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Recent Posts
How to get 500 hot showers from your compost heap!
I guess most people wonder what showers and compost have to do with each other, being showered with compost is probably not anyone’s idea of being cleaned. However there is a perfectly valid connection and it’s one we have been exploiting now for four years and to good effect.
How to identify trees in winter
It’s one thing to identify deciduous trees in summer, with their distinctive leaves on full show, but what about winter? Without leaves, we have to look at other telltale signs. After a bit of practice, it can be easier than you think. Have a go, using these helpful methods, which will make it easier to …
Urban one-planet development: how can cities reduce their ecological footprint?
The last post in this series looked at the vital role of ecological footprinting in ensuring that our individual actions are truly sustainable – i.e. within the limits of what the Earth’s resources can provide. This is called ‘one planet’ development.
How we got olive oil from a small farm in Portugal brought over in a sailboat by a co-operative based in Brighton – and how you can do the same
I recently interviewed Dhara Thompson of the Sailboat Project for our new sailboats topic introduction. He told me that they are one of many new organisations that are working to bring back sailboats for cargo and passenger transport – using the power of the wind to move people and goods around the planet.
Earth.Food.Love: the story of the UK’s first zero-waste shop
Nicola and Richard Eckersley, founders of Earth.Food.Love, share their journey to pioneering the UK’s first zero-waste shop in Totnes, Devon.
The potential power of sharing: from Share Shops to Streetbank
In this post Sophie Paterson of Lowimpact.org explores the power of sharing in a growing movement including The Library of Things, Streetbank, Share Shops and more.
Cow-calf dairying part 8: weaning
This is the last in a series of posts about how to run a small dairy herd without separating the calves from their mothers. This final article is about preparing the cows and calves for a stress-free weaning.
Firestarter: how to get the best from firesteels
Gary Johnston of Jack Raven Bushcraft takes us through firesteels, from which one to choose and how they work to how to use one to make a fire with natural tinders.
Feeding the Human Power Plant: can calories be carbon-neutral?
We take a look at the food it may take to fuel the great Human Power Plant, an experiment in the making where students of Utrecht University in the Netherlands will power their very own carbon-neutral accommodation block.
Want to help set up a community-supported agriculture scheme, Jan-Apr, and stay in a yurt next to a river?
Are you feeling like you need a change of scenery for a little while? Feel like you would like to be out in the countryside more? Well how about staying in a cosy yurt with a log burner by the river Avon
The Ecological Land Co-op are currently recruiting for two new roles
The Ecological Land Cooperative (ELC) is a social enterprise based in Brighton, East Sussex. They exist to create affordable access to land for new entrants to ecological agriculture and mixed farming.
Low-impact strategy webinar: Can we change the world without changing money?
Understanding the money system is key to understanding how the world works, where power really lies, what the implications of that are and what we can do about it.
Cow-calf dairying part 7: introducing milking without the calf suckling
When a lamb or calf suckles, they bunt their mum’s udder with their heads to stimulate release of more milk. If you are share-milking, as a calf grows this bunting can quickly become so strong that it can easily knock the cluster off the other three teats.
The linen journey: locally-grown flax to yarn
In a spin-off from The Wool Journey series of blog posts, The Natural Fibre Company shares The Linen Journey, in which Sonja Bargielowska explores flax’s journey from field to yarn.
In praise of the wheelbarrow: low-impact transportation at its best?
Perhaps these days most commonly associated with the garden, there’s more to the humble wheelbarrow than you might think. Sophie Paterson explores its potential, past and present, as a low-impact form of transportation.
‘Investor protection’ in trade deals: why can’t multinational corporations take out insurance rather than have taxpayers underwrite them?
First some background: the Investor-state Dispute Settlement, or ISDS (new name – Investment Court System, or ICS) is a mechanism whereby corporations can sue governments that introduce legislation that they claim reduces their potential to make profit
It can’t possibly be a bad thing to live in the wild and to harvest both plants and animals for food – can it?
A group of us are attempting to have a debate about the sustainability of meat production, but I’ve realised that our differences are much deeper.
Reduce, reuse… repair? The repair renaissance building skills and communities
With UK media decrying a recent YouGov survey revealing a whopping 69% of 18-24 year olds in the UK don’t know how to bleed a radiator and 54% would be flummoxed replacing a fuse, what hope is there for a repair renaissance amidst the current tide of throwaway consumerism?
Does the sustainability of meat production depend on the size of a holding and the number of animals kept on it?
I want to investigate at what size meat production becomes unsustainable (in terms of acreage, number of animals etc.) – i.e. whether it can be sustainable at all, and if so, whether there’s an upper limit, above which it can’t be sustainable
Cow-calf dairying part 6: share milking
I have found that the first few days after a heifer has calved are critical when it comes to creating a positive association with feeding her calf and being milked by machine.