributors.
... it nourishes community, our health and our land!
A producer said to me recently:
“Good things happen through food!”
It’s a great way to simplify the message around Food, Farming and our Health!
Our farmers have been encouraged to farm intensively over the last few decades: to focus on yield rather than quality, requiring chemicals rather than pasture rotations and heavy machinery, compacting soils already lacking in dry matter still further & reducing soil cover. We now know this isn’t the best way – in turning the tide towards more regenerative farming, good things are already happening through food:
- Farmers are reminded of their vital role producing food; it’s not just a commodity which leaves the farm for processing in a long food supply chain, but real food for our nourishment. Real food which still looks like it did when it left the producer!
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- Increasing biodiversity is leading to healthy soils which smell wonderful again! Full of countless microbes - bacteria, yeasts and fungi which ensure the food they grow, animal or arable, is richer in nutrients and a much more effective carbon-sink. (these microbes happen to be very similar to our own gut bacteria too!)
- Food within these systems which farm in nature’s image, is more nutrient-rich & literally feeds our health – too much processed food is one of the main drivers of chronic diseases like Heart disease, Cancer, Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity.
- Cows – our great Upcyclers! Beef and Dairy reared on pasture-fed and grass-fed systems work with nature – cows convert plentiful yet inedible grass to nutrient rich food for us! This is a blog in itself so far better to listen to the podcast below, recorded among the pasture leys with insects and bees buzzing, sitting in the same field as some very content Red Devon native cows on Bailey Hill Farm (Native Beef) Buckinghamshire!
- Getting back to more local supply systems not only prevents further nutrient loss through processing and transport but crucially gives better returns for our hard-working farmers and the local community – you get to know your food producer too!
It’s all win win!
My visit to Bailey Hill Farm, pasture-fed Beef and Sheep: https://youtu.be/KHfQcBcaegY
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