Podcast appearances and mentions of chris smaje

Chris Smaje and Jason Snyder make their triumphant return to DO to join Ashley to explore the concepts of 'strong gods' and 'weak gods' as articulated by NS Lyons, examining the historical context, implications of nationalism's resurgence, critiques of the strong gods argument, and the importance of localism and community in navigating societal changes. The discussion also dives into the need for a moral framework in a diverse society and the role of community in fostering resilience against global challenges. They discuss the need for a living tradition that is not ossified, the search for meaning in a secular world, and the role of religion in civic life. The conversation covers the complexities of community engagement, the duality of political figures, and the future of local politics and livelihoods. Throughout, they emphasize the importance of grounding spiritual practices in local contexts and the challenges of navigating tradition in a rapidly changing world.

In the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, the solutions we hear the most are technological ones - many of which mirror the economic and philosophical approaches that precipitated these crises in the first place. But what if that vision is flawed? Chris Smaje, author of Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, challenges the dominant eco-modernist philosophy head-on. He critiques its reliance on techno-fixes—not just on technological grounds, but also economic, political, and spiritual ones.In this episode, Chris shares an alternative vision: a localist, agro-ecological approach to modern agriculture, rooted in self-provisioning for our basic needs and leveraging natural cycles instead of hyper-technological systems. It's a vision that reconnects us to the land, promotes food sovereignty, and rethinks what a feasible and fulfilling future could look like.In this episode, we dive into: Why he wrote Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, inspired by a critique of prominent environmental and agricultural thinker George Monbiot. What our environmental crises reveal about the deeper flaws in our econmic systems. How industrial agriculture's obsession with efficiency undermines ecological and social resilience. The ecological work of animals and why they're vital to sustainable farming systems. The drive toward urbanism and the assumptions—often misguided—about its benefits for the planet. Reimagining quality of life beyond financial measures. And much more…More about Chris:Chris Smaje helps run a small farm in Somerset, England and has worked as a commercial vegetable grower and an academic social scientist. He's recently published two books, A Small Farm Future (2020) and Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future (2023). He's currently at work on a third – Lights for a Dark Age – all published by Chelsea Green.Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song. This episode was edited by Drew O'Doherty.

A conversation with Chris Smaje, farmer and author of Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, about manufactured food not being the solution to the food, agriculture, and climate crises, despite what George Monbiot portraits in Regenesis. Why don't we just grow food from thin air and all move to cities and have nature rewild the countryside? If this sounds dystopian to you, this conversation is perfect for you. We unpack the many issues with that worldview and how it most likely creates more problems than it solves. There are huge technical challenges with this kind of manufactured food, like energy costs and health. But this is about much more; this is also about the concentration of people, capital, and power in cities and the rural-urban divide.---------------------------------------------------Join our Gumroad community, discover the tiers and benefits on www.gumroad.com/investinginregenag. Support our work:Share itGive a 5-star ratingBuy us a coffee… or a meal! www.Ko-fi.com/regenerativeagriculture----------------------------------------------------More about this episode on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/chris-smaje.Find our video course on https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/course.----------------------------------------------------The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Send us a message!https://foodhub.nl/en/opleidingen/your-path-forward-in-regenerative-food-and-agriculture/ Use KOEN10 for 10% offhttps://rfsi-forum.com/2024-rfsi-forum/ Find out more about our Generation-Re investment syndicate:https://gen-re.land/ https://www.freshventures.eu/https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2023/02/21/bart-van-der-zande-2/https://investinginregenerativeagriculture.com/2024/03/22/chris-bloomfield-daniel-reisman/Support the showFeedback, ideas, suggestions? - Twitter @KoenvanSeijen - Get in touch www.investinginregenerativeagriculture.comJoin our newsletter on www.eepurl.com/cxU33P! Support the showThanks for listening and sharing!

In this episode we discuss Chris Smaje's recent article: Off-grid: further thoughts on the failing renewables transition Chris can be found at chrissmaje.com and on Twitter at @‌csmaje

What's the future of food?Last year, two of my former podcast guests had a long and very public disagreement about the politics of food, locking horns over the utility of farming in a densely-populated world. Activist and writer George Monbiot has written extensively about lab-grown food and the need to revolutionise our food systems with technology so that we can better feed everyone. Farmer and academic Chris Smaje has argued that farming is a critical component of community autonomy, and wrote a book in response to George's own, Regenesis, criticising the vision as “eco-modernist”. George hit back that Chris' proposal is a “cruel fantasy”.I watched this unfold online, worried to see two experts disagree so deeply on something fundamental to how we organise society, and invited Chris back to talk about this second book, Saying No To A Farm-Free Future. Chris explains how our food production systems are emblematic of our crisis of relationship to the earth. He argues that de-materialising our food supply plays into the colonial history of uprooting people from the land and denigrating agriculture. This leads us to discuss land, language, and culture, decentralising power, and the political binaries that could be dissolved by grounding our thinking in the land.Correction: The previous version of this interview stated that the debate between George Monbiot and Chris Smaje was around lab grown meat instead of lab grown food. Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) and Phil Carson (Nature Friendly Farming Network) discuss the week's land use news - and meet special guest, Chris Smaje, author of "Saying NO to a farm-free future" This is a re-edit of the original podcast, which contained inaccuracies in the first section (soil carbon intro). NEWS ARTICLES DISCUSSED: New paradigm in soil science shows vast potential for carbon storage Good soil management reduces the “high risk of conventional grazing” White paper connects regenerative agriculture with nutrient density "They belong to this land" - The Reindeer Chronicles INTERVIEW: CHRIS SMAJE “Cities, like feedlots, need to import food and water from afar" THIRD SECTION No single stretch of river in England in “good ecological health” Hedgerow regulations will be brought into English law Farmers look to help rivers by cutting plough use in maize trials River restoration key to saving Scotland's disappearing salmon --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/farmgate/message

Journalist and author George Monbiot has a radical idea for fixing farming's environmental devastation — but can a post-agricultural world feed the planet? Once a social scientist and now a farmer, Chris Smaje offers a defense of small-scale farming and a robust critique of industrialized food production. The Ecology Center is a blue dot in a red sea. How did Evan Marks come to run this 28-acre regenerative farm in Orange County? Reporter Alexander Sammon visits Cherán, where armed militias guard the area to prevent rogue avocado farming.

DO podcast alumnus Chris Smaje (@csmaje) returns to deflect eco-modernist criticisms of his agrarian vision laid out in “A Small Farm Future” and most recent book “Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future.” Specifically, we examine evidence for the claim that traditional/territorial food webs supply 70-80% of the nutrition people intake globally, and discuss what this means for the potential of small biodiverse farming to “feed the world.” Reasons for dispute of this claim include that much food production in traditional local food webs is “invisibilized” to top-down technocrats using data collected of commodity crops produced for the industrial food chain. This is one of several blind spots we discuss that characterize elites' and technocrats' worldviews, and partially explains why their prescriptions fail to deliver on promised sustainability and “equity” goals. In this episode, Chris, Jason and Josh ponder whether it's worth it trying to persuade technocratic elites of their errors, or instead turn our attention and efforts to different natural constituencies better oriented to implementing diverse approaches to agrarian bioregionalism. We consider what barriers people may face to getting involved and how to overcome those barriers. The whole conversation pivots on the notion of Bioregional Self-Provision as a method for securing resilience for affluent-but-fragile “developed” regions while alleviating ecosystem degradation and impoverishing exploitation on poor peripheral “underdeveloped” regions, facilitating their own self-provision from local resources. Chris' website, blog, and links to books: https://chrissmaje.com ETC Group report: “Small-scale farmers and peasants still feed the world”

Before we read the books that our guest today, Chris Smaje, wrote, we knew we didn't want a world where fake food, food manufactured in factories was what we ate as a society. We didn't believe that protein made in stainless steel vats could give our minds, bodies, souls and communities what they need to survive and thrive.But what we didn't know, is that manufactured protein, fake food or precision fermentation, however you want to term it, literally will not work.Listen in to this episode to understand exactly why manufactured food is not an option for our world going forward and what our only alternative is. This episode will leave you staggered by the statistics around manufactured food, informed as to why it is not a feasible solution to our world's problems and with so much more confidence in the belief that real food, real farms, and real people are what we need to find our way out of our current crisis.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *The organ supplements we use and trust – get a 5% discount (and free shipping) on grass-fed supplements, including liver capsules by visiting: https://www.oneearthhealth.com/AncestralKitchen* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics is here, with a 10% discount applied!Alison's Sowans oat fermentation course is here, with a 10% discount applied!Get cooking with our recipes in your kitchen: Meals at the Ancestral Kitchen, our Ecookbook is available here.Get 10% off any course at The Fermentation School: click here and use code AKP at checkout.Get 10% off US/Canada Bokashi supplies: click here and use code AKP.Get 10% off UK Bokashi supplies.Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop for a vast selection of ancestral cookbooks: US link here and UK link here.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Our podcast is sponsored by Patrons in ancestral kitchens around the world!Patrons can choose to simply sponsor the podcast, or select from a variety of levels with benefits including additional bonus content, monthly live Zoom calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content from Alison and Andrea as well as our podcast guests, and a Discord discussion group.To read more about becoming a patron and explore the various levels, click here!* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *5* reviews on Apple Podcasts, mean the world to us!Here's how you can leave one:Open the Apple Podcast appFind Ancestral Kitchen

On this Reality Roundtable, philosopher and writer Dougald Hine, social scientist and farmer Chris Smaje, and ecologist and farmer Pella Thiel join Nate to discuss the future of food and community. Our disconnected relationship to agriculture and our neighbors have been shaped by a modern industrial society fueled by surplus hydrocarbon energy. What will these relationships look like in a lower energy future, where we need to once again work with each other and the land, rather than in isolation. Can we learn from history to celebrate with each other in times of abundance and find strength in community in times of need? In the present world where people are in constant search for meaning and purpose, what are strategies to find joy in simplicity and well-being through the growing and sharing of food? About Dougald Hine Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer and speaker. After an early career as a BBC journalist, he co-founded organizations including the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies (2023). He co-hosts The Great Humbling podcast and publishes a Substack called Writing Home. About Chris Smaje Chris Smaje is a writer, social scientist and small-scale farmer, co-running a mixed holding in Somerset, southwest England. He's the author of A Small Farm Future (2020) and Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future (2023), both published by Chelsea Green. He blogs at and is contactable via www.chrissmaje.com. About Pella Thiel Pella Thiel is a maverick ecologist, part-time farmer, full-time activist and teacher in ecopsychology. She is the co-founder of swedish hubs of international networks like Swedish Transition Network and End Ecocide Sweden and a knowledge expert in the UN Harmony with Nature programme. Pella was awarded the swedish Martin Luther King Award in 2023 and the Environmental Hero of the year 2019. Watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/NVeCw-Ljenk Show Notes & Links to Learn More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/rr05-hine-smaje-thiel 

On this episode of “Death in The Garden,” we spoke to author and farmer Chris Smaje about his new book Saying No to a Farm-Free Future which was written in response to George Monbiot's book Regenesis. We talk about the dangers of the ecomodernist worldview, about how the narrative of progress inhibits practical solutions, and we discuss at length the importance of moving towards agrarian localism as a lifeway in order to weather the coming storms. We talk about the precariousness of urbanization, and how moving toward a more rural, local society offers resiliency. We talk about the issue of decoupling humans from nature, and how it's imperative that we re-couple humans with nature in order to create a sustainable society. We talk about the problems with precision fermentation, as well as transitioning to a carbon-free society under the high-energy lifestyles we have today. We discuss at length what it means to become a good keystone species, and how doing so simultaneously heals our spiritual and cultural ills while also healing the environment. We discuss all of these topics in relation to Maren's essay, The Quantitative Cosmology.Check out Chris' blog and be sure to order his books, Saying No to a Farm-Free Future: The Case for an Ecological Food System and Against Manufactured Foods and A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity and a Shared Earth. Also, follow Chris on Twitter.If you want to support the project, please consider upgrading your subscription from free to paid on Substack or join our Patreon. To support us in another way, consider buying a print from our brand new Print Shop! Use code PRINTSHOP at check-out for 10% off until the end of September. For now, prints are only available in the United States and Canada.Come see us at the Crestone Energy Fair! Editing: Jake Marquez and Maren MorganMusic: “Missed the Boat” by Modest Mouse Get full access to Death in The Garden at deathinthegarden.substack.com/subscribe

Chris, Shaun, and Jason record a follow up conversation to an earlier one between Shaun and Jason (found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yni0F-3VVxo&t=1174s ) talking about the intersections of Chris's vision of a Small Farm Future and Shaun's of Lean Logic, and particularly the cultural and spiritual dimensions of collapse and regeneration, as well as the more near term conflicting urban/rural class politics involved

I've been watching an interesting and important discussion play out for a number of years now within the environmental movement and ecological farming community. It appears that on one hand we have a group that is convinced by the data that farming to feed a population which is growing exponentially through traditional land based means is doomed to be an ecological detriment. Our current system should instead be replaced with high tech solutions such as vertical farms and laboratory processes to create the nutrition this population needs. As a result we could return much of our farmland to rewilding efforts to recover the natural environments and biodiversity that we've lost, in no small part due to modern agriculture.   On the other side we have people who are convinced by the data (often the same data) that we need to return to a deeper and more compassionate relationship with the earth, one that allows for us to produce a yield without compromising the ability of all other life forms to exist and thrive. In this way we can both feed the population and restore our role as environmental stewards. Rather than returning many farms to rewild, we could incorporate habitat and biodiversity into our production methods and foster the recovery of wild species in a way that enhances the resilience of our production methods.    Instead of isolating human activity from a pristine concept of the natural world and permitting destructive actions in the remaining space, we could consider all of our necessary functions within a globally connected landscape for their potential to enhance all forms of life, not just our own. These two contrasting world views recently came to head during a debate between Allan Savory and George Monbiot. Allan represented the side of holistic management, taking into account the infinite complexity of the natural world to create management frameworks to operate with this nuance in a way that respects all the cycles and life affirming principles of our world.    George has been an outspoken critic of this position, especially in how it relates to the management of livestock in farming, arguing that there is no potential for beneficial ecological outcomes in livestock farming, and that in order to combat the climate crisis and mass biodiversity loss, high efficiency farming must be leveraged, along with technologies such as precision fermentation, to produce plant based protein alternatives to meat.    I've linked to the video recording of the debate in the show notes for this episode on the website, in order to let you make up your own mind about which side you support. I also want to express that I don't consider these two positions, certainly not in their rigidity, as the only positions in the broader discussion. At the same time I know that anyone who has listened to more than a few episodes of this show will know which direction I lean personally. That brings me to today's interview in which I'll be speaking with Chris Smaje. Chris is a university-based social scientist turned farmer. Has co-run a small farm and market garden for the last 20 years. Along with farming he is a dedicated voice for regenerative and locally based food systems. He's the author of 'A Small Farm Future' which articulates his vision and the details of a society built around local economies and food systems, and his most recent title, 'Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future directly confronts the popular arguments in favor of manufactured food and removing food production from the land.    In our conversation we start by identifying the sources and advocacy of industrially produced food and farm alternatives. We break down the manipulation of data and reductionist thinking that results in conclusions that technological fixes are our only solutions.  Chris also paints a picture of his ideas for a brighter alternative to these conclusions and what is possible in a more locally based and decentralized configuration of our sources of sustenance.    We also dig into the active role that all of us can play in creating this alternative future and accelerate a transformation in the role of farming as well as supply and production of food to one that serves the broader community of life that we're all connected to.  This is one of my current favorite subjects of exploration as it is connected to so many aspects of how we live, organize ourselves, co-create culture and community, and manifest our future. I hope to explore aspects of this with many more people and perspectives in the coming months, so please, if there are people that you would like to hear me interview about these topics or if you'd like to add or challenge any of the points in the upcoming discussion, I encourage you to reach out on our discord community or to me directly at info@regenerativeskills.com

In this week's episode I'm talking to someone I met on last year's Thrutopia Masterclass: someone who was there to explore and share ideas about how we might get through to that flourishing future we'd be proud to leave behind. Elisa Rathje is an artist, a filmmaker, a podcaster, a writer, an unschooling parent - and a homesteader whose life is an expression of her philosophy that we need to live closer to, and in harmony with, the land. She and her family farm one and a half acres on Saltspring Island off the west coast of Canada between Vancouver and Vancouver island where she makes her appleturnover TV channel for Youtube, with short films showing the ways she's rediscovering, or in some cases, creating anew, ways to grow and thrive on and with the land. We've had some pretty hardcore conversations recently on the podcast, and I thought it was time for something inspiring, less of how we fix the broken structures at national level, and more how we can each live different lives, tell ourselves different stories of who we are and how we are... get into the detail of composting toilets and community buses and how to keep chickens and geese and sort the water... all the things we're really going to need to learn, or relearn or otherwise bring into being as we shift forward into the small farm future that Chris Smaje was talking about last week. So this is a regenerative episode, about regenerating our souls as we heal the land. appleturnover TV https://appleturnover.tv/The Journal of Small Work https://appleturnover.tv/farm/journal/Miraculous Abundance https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/miraculous-abundance-one-quarter-acre-two-french-farmers-and-enough-food-to-feed-the-world-perrine-herve-gruyer/1935503?ean=9781603586429Feminism and the Mastery of Nature https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/feminism-and-the-mastery-of-nature-val-plumwood/825976?ean=9780415068109Attachment Parenting https://attachmentparenting.co.uk/Hold onto your kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hold-on-to-your-kids-why-parents-need-to-matter-more-than-peers-gabor-mate/739814?ean=9781785042195

