Pitchfork Army
I notice that @Alexandru Urdas brought up the idea of rural tourism before when talking about susatinable food production (in Romania)
Whats interesting is that both Alexandru and Nick point out the importance of rural communities being made aware that their old ‘inefficeint’ skills and knowledge are important for the future.
This is the text advertising the session at Oxford Real Farming Conference in January that Nick just forwarded to me. He also posted pictures of his trip to Romania on the incredible farm facebook page.
"Romania has had a heap of bad press recently, but in reality it is is quite the most wonderful country.
Right here in Europe Romania has an intact ecologically sound farming system which has been sustained for 1000 years and is still capable of feeding its population.
Today we are meeting here in Oxford to share the struggle of re creating sustainable farming, in Romania many people aspire to a “modern” life.
But they also value strong community, clean food, meaningful work and nature, they know what they have is precious.
They hover on the brink.
They need Validation, encouragement to keep the best of old ways, to seek a harmonious compromise rather than abandon it all.
We can influence by showing how much we admire the sustainable farming skills by asking to be taught how to scythe a field and build a haystack, milk a sheep, drive a buffalo cart.
We can let the media know, build a story, have the conversations, tell how we feel about the consumer society, modern life and how we long for more connection with nature, our food and meaning.
Romanians are hugely welcoming well educated thoughtful and kind, they want to talk to us, to exchange ideas and perceptions.
We could do something very good just by going there as a group, joining in the harvest learning, sharing talking."
