Learning to Work With Nature: Finding Common Ground

When we visited them at an open day in the summer of 2017, we learned that Roger used to be a large-scale arable farmer in Cambridgeshire, spending many years tilling the soil, dousing the land in chemicals to grow high-yielding crops that would deliver the biggest financial return, and, he’ll tell you himself, he did it very well and very successfully. After moving to Scotland to retire, the couple had no intention of getting back into farming but found themselves with land at Sailean and space for some hens, cattle and sheep.

Roger had also watched the documentary by Rebecca Hosking, something that caused him to face a crushing realisation of the damage he had done by farming an arable unit so intensively for many decades. From that point on, they committed their lives to running a new, diversified farm business based on holistic principles that would turn a profit, regenerate the soil and biodiversity, produce nutrient-dense food and educate others. We felt we had found kindred spirits in Roger and Gilly and, while their situation was very different, it was so exciting to find a real live working example in Scotland of the kind of farming we wanted to do.

Regenerative Agriculture: A New Kind Of Movement

Around the same time, we learned of a relatively new movement taking hold of the alternative agriculture world that was referred to as regenerative agriculture, a way of farming that regenerates the land and the communities that live on it. We started to read books by some of the leading figures in this new movement who, while critical of the industry to date, spoke with such passion and positivity about a different way of farming where everyone could benefit, if only we worked more with nature.

There is Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm in Virginia in the US, an entrepreneurial and hugely successful farmer with a big personality who talks openly about the state of food and farming today and is blessed with a way of communicating that presents complex science in layman’s terms using an engaging and accessible format. There is Richard Perkins from Ridgedale Farm who had bought a small land- holding in Sweden and within a few years transformed it into a highly efficient permaculture food production unit with a huge following and influence after sharing educational videos on his YouTube channel and running on-farm courses.

And then there is Allan Savory, a Zimbabwe national who became famous for his TED talk ‘How to Fight Desertification and Reverse Climate Change’ and talks passionately about his solution for regenerating landscapes through a framework he calls ‘holistic management’.