Carbon positive food regions: Part 1 – Co-creating our future

Välkomna till en spännande resa mot en regenerativ framtid! I detta blogginlägg utforskar vi möjligheten att skapa kolinlagrande matregioner, där regenerativt jordbruk kan vara svaret på en rad akuta hållbarhetsutmaningar. Vi diskuterar även hur vi genom medvetna val i vår kost kan forma landskapet och främja positiva avtryck genom maten vi äter. Lär dig hur verktygen Holistic management och Keyline Design kan vägleda oss. Tillsammans kan vi skapa en bättre värld för alla varelser som bor på planeten – båda nuvarande och framtida generationer!

CARBON POSITIVE FOOD REGIONS – and how we can co-create them

Could “Västra Götalandsregionen” (the administrative region of West Sweden) become the first to target regional net carbon sequestration in soil by supporting regenerative agriculture? Or Maybe Orust Municipality, where I do a case study in my thesis?

Regenerative agriculture could be a solution to many, if not most, of our current urgent sustainability challenges. It could regenerative our soils and ecosystems while also producing healthy food, improve biodiversity, water infiltration rates, bringing people together and creating new jobs. What if we could facilitate regenerative land use on a regional scale and thus regenerating ecosystems, communities and local economies in the region – improving quality of life for all beings? Human, non-human, present and future generations.

POSITIVE FOODPRINTS:

We design and plan our cities and regional infrastructure like roads, housing areas, water pipes etc – may we through a collaborative food system design approach also design and plan our landscapes to facilitate regenerative land use and food production? What role does physical planners have and how can we encourage bottom up initiatives led by farmers, land owners and consumers? These are some questions I explore in my Master thesis at Chalmers School of Architecture. The challenge is not not create more damage than good with tools of top down planning by finding a good balance of bottom up and top down initiatives.

The daily choices of what people eat, could itself be seen as an act of “food system design” – impacting our common landscapes for the better or for worse. By voting with our forks on regenerative land use we can create “Positive Foodprints”!

What if we could design landscapes by the very act of eating? This is what I call “Positive Foodprints”! Designing our food system can be done by making more conscious acts of eating and having a closer relation to the land and the farmer who manages it – step by step shifting the outcome of that management to land regeneration! In fact the whole design process is based on a collaborative “food system design” carried out by the daily actions of what people eat and how it shapes the landscapes around them.

DESIGNING FOOD SYSTEMS

Om min masteravhandling: Koldioxidpositiva matregioner

About my Master Thesis: Carbon positive food regions “Carbon positive food regions”, as my thesis is called, is an attempt to create a framework, method and give an example of a regenerative regional strategy – exploring opportunities of planning for regenerative agriculture with net negative emissions on regional scale – land use that also produces local food, regenerates land, ecosystems, local communities & local economies. The project is inspired by the movement of regenerative agriculture and the many stories of such farmers. In Sweden. The design research will be situated in the context of a 450 hectare farm called Bjällansås in Uddevalla – exploring its potential as a model of regenerative land use that can be scaled up regionally to build topsoil and heal ecosystems.

Follow my process

Through a series of video-blogs I will share my insights and thoughts throughout the project. The first video I recorded in Swedish is published below:

Episode 1 = Mussel farming

Did you know that 1 ton of mussels can filter 100kg of nitrogen and 10kg of phosphorus?

The first episode in a new video series where I tell about everything from aquaculture that revitalizes ecosystems in the water to regenerative agriculture that builds up food soil and revitalizes ecosystems on land. Firstly I visit a mussel farm that can filter and absorb excess nutrient in the ocean and actively reverse negative trends of eutrophication – regenerating the water ecosystems as they grow and are harvested. The video series is also an exploration of whether we can create a regenerative carbon-sequestering food system in a region or municipality, which I investigate in my master thesis in Architecture and Planning at Chalmers Technical University.

Episode 2 – Regenerative agriculture at Bjällansås farm

At Bjällansås farm Jan Karