13/08/2026
Heatwave number 5.
It's very worrying and disheartening to see the damage of the extreme weather after working so hard to get to this point in the season, and of course, in a much bigger global sense.
It is imperative that we can grow our own localised food in a way that enriches rather than destroys the environment we rely on. 'Conventional' agriculture (a complete misuse of the word as humans have been farming organically for thousands of years and 'conventionally' for around a hundred years) has a huge detrimental effect on the climate crisis, destroying ecosystems with synthetic fertilisers, monocultures, soil erosion, run-off choking waterways, intense meat production leading to deforestation, the list goes on. And the problems compound themselves...
We need small farms that don't rely on toxic chemicals to produce food, mixed farms with land given to trees, water, wildness, that encourage biodiversity rather than devastate it, farms with communities of people producing vibrant food from healthy soils and land that is available for everyone to access and enjoy. There will always be challenges but in diversity there is resilience and we need that more than ever.
It is amazing how much incredible food we can produce on a sliver of land and small-scale mixed farming is hugely more productive than industrial agriculture, metre for metre. But it takes humans, which is expensive, and so small mixed farms struggle to make profits. When teetering on that line of financial viability, a year like this can be crippling for the business and the individuals invested in maintaining it. Supporting small, mixed, regenerative farms that work by organic principles is a vote for climate action, for biodiversity conservation, for animal welfare, for healthier food which means healthier humans and for more cohesive, resilient communities.
Fabulous photos courtesy of George Withington
