UK AGROFORESTRY and CLUSTER FARM

[Carlotta_Olivari]

I am Carlotta Olivari, and my teamwork and I are students in Landscape Urbanism from the Architectural Association (London).

We are currently developing our thesis project focused on transitioning traditional farming into sustainable farming practices through the cluster farm scheme. More precisely, we are investigating the potential benefits of farmers collaboration to achieve greater ecological, economic, and social goals. We are investigating farmers community-led schemes to establish the opportunity of transition agroforestry at a larger scale in the UK.
We are really interested in having the chance to communicate with you and involve you in the project.

Would be great to have some feedback from you regarding the following questions:

UK AGROFORESTRY and CLUSTER FARM

Barriers and Benefits to Agroforestry in the UK

forms.gle

 

[Kentishfarmer]

You might get better farmer interaction if you don't insinuate that traditional farming is unsustainable.
'Transitioning traditional farming into sustainable farming' kind of implies traditional farming is unsustainable

 

[CopperBeech]

Curious - why did you guys choose this particular subject ?

 

[matthewizod]

Farm clusters is something that is beneficial for all farmers but I struggle to see the benefits of agroforestry personally, I'm not sure if it's just fashionable, yet to see the benefits in a business sense. I'm happy to be proved wrong but very sceptical

 

[CopperBeech]

Farm clusters is something that is beneficial for all farmers but I struggle to see the benefits of agroforestry personally, I'm not sure if it's just fashionable, yet to see the benefits in a business sense. I'm happy to be proved wrong but very sceptical

I guess it depends on two things - one is the nature of the ground and what you are trying to do with it. We put a load in at a previous farm, acted as shelter belts, fit in well with our cell grazing system and also provided an additional crop.

The second is if there are payments for it.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I am Carlotta Olivari, and my teamwork and I are students in Landscape Urbanism from the Architectural Association (London).

We are currently developing our thesis project focused on transitioning traditional farming into sustainable farming practices through the cluster farm scheme. More precisely, we are investigating the potential benefits of farmers collaboration to achieve greater ecological, economic, and social goals. We are investigating farmers community-led schemes to establish the opportunity of transition agroforestry at a larger scale in the UK.
We are really interested in having the chance to communicate with you and involve you in the project.

Would be great to have some feedback from you regarding the following questions:

UK AGROFORESTRY and CLUSTER FARM

Barriers and Benefits to Agroforestry in the UK

forms.gle

Welcome Carlotta.

We get a steady trickle of University students passing here along us to complete questionnaires for their degrees. They all start with a statement of purposes and of how our data will be managed in line with the GDPR before asking any questions. Is there a particular reason why yours does not do this?

Agroforestry is a subject I am seriously interested in (specifically Silvopasture) so I would happily engage otherwise.

 

[matthewizod]

I guess it depends on two things - one is the nature of the ground and what you are trying to do with it. We put a load in at a previous farm, acted as shelter belts, fit in well with our cell grazing system and also provided an additional crop.

The second is if there are payments for it.

I guess it depends on two things - one is the nature of the ground and what you are trying to do with it. We put a load in at a previous farm, acted as shelter belts, fit in well with our cell grazing system and also provided an additional crop.

The second is if there are payments for it.

Sounds like you have made it work for you and you're farm.

Did you fund it yourself? Is it something a tree grant will help future projects get off the ground

 

[Carlotta_Olivari]

You might get better farmer interaction if you don't insinuate that traditional farming is unsustainable.
'Transitioning traditional farming into sustainable farming' kind of implies traditional farming is unsustainable

Dear Kentishfarmer, I think that your point is really fundamental. For traditional farming we are refering to intensive monoculture practices at larger scale. Environmentally speaking, they are one of the triggers that are increasing the process of soil degradation and lack of biodiversity, among others. However, the traditional farming (intended as the cultural landscapes, indigenous farming and local practices) are for our research a key point to be sustained and investigated.
Would be really interesting for us to balance the farming production (in terms of food or profitability for the farmers) with the environmental gain (for example managing of biodiversity, flooding mitigation etc).

 

[Carlotta_Olivari]

Curious - why did you guys choose this particular subject ?

Responding to the current Climate Change context, the UK government is planning to allocate more space for nature. Yet, globally, pressures on land to produce food and timber are increasing. For our dissertation we decided to concentrate in the UK context where agriculture land is most the 60%. What land provides is becoming increasingly important. We would like to investigate possibilities of transition from monoculture practices to agroecological strategies at a large scale to tackle these problems synergistically.
As landscape designers, we would like to engage with the farmer community to:
1. understand the current barriers or benefits of agroecological system
2. working with the community to understand how we can mutual collaborate to design strategies or propose new policy framework

 

[Carlotta_Olivari]

Welcome Carlotta.

We get a steady trickle of University students passing here along us to complete questionnaires for their degrees. They all start with a statement of purposes and of how our data will be managed in line with the GDPR before asking any questions. Is there a particular reason why yours does not do this?

Agroforestry is a subject I am seriously interested in (specifically Silvopasture) so I would happily engage otherwise.

Dear holwellcourtfarm, the posted questionary is a preliminary form to understand specifically needs, points of view of farmers in relation to the agroforestry processes and farmers collaboration.
The data collected and info collected will be used for academic research and quoted/cited properly.

 

[delilah]

As landscape designers, we would like to engage with the farmer community to:
1. understand the current barriers or benefits of agroecological system
2. working with the community to understand how we can mutual collaborate to design strategies or propose new policy framework

1. The marketplace.
2. The marketplace.

You are coming at this arse about face. If there is the need for a 'new policy framework', then it is in the food chain that policy changes are needed. Farmers can only change how they farm in response to market signals. If you have a view on how you wish Britain to be farmed, then you need to come up with marketplace strategies that will bring about that change.

 

[Kentishfarmer]

Dear Kentishfarmer, I think that your point is really fundamental. For traditional farming we are refering to intensive monoculture practices at larger scale. Environmentally speaking, they are one of the triggers that are increasing the process of soil degradation and lack of biodiversity, among others. However, the traditional farming (intended as the cultural landscapes, indigenous farming and local practices) are for our research a key point to be sustained and investigated.
Would be really interesting for us to balance the farming production (in terms of food or profitability for the farmers) with the environmental gain (for example managing of biodiversity, flooding mitigation etc).

It might be worth amending your vocabulary/definitions when it comes to your farmer interactions. For me at least, and I think most farmers, 'traditional' generally means less intensive mixed farming. When you mean intensive monocultures at scale then you should say as much.
Be mindful we are often being told how to farm by urban academics so to get good farmer engagement loosely defined buzzwords like biodynamic farming, agroecology etc are best avoided and specifics given instead

 

[Hindsight]

Dear Kentishfarmer, I think that your point is really fundamental. For traditional farming we are refering to intensive monoculture practices at larger scale. Environmentally speaking, they are one of the triggers that are increasing the process of soil degradation and lack of biodiversity, among others. However, the traditional farming (intended as the cultural landscapes, indigenous farming and local practices) are for our research a key point to be sustained and investigated.
Would be really interesting for us to balance the farming production (in terms of food or profitability for the farmers) with the environmental gain (for example managing of biodiversity, flooding mitigation etc).

Is there such a UK land use as 'intensive monoculture'. That sounds to me like Guardian newspaper and Monbiot sound bite. Sorry if that offends.

I live and work in the advisory world in arable lands of Lincolnshire. I do not recognize monoculture locally. The days of continuous autumn sown wheat were some decades ago - blackgrass saw to that. Rotation is the name of the game now and has been for some years. And what exactly is your definition of 'intensive'.

 

[steveR]

No sign of @Carlotta_Olivari for a few weeks...?