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https://www.positive.news/society/get-on-my-land-the-farmers-opening-up-their-patches-for-nature-connection/>
"A line of people are vanishing, one by one, into a hedgerow on a hillside near
Aylesbury, England. Hidden inside the thick hedge, under the spreading branches
of a crab apple tree, is an unexpectedly spacious hollow. But perhaps most
unexpected of all is the showerhead fixed to the tree’s trunk.
Tony Langford created this ‘hedge shower’ so campers on his farm can enjoy hot
showers while being quite literally immersed in nature. He shoots a jet of
water to demonstrate. “Though I’ve never had this many people in here at once,”
he says.
Pitchcott Farm has been in Langford’s family for three generations, but he has
a decidedly untraditional approach to public access on to his land. Langford,
who spent his career in mindfulness before inheriting the farm five years ago,
is opening his gates to help reconnect people and nature. Today he’s showing a
group of 15 local farmers how this is taking shape there, from community
festivals to ‘nature bathing’ walks.
He guides these walks himself, across pastureland with far-reaching views over
Aylesbury Vale. “You’re trying to quiet the chatter of the mind and open the
senses to what’s in the natural environment,” he explains. “What we hear, what
we feel, what we smell. And as a result, maximising the benefits that nature
gives us.”
Agricultural land makes up 70% of the UK, according to Defra. Many farmers are
finding their livelihoods under great pressure, especially given one of the
wettest growing seasons ever recorded this summer. Meanwhile, the benefits of
spending time in green spaces are by now well-documented. So, people like
Langford see a mutually beneficially opportunity.
He is one of a new generation of farmers who, instead of trying to keep people
off their land, are actively encouraging them to come on to it, through
activities from solstice celebrations to gyms. Eddie Rixon, a third-generation
farmer at Lopemede Farm near Thame, is another. He took over the beef farm 10
years ago, but in 2019 was forced to reassess its future after a tuberculosis
breakdown in the herd.
Rixon describes it as a “horrendous” time. “My mum and dad built the herd up,
for it all to end overnight,” he says. A former supermarket buyer, Rixon says
he was not able to compete on price post-Brexit. Instead, he saw an opportunity
to invest in the farm’s ‘natural capital’ as a way to boost its finances.
He developed a 30-year-strategy to restore pastures and wetlands as a way to
build up the farm’s agritourism offering. But when a teacher at his daughters’
forest school approached him about setting up an art centre last year, he
realised he could make something happen sooner. He set up a yurt in an
unproductive field that had been used for grazing sheep, launching an art
forest school.
“We were making hundreds of pounds a year. Now we have the art forest school
here we’re making about £6,000 a year,” Rixon says. He has sown the rest of the
one-hectare field with wildflowers. “For me, it was like a proof of concept.
Not only am I increasing the biodiversity here, I’m increasing the social and
community aspect of educating children – and economically it’s working.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