Recent crises have exposed the weaknesses of globalisation and its hyper-extended supply chains. These shocks will only increase in frequency as climate change further destabilises the planet, inducing famines and the mass movement of people escaping extreme weather events. Human activity is the root cause of these problems - including the industrialised way in which we farm. Chris Smaje proposes agrarian localism as a radical alternative: the construction of many, many small-holdings across the UK, with enough land to grow food and raise livestock for the people that live in them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We look at the latest book by Chris Smaje, Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future The Case For an Ecological Food System and Against Manufactured Foods, Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, see more here. Saying NO to a farm-free future, reviewed This book is a response to George Monbiot's own book about how humanity could feed itself in the future. While GM had some interesting ideas, Smaje's concern is that the solutions suggested are leaning too heavily on a techno-solutionist approach, and the concept that we can only be saved by the tech-bros. There is some truth in this critique, or rather it is important to look at a wider range of solutions, and to not be solely dependent on what Silicon Valley and other tech startups might have to offer. As we see what has become the utter gong show since Twitter got a new owner, we need to be looking at more solutions that just whatever the latest tech trends might be. The potential for any solely tech dependent solutions has recently proved to be an invitation to descend into hubris and chaos if we are not careful. Smaje's analysis and arguments are carefully reasoned and walked through. We would not necessarily agree with everything suggested in this book, but Smaje does argue reasonably and with the intent to be fair and draw on legitimate sources. This book is definitely thought provoking, even if we found the title a bit clunky. We liked it, and would recommend reading it. See more on Chris's blog here. In Chris's words -> I wrote the book in a two-month blur as a job of work that I felt somebody had to do to combat the head of steam building around the case for a farm-free future associated with George Monbiot's book Regenesis and the Reboot Food initiative. And if that somebody was me, so be it. My original motivation was mainly just to critique the fanciful ecomodernism of Reboot Food, which I believe is apt to bedazzle people of goodwill but with limited knowledge of food and farming into thinking that a technological solution is at hand that will enable them to continue living high-energy, urban consumerist lifestyles while going easy on the climate and the natural world. Really, it isn't. The danger is that farm-free bromides will, as usual with ecomodernism, instil a 'great, they've fixed it!' complacency at just the time when we need to jettison the techno-fix mentality and radically reimagine our social and political assumptions. More about the book One of the few voices to challenge The Guardian's George Monbiot on the future of food and farming (and the restoration of nature) is academic, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future Chris Smaje. In Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, Smaje presents his defense of small-scale farming and a robust critique of Monbiot's vision for an urban and industrialized future. Responding to Monbiot's portrayal of an urban, high-energy, industrially manufactured food future as the answer to our current crises, and its unchallenged acceptance within the environmental discourse, Smaje was compelled to challenge Monbiot's evidence and conclusions. At the same time, Smaje presents his powerful counterargument - a low-carbon agrarian localism that puts power in the hands of local communities, not high-tech corporates. In the ongoing fight for our food future, this book will help you to understand the difference between a congenial, ecological living and a dystopian, factory-centered existence. A must-read! "Chris Smaje has laid down an indictment - as unremitting as it is undeniable - that cuts through the jargon-filled, techno-worshipping agricultural futurists who promise silver-bullet fixes for having your cake and eating it too. This brilliant and compelling book is at once hopeful and persuasive about the future of food." - Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill and author of The Third Plate See more book reviews here.

John Klar is an attorney, regenerative farmer, and author living in Vermont. He has just published the book “Small Farm Republic” (Chelsea Green). This book gallops through major themes describing the economic, environmental, political, and social unsustainability of industrial ag, and issues a passion-inflected call for a return to the land and small-to-mid-scale regenerative farming practices. Along the way John acknowledges his influences and sources of inspiration through well-chosen quotes from luminaries including Wendell Berry, Joel Salatin, Chris Smaje, Aldo Leopold, and EF Schumacher. Klar's writing penetrates complex issues of climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, water overuse and pollution, reliance on fossil fuels and toxic agrichemicals, animal welfare, and human health. While many of these topics are stock-in-trade for those identified as progressives or on the political left, Klar makes a compelling case why self-identified conservatives must care about these challenges and take action. Ultimately his arguments transcend superficial left/right, liberal/conservative distinctions and point the way towards a common ground that humans can come together on to heal our communities, our economy, and the ecosphere. In this jaunting conversation, Klar and Kearns talk about Klar's Vermont farming experiences where he and his wife Jackie have currently or previously raised sheep cows, goats, and draft horses; developed a goat milk and cheese small business; fought for on-farm slaughter rights with VT state regulators; and raised children in an empowering and healthy environment. John's writings on farming, politics, and culture can be found at or accessed through his Substack site: johnklar.substack.com

In this episode of the Planetary Regeneration Podcast, host Gregory Landua welcomes author Chris Smaje to discuss his recently published book, "Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future." Chris engages in a dialogue with Gregory, which was sparked by their interactions on Twitter, to delve deep into various thought-provoking topics and discuss his current life's work. Chris Smaje is a homesteader, sometime commercial vegetable grower, writer and social scientist by background. He mostly writes about the intersections between ecology, agriculture, energy and politics. He has two recent books – ‘A Small Farm Future' (Chelsea Green, 2020) and 'Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future' (Chelsea Green, 2023). Twitter: @csmaje Website: https://chrissmaje.com

How do we make the case for a fully ecological farming system, that can feed all of us, while restoring the bio-sphere and providing affordable, nutritious food. How can we become a good keystone species - and what does that mean.  This second episode with Chris Smaje, explores his new book, 'Saying No to a Farm Free Future: The Case for an Ecological Food System and against Manufactured Foods.' Chris was last a guest on the podcast in the spring of this year (2023), in episode 166, in which we explored his book 'A Small Farm Future' - what it meant, how he came to write it, and what a Small Farm Future might look and feel like. At the time, we veered toward the topic of the Eco-Modernist manifesto and in particular their concept that 'Precision Fermentation' is necessary to feed the world's population - and would enable us to dispense with farming, which they regard as the author of all the world's ills. Chris said then that he was writing something that would address this more directly and suggested he come back when it was ready.And now his new book is ready, and he has come back to talk about it.  The book absolutely does what it says on the tin, and does it well. Chris has a background in academia and his capacity for critical thinking shines through the text as he examines the good and the bad of the Eco-Modernist agenda, and in particular the new kid on the Eco-Modernist block, George Monbiot and his latest tract, Regenesis. He really dives deeply into the assertions that are made, takes them apart and shows the (many) places where they don't stack up. At the end, he makes a heartfelt, grounded, and I think rather beautiful plea for us to rediscover our human place as a good keystone species, instead of feeling we have to wall ourselves up in concrete boxes eating manufactured food. Chris's Book: Saying NO to a Farm Free Future https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/saying-no-to-a-farm-free-future-the-case-for-an-ecological-food-system-and-against-manufactured-foods-chris-smaje/7448082?ean=9781915294166Chris's website smallfarmfuture.org.uk  Chris's blog https://chrissmaje.com/blog/Chris on Twitter https://twitter.com/csmajePrevious Accidental Gods episode https://accidentalgods.life/living-in-a-post-carbon-post-capital-post-urban-world/Tyson Yunkaporta Sand Talk https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/sand-talk-how-indigenous-thinking-can-save-the-world-tyson-yunkaporta/3904066?ean=9781925773996

At the halfway point of the year, Manda looks back on what's been on the podcast, forward at (some of) what's to come, thoughts on where we're at as a world, and explores the books and podcasts that have stood out in the past six months. Non fiction  A People's Green New Deal by Max Ajl https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-people-s-green-new-deal-max-ajl/5731783?ean=9780745341750Building Tomorrow by Paddy Le Fluffy https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Building-Tomorrow-by-Paddy-Le-Flufy/9781739345204Spinning Out By Charlie Herzog Young https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Spinning-Out-by-Charlie-Hertzog-Young/9781804440315Saying No to a Farm Free Future by Chris Smaje https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/saying-no-to-a-farm-free-future-the-case-for-an-ecological-food-system-and-against-manufactured-foods-chris-smaje/7448082?ean=9781915294166Two Lights by James Roberts https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/two-lights-james-roberts/7366651?ean=9781912836178Post-Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth in a time of collapse by Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Post-Capitalist-Philanthropy-by-Alnoor-Ladha-Lynn-Murphy/9798986531007 Fiction Black Water Sister by Zen Cho https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/black-water-sister-zen-cho/6464196?ean=9781509800018The Grief Nurse – Angie Spoto https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-grief-nurse-angie-spoto/7230526?ean=9781914518171Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/now-she-is-witch-a-witch-story-unlike-any-other-from-the-author-of-the-gracekeepers-kirsty-logan/7387771?ean=9781529116113Habitat Man by DA Baden https://www.dabaden.com/habitat-man/The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-First-Fifteen-Lives-of-Harry-August-by-Claire-North/9780356502588Frankie Boyle, Meantime https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/meantime-frankie-boyle/6521254?ean=9781399801157Podcasts Bankless Episode w Eliezer Yudkowsky https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bankless/id1499409058?i=1000600575387Planet Critical – particularly the episode w Alastair Campbell https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/planet-critical/id1545009586?i=1000615243292David Bollier's Frontiers of Commoning, particularly the episode with Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/frontiers-of-commoning-with-david-bollier/id1501085005?i=1000615201925Your Undivided Attention https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/your-undivided-attention/id1460030305The Great Simplification https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-great-simplification-with-nate-hagens/id1604218333

ffinlo Costain talks to Chris Smaje about his new book, Saying NO to a farm-free future. Smaje's response to George Monbiot's Regenesis is a well-mannered treatise that outlines coolly and specifically why the Guardian columnist's prescription for the food system is just completely wrong. Smaje, an academic, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future, is one of the few voices to publicly challenge Monbiot on the future of food and farming (and the restoration of nature). Responding to Monbiot's portrayal of an urban, high-energy, industrially manufactured food future as the answer to our current crises, and its unchallenged acceptance within the environmental discourse, Smaje was compelled to challenge Monbiot's evidence and conclusions. At the same time, Smaje presents his powerful counterargument – a low-carbon agrarian localism that puts power in the hands of local communities, not high-tech corporates. Saying NO to a farm-free future is a defence of agroecological, small-scale farming and a robust critique of an industrialized future, and is released in the UK on the 28th of June. Farm Gate is now part of the 8point9.com news channel. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/farmgate/message

A discussion of Chris' forthcoming book Saying No to a Farm-Free Future “Everyone in the food business needs to read this book. . . . [A] lively and superbly written polemic.”—Joel Salatin, co-founder of Polyface Farm A defense of agroecological, small-scale farming and a robust critique of an industrialized future. One of the few voices to challenge The Guardian‘s George Monbiot on the future of food and farming (and the restoration of nature) is academic, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future Chris Smaje. In Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future, Smaje presents his defense of small-scale farming and a robust critique of Monbiot's vision for an urban and industrialized future.Responding to Monbiot's portrayal of an urban, high-energy, industrially manufactured food future as the answer to our current crises, and its unchallenged acceptance within the environmental discourse, Smaje was compelled to challenge Monbiot's evidence and conclusions. At the same time, Smaje presents his powerful counterargument – a low-carbon agrarian localism that puts power in the hands of local communities, not high-tech corporates.In the ongoing fight for our food future, this book will help you to understand the difference between a congenial, ecological living and a dystopian, factory-centered existence. A must-read! “Chris Smaje has laid down an indictment – as unremitting as it is undeniable – that cuts through the jargon-filled, techno-worshipping agricultural futurists who promise silver-bullet fixes for having your cake and eating it too. This brilliant and compelling book is at once hopeful and persuasive about the future of food.”—Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill and author of The Third Plate Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future: The Case For an Ecological Food System and Against Manufactured Foods ‌https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/saying-no-to-a-farm-free-future/

Chris and Ashley speak with Dougald about his new book At Work in the Ruins and where it intersects with both the Small Farm Future and Doomer Optimism. Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer, speaker and the co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins (2023) and he publishes new essays on his Substack, Writing Home. https://linktr.ee/atworkintheruins His substack can be found at: https://dougald.substack.com/ Chris Smaje has coworked a small farm in Somerset, southwest England, for the last 17 years. Previously, he was a university-based social scientist, working in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey and the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College on aspects of social policy, social identities and the environment. Since switching focus to the practice and politics of agroecology, he's written for various publications, such as The Land , Dark Mountain , Permaculture magazine and Statistics Views, as well as academic journals such as Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems and the Journal of Consumer Culture . Smaje writes the blog Small Farm Future, is a featured author at www.resilience.org and a current director of the Ecological Land Co-op. Chris' latest book is: A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth.

Chris Smaje is a social scientist by training and a small-scale farmer by occupation. For the past 19 years, he has co-worked a small farm in Somerset, in southwest England.  Previously, he was a university-based social scientist, working in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surry and the Dept of Anthropology at Goldsmith's College. HIs focus was aspects of social policy, social identities and the environment. Since switching focus to the practice and politics of agro-ecology, he's written for various publications, such as The Land, Dark Mountain and Permaculture Magazine, as well as academic journals such as Agroecology and Sustainable Food systems. He blogs at Small Farm Futures and has previously been a director of the Ecological Land Co-op.  His latest book, A Small Farm Future, forms the basis of this conversation - in it, he lays out Ten Crises of our times, which, put together, create the Wicked Problem of this moment in history. From there, the remaining three parts of the book explore the ways in which rural localism can offer a way for humanity to see itself through the numerous crises we currently face both in the richer and poorer countries. In the podcast, we take the book as our starting point (really, you should read it) and look less at the why, of rural localism and more at the ways it might happen and how it might work.   We delve into the ways humanity has organised in the past (with deep passing references to Graeber and Wengrow's brilliant book, The Dawn of Everything') and how we might self-organise in the future.  We look at the future of energy, at our conceptions of prosperity, the ways small farms can feed the world - and the absolute insanity of the 'precision fermentation' model of feeding eight billion people while enabling them to flourish free of corporate capture. Chris's blog https://smallfarmfuture.org.uk/Chris's book https://uk.bookshop.org/books/a-small-farm-future-making-the-case-for-a-society-built-around-local-economies-self-provisioning-agricultural-diversity-and-a/9781603589024Chris's response to Monbiot's Regenesis https://smallfarmfuture.org.uk/?p=1978Article on The Land updating the book https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/commons-and-households-small-farm-futureChris on Twitter https://twitter.com/csmajeGraeber and Wengrow - The Dawn of Everything https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity/9780141991061Simon Michaux https://www.simonmichaux.com/Rebecca Solnit - A Paradise Built in Hell http://www.rebeccasolnit.net/book/a-paradise-built-in-hell/What your food Qte https://uk.bookshop.org/books/what-your-food-ate-how-to-heal-our-land-and-reclaim-our-health/9781324004530The Agricultural Dilemma https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-agricultural-dilemma-how-not-to-feed-the-world/9781032260457

On this episode, Ashley Colby (@RizomaSchool) teams up with Nathan Gates (@TornadoNate) to co-host an intriguing conversation about Distributism with Chris Smaje (@csmaje) and Sean Domencic (@tradtom), co-founder of Tradistae. About Sean Domencic Sean Domencic is the director of Tradistae, a contributing author at New Polity, and a maintenance man who speaks and writes about Distributism and Catholic Social Teaching. He and his wife live in community at Holy Family Catholic Worker in Lancaster, PA. About Chris Smaje Chris Smaje has coworked a small farm in Somerset, southwest England, for the last 17 years. Previously, he was a university-based social scientist, working in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey and the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College on aspects of social policy, social identities and the environment. Since switching focus to the practice and politics of agroecology, he's written for various publications, such as The Land , Dark Mountain , Permaculture magazine and Statistics Views, as well as academic journals such as Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems and the Journal of Consumer Culture . Smaje writes the blog Small Farm Future, is a featured author at www.resilience.org and a current director of the Ecological Land Co-op. Chris' latest book is: A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth. About Nathan Gates Nathan is a licensed psychotherapist and co-host of Altered States of Context, a podcast about psychedelics, science and psychotherapy. He also practices regenerative ranching and writes from his family's farm in rural west-central Illinois. About Ashley Colby Ashley is an Environmental Sociologist who studied at Washington State University, the department that founded the subdiscipline. She's interested in and passionate about the myriad creative ways in which people are forming new social worlds in resistance to the failures of late capitalism and resultant climate disasters. I am a qualitative researcher so I tend to focus on the informal spaces of innovation. She's the founder of Rizoma Field School and Rizoma Foundation.

Chris Smaje is a social scientist, farmer, and author of A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth.Chris joins me for a fascinating discussion about the political importance of land, its historical context, the current inefficiencies of farming, and the liberation people can find in reclaiming land and the capacity to produce their own food. We also discuss the historical framing of peasantry and serfdom, and offer new narratives which could galvanisee urbanised populations to rebuild their relationships to land, food and independence. Listen on Apple or SpotifyWatch on YoutubePlanet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

Many governments see farm expansion as the future of agriculture, but there's a grave risk that this will simply embed the challenges inherent in today's food system. Instead we need diversity - and small farms play a critical a role. ffinlo Costain talks to Chris Smaje, author of A Small Farm Future, published by Chelsea Green. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Climate change is already affecting our food security and will continue to do so for many years to come. Some have suggested that urban farming could be an actual viable alternative option to provide entire cities with enough food. Simply put, as things stand, this is probably not the case, but perhaps there are other reasons to consider it as a valuable practice. We enter this podcast with an open mind to all possible options as we talk with Chris Smaje, author of A Small Farm Future, who offers an alternative to urban agriculture that could prove to be helpful for Britons future food security. We also talk with Pamela Warhurst who argues that apart from sustenance, there are many other important reasons for us all to be involved with the growing of at least some of our food. The Linnean Future Podcast Series is an initiative by The Linnean Society of London in response to the ongoing planetary emergency. This podcast series will bring you stories from around the world that explores how the impacts of climate change are woven into every aspect of our lives. Through out the series we will be meeting some of the amazing people who are studying these changes, its impacts and trying to find solutions to help reduce the impacts of our changing climate. The Linnean Society of London is committed to Net Zero (with offsets) by 2022 and reducing its carbon emissions by at least half by 2030. Speakers: Chris Smaje, Pamela Warhurst Interviewer: Padmaparna Ghosh Producer: Ross Ziegelmeier

A deep dive with Chris Smaje on the definition of "ecomodernism", the limits of socialist theory and rhetoric, modes of property ownership, how the "Small Farm Future" aligns with distributism, to what degree we need an "ideology" or "doctrine", re-discovering ecological spirituality, civic republicanism, virtue ethics, peasant revolutions, and the best avenues and organization for practical action (including Extinction Rebellion).  Sean and Chris discuss political theory over at the latter's blog: https://smallfarmfuture.org.uk/?p=1906  Closing Song, performed by an English land justice artist: "Three Acres and a Cow" https://threeacresandacow.co.uk/2014/07/three-acres-and-a-cow-unattributed-broadside-from-late-1800s/ Chris Smaje's book, A Small Farm Future: chelseagreen.com/product/a-small-farm-future/ Sean's introductory interview with Chris: https://tradistae.podbean.com/e/48-chris-smaje-author-of-a-small-farm-future/  Sean's audio essay, "Log Off for Lent":  https://tradistae.podbean.com/e/40-log-off-for-lent/  To support our work, consider becoming a patron of Tradistae at patreon.com/tradistae

Seán Ó Conláin and Caroline Whyte spoke with Chris Smaje. Chris is based in Somerset in the UK and worked as an academic sociologist and anthropologist for some time, but then changed focus to the practice and politics of agroecology. He now coworks a smallholder farm. He has written several books, including, most recently,' A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth'. He writes the blog Small Farm Future and has also written for various publications, such as The Land, Dark Mountain, Permaculture magazine and Statistics Views, as well as academic journals such as Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems and the Journal of Consumer Culture.

An introduction to the peasant populism of Chris Smaje, author of A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-provisioning Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth.  Sean was delighted to interview Chris Smaje, whose book and blog are essential reading for distributists. In this episode, they discuss the energy crises of climate change, the viability of small-scale agriculture to feed the world, the psychological and social benefits of going back to the land, and much more... Go get a copy of the book here! (We will send you a copy if you are the first one to message us on Patreon and ask for it) chelseagreen.com/product/a-small-farm-future/ Join us this week (Dec 15, 17, 18) for the Ecological Embertides: tradistae.com/embertides/  Learn more and apply to join our Worker-Scholar Missions at tradistae.com/worker-scholar  Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/tradistae  Outro: Get Back to the Land | Archie Roach  

Chris Smaje is my guest on Episode 136 of Inside Ideas with Marc Buckley. Chris co-runs a small farm in Somerset, southwest England. Previously he was a social scientist, working at the University of Surrey and Goldsmiths College. He has written about agricultural, ecological and social issues for a variety of academic and non-academic publications and is the author of A Small Farm Future (Chelsea Green, 2020). He blogs at www.smallfarmfuture.org.uk. He is currently a director of the Ecological Land Co-op. https://smallfarmfuture.org.uk/

Debates about reversing climate change can be understood as a tension between two groups: wizards and prophets.  According to Charles C. Mann, wizards are tech-optimists, those who believe that technology resolves more problems than it creates, that technology will save us from the climate crisis. It has advanced us this far, and it will continue to do so. Think of the innovations in alternative energy, such as wind or solar power.   On the other hand, prophets are more focused on how culture shapes our choices. They believe we need to live more within our means, exercise more humility about what we're able to control or even manage. For prophets, we face this climate crisis because of human hubris and the reality that we are taking more from the earth than it can give.   This is certainly a clarifying model for understanding the discourse around our perhaps most ubiquitous challenge in the twenty-first century. But what if there's a more productive middle way between these two perspectives?   Jeffrey Howard talks with Ross Kenyon, a cofounder of the Nori carbon removal marketplace where he serves as Creative Editor. He has had a varied career, working in an academic center and taking PhD coursework in political philosophy before switching to screenwriting and producing content. He currently leads Nori's creative media efforts, hosting their Reversing Climate Change podcast and producing the Carbon Removal Newsroom podcast.   Kenyon exemplifies a curiosity-driven approach to reversing climate change. He minimizes polemics or alarmist rhetoric, hoping that doing so will bring more voices to the climate crisis table. While he freely admits his communication style doesn't work for everyone, he believes we need this pluralistic vision to reversing climate change if we're going to have much success in reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.   A few questions to ponder. What role does literature or climate fiction have in convincing us of the urgency around the climate crisis? How bad are things now, and what will our failure to reverse climate change mean for geopolitical issues such as war, immigration, starvation, and drought? How do we get people with conflicting ideologies to work together toward shared problems, and what should we personally be doing to help reverse climate change?   Show Notes S2E48 - Reversing Climate Change Podcast - On Pragmatism and Climate Change w/ Jeffrey Howard (2021)   S1E107 - Reversing Climate Change Podcast - A Dedicated Introduction to Communitarianism w/ Jeffrey Howard (2019)   "Going Home with Wendell Berry" by Amanda Petrusich (2019)   Essays, 1993-2017 by Wendell Berry (2019)   Mary Oliver   Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver (2019)   The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C. Mann (2019)   Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013)   The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020)   On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (1859)   All Hell Breaking Loose by Michael T. Klare (2019)   "Treating Carbon Emissions Like Trash Collection Could Reverse Climate Change" by Paul Gambill (2018)   Ep. 16 Where Do Animals Fit Into Human Flourishing w/ Ike Sharpless (2021)   Ep. 11 A Small Farm Future w/ Chris Smaje (2021)   Ep. 9 Trust in a Polarized Age w/ Kevin Vallier (2021)   Ep. 8 Subsistence Agriculture During the Collapse of Industrial Capitalism w/ Ashley Colby (2021)

When it comes to resource management, there are two dominant forces that exert tremendous influence on who gets what: the market and the state. Sometimes these two entities compete or conflict. Other times they collaborate, and even conspire—to the great detriment of communities. Either can result in environmental exploitation, extreme inequality or poverty, erasure of culture and place, and invite an alienation that is generated by people having limited say in what happens to their communities.   Yet there remains a resource management system whose history runs deeper than either the market or the state—and that is the commons. Distinguished by its clearly demarcated membership, it is fiercely democratic and practices a more locally-oriented governance regime. A given resource is apportioned and stewarded by members according to norms they determine within their community. For the most part, neither the market nor the state are expected or encouraged to intervene. One is either a contributing member of the commons or they are not.   But if commons have such a rich heritage, then why have they become less prevalent in the United States and in what are considered "developed countries"?   Jeffrey Howard speaks with Neal Gorenflo. He is the executive director of Shareable, an award-winning nonprofit news outlet, action network, and consultancy focused on the latest innovations in resource sharing, the commons, and the solidarity economy. He is also the author of Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons (2018). In addition to the state and the market, he proposes the commons as a way to foster small-scale experiments to see what works best in any given community. This pragmatic approach to solutions is geared toward addressing needs more than trying to satisfy any particular ideology. As the saying goes, ideologies divide us, while needs unify us.   Now, looking further into the twenty-first century, what would it take for the commons to become a prevailing paradigm for resource management? What does a Sharing Cities approach to urban development look like? And what prevents a commons from being co-opted or captured by market or state forces?   Show Notes: A Year of Living Locally by Neal Gorenflo (2020) Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons by Neal Gorenflo (2018) Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons by David Bollier (2014) Shareable Ep. 11 A Small Farm Future w/ Chris Smaje (2021) Ep. 8 Embracing Subsistence Agriculture During the Collapse of Industrial Capitalism w/ Ashley Colby (2021) Ep. 3 Placemaking and the Benefits of Local Scale w/ Jaime Izurieta (2020) "Coops in Spain's Basque Region Soften Capitalism's Rough Edges" by Peter S. Goodman (2020) Mondragon Coop "A Land Value Tax Fosters Strong Community" by Matthew Downhour (2020) "The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin (1968) "All the Lonely People: The Atomized Generation" by Willow Liana (2020) Elinor Ostrom "Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action" by Elinor Ostrom (1990) "A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems" by Elinor Ostrom (2009) "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms" by Elinor Ostrom (2000) "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems" by Elinor Ostrom (2010) "America Needs to Build Strong Towns, Not More Infrastructure" by Jacqueline M. Kory-Westlund (2020)

In which, with the help of specially-composed music by Ben Addicott and Rosie Issitt, we take a step into the 2030 that could result from our doing everything we could possibly do. Join Kwame Boateng, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Brian Eno, Scilla Elworthy, Robert Philips, Zach Norris, Andrea J. Ritchie Roman Krznaric, Jane Davidson, Hilary Powell, Dan Edelstyn, Sophie Leguil, Ash Perrin, Ben Tawil, Jane Perrone, Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu’ Kwasset), Josina Calliste, Chris Smaje, Tyson Yunkaporta, Lusi Alderslowe and Matt Willer as they step though time.

Our far-reaching conversation, which could have gone on for hours, explores our relationship with land, and how a reimagining of that could unlock so much. My thanks to both of my guests for their generosity and wisdom.   Josina Calliste is a health professional, community organiser, and one of the co-founders of Land in Our Names (LION), a black-led collective addressing land inequalities affecting black people and people of colour's ability to farm and grow food in Britain.   Chris Smaje is author of the book 'A Small Farm Future' and the brilliant blog of the same name.   Please consider supporting the podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhatnext and becoming a patron.

Taking lessons from Wales, a small country, we discuss how significant changes can come about from making changes on the local level. Jane Davidson, architect of the Future Generations Act in Wales, author of #futuregen and a smallholder discusses sustainability, farming politics and how to make change happen with Chris Smaje, author of A Small Farm FutureThis episode has been produced with generous sponsorship from Chelsea Green Publishing See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Social scientist Chris Smaje on building a small farm future. You can find out more about him and his work on Twitter at @CSmaje and his new book at SmallFarmFuture.org.uk. The Hardy Report is a political news and current affairs podcast, bringing you interviews with a range of activists, campaigners and politicians from across the political spectrum in the United States and the United Kingdom. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehardyreport/support