Oddly enough wandering around Wivenhoe woods did not calm me at all. Please give me mood and self-esteem tests before and after. I'm sure it got worse. Not because the woods weren't nice, it is just that they keep me reminding of paradise lost.
It is a basic human need to go for a chestnut hunt in autumn and to be free to collect wild mushrooms... More: it is a human right. A right that is being denied to us.
How can I get so upset about this? What's the "mission of anger"?...soon will I know.
It is being at home in John Seymours books, more than in any place of the world. Thoreau's Walden sickened me because the character reminds me of an anti-social bloke, of an anti-social movement. Charousek's desire to drive Aaron Wassertrum into suicide...
But Seymour! Take those pages out of how to slaughter the pig, the rabbits and the sheep and the book is heaven!...
Maybe it's just my personal version of heaven, and I'm using Boyden (1989) to validate it, to say it's universal, the need to be close to nature and to be able to derive a secure living of the natural resoruces around you...
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Agricultural marginalisation and sustainability
"Es sprechen zu den Menschensinnen
die Dinge in den Raumesweiten.
Sie wandeln sich im Zeitenlaufe.
Erkennend dring die Menschenseele,
von Raumesweiten unbegrenzt
und ungestört durch Zeitenlauf,
ins Reich der Ewigkeiten."
Rudolf Steiner
die Dinge in den Raumesweiten.
Sie wandeln sich im Zeitenlaufe.
Erkennend dring die Menschenseele,
von Raumesweiten unbegrenzt
und ungestört durch Zeitenlauf,
ins Reich der Ewigkeiten."
Rudolf Steiner
Links:
- Centre for Environment and Society
- CNA - Confederação Nacional da Agricultura
- Eco-living Portugal
- Food Sovereignty
- Global Network on Social Threefolding
- Institute for Social Threefolding
- International Institute for Environment and Development
- International Society for Ecology and Culture
- Jules Pretty
- Karmabanque
- Luzku-Fuzku
- Steiner Archive
- The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability
- Via Campesina
- Wuppertal Institute
About Me
- A.S.
- Born in Bavaria, grown up in Portugal, mainly on a farm in Beira alta. From 1999 to 2003 I studied Biology at the University of Coimbra. In 2004/05 I did a master's in "Environment, Science and Society" at the University of Essex. Currently I'm about to finish my PhD in Environmental Science on agricultural marginalisation.
Agricultural Marginalisation in Portugal: threats and opportunities for sustainable livleihoods
In Portuguese mountain areas traditional and sustainable forms of agriculture are on the edge of economic viability, mainly due to agricultural and trade policies which apply economic theories from the industrial sector to agriculture. As a result, small-scale and family-farmers are forced out of business and they become dependent on the global food-system and markets, when they have no alternative income sources in the rural areas where they live. At the same time, environmental degradation, unemployment and health epidemics related to urban lifestyles spread and more and more people wish to escape unsatisfying jobs and to reconnect to the land. An economic system that prevents people form satisfying their livelihood needs directly from the land ultimately creates artificial hindrances to human well-being. It is essential that sustainable land-based livelihoods are properly valued and become viable again. For this to happen both policy change and grassroots action are needed. Policies need to consistently support the aim of proximity-based sustainable agri-food systems, i.e. regional food sovereignty, and interested individuals need opportunities to learn how to make a living from sustainable agriculture and other land-based activities.
In my research these problematic global trends are explored in detail, regarding the specific situation of Portuguese mountain areas, and existing sustainable agriculture initiatives in the area are mapped as a means to understand the possibilities to support the development of low-impact land based livelihoods.
In my research these problematic global trends are explored in detail, regarding the specific situation of Portuguese mountain areas, and existing sustainable agriculture initiatives in the area are mapped as a means to understand the possibilities to support the development of low-impact land based livelihoods.
I'm able to do a Ph.D. thanks to a studentship from the Portuguese Science Foundation - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), that I wish to acknowledge here.
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