A growing group of people is interested to learn about the relations between people and nature from a critical perspective. The emergence of this movement calls for more places where such learning is provided and facilitated.

Many people deeply criticize our preoccupation with technology. We like to believe that technology can solve all our problems and that nature can be mastered. But can technology save us from all our problems? There is a strong call for the acknowledgment that health has not so much to do with mastering sickness by new technology but more with insight how to flourish. At the same time this is stressed for our most direct relation with nature: agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
 
It may not be surprising that a large reservoir of knowledge about human interaction with nature, and how nature works, manifests itself in the domain of agricultural systems. But at the same time successful agricultural systems enabled people to live in cities and as a result the majority of the people were cut off from the complexity and biodiversity of their natural surroundings.
 
The new movement is that a growing amount of people from cities are looking for new learning experiences in the countryside and the agricultural domain. It is not longer sufficient to sit back and relax on a campsite, or to do safari, but people want to participate in what is going on, and learn from it, get embedded in it. At the same time they want to offer their children to do the same thing. There is a realisation that certain experiences and knowledge can only be obtained outside the concrete jungle. These experiences can vary from getting access to open space, quietness, a touchable link with age-old history or seasonal cycles. What is important in this respect is that they not longer just want to be amused, as is the case in traditional tourism, but that they all search for experiences on the countryside that are meaningful for them in other ways.
 
At the same time, in different places at the countryside, successful experiments are going on where people learn about their links with nature and about how to live from and with nature in a cooperational manner. All from a somewhat different angle, but they all increasingly open their doors for students.

New thinking on ecology, agriculture, forestry and nutrition

There are some extra-ordinary lessons on ecology to be learned in rural communities. An example is food styles. Some people on ecological farms started to experiment with raw food or wheat-free food and its possible advantages for health and ecology. In Finland there are “circular schools”. Courses are given at different times in different farms and communities on issues like permaculture and alternative food styles. One of the Finnish students is (re)discovering how to make raw vegetables better digestible by lactic fermentation Also he is experimenting with low temperature baking. He is ready, like many others, to share his experience sofar.
 
Preventing the Nature Deficit Disorder of children

Children are intrigued by nature. If children can experience a developed ecosystem with all its diversity they are naturally impressed. They feel part of a greater thing. It has recently been shown that grown-ups are more prepared to protect nature if they had such experiences in their youth. The conclusion the other way around is maybe more shocking: it is almost impossible to raise awareness on the values of nature among adults if they did NOT have extensive nature experiences in their youth. If so many people do not find it important, is it then still fundamental to protect nature? Can we really live without nature? From a holistic point of view, people are part of life systems, sometimes called biospheres. A person is a biosphere in itself, containing 10 times more bacteria and other life forms than the number of own body cells, distributed over more than 100 different species. We are nature and nature is in us. If we want to respect ourselves, we need to respect nature, that is: our relations with the environment and other living beings. Diminishing our natural environment and biodiversity means risking our own existence.
 
Organic farms and communities in nature areas are perfect places for children to offer such intensive nature experiences. There are creative ways to facilitate even more these learning experiences, for example by letting children taste different products, and to let them discover the origin of our food.  In the Netherlands a project is started, called: ”De smaak te pakken” (In English: get the taste). It is a mobile tent-kitchen that can be built in a city park. A cook, and several animators show children in playful way what food is made of, how the original ingredients taste and where they come from.  

Learning from the past for the future

In many rural communities traditional ways of agriculture and forestry are still being practised, and many traditions that are connected to it are still alive. Many of the technical methods and also the traditional cultural skills seem to be of value again in industrialised societies. A nice example is the art of gardening and of conserving and cooking with seasonal food products. In Eastern Europe it is now possible to help the aged population in surviving in their villages, and at the same time learn from their vast experience with this. They can also teach songs, dances and old rituals in which the natural pace of nature and the seasons is being reflected.
 
New ways to survive on the countryside

At the same time, new communities are developing in the countryside where people survive by applying more alternative scientific methods of agriculture like permaculture and organic agriculture. They are often actively involved with local authorities in the renovation and management of traditional landscapes, connecting nature areas by eco-corridors, saving agro-biodiversity, etc etc.. They offer interesting experimental grounds for ecological building techniques, re-inventing or combining traditional building techniques and local materials with new scientific approaches. The same counts for renewable energy production and energy-saving. The new rural communities are more open than traditional communities. Inhabitants move more frequently or live only seasonally on the countryside. Also they have often jobs outside their village. The community is in a way not local but more global, connected through a network of rural and urban activist communities, for example the Transition Town movement, the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), the Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) network, the European Centre for Eco Agro Tourism (ECEAT) and the European Youth For Action (EYFA).

RebelFarmer would like to consolidate this diffuse group of people into a network with access to critical literature, information, practical assignments and volunteering opportunities. On the RebelFarmer website it is described in more detail where learning experiences are currently offered.


References

Pollan, Michael 1991, Second Nature, A gardener’s education
Rapport, David J. et all (ed) 1999, Managing for Healthy Ecosystems

Louv, Richard 2005, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder

Chevian, Eric / Aaron Bernstein (ed) 2008, Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity


Other organisations specialised in nature-humans relations

www.wildernessawareness.org
www.natureskills.com
www.natureinstitute.org
www.nsfarming.com
www.leisa.info
www.schumachercollege.org.uk
www.birdwooddowns.com
www.edibleestates.org
 


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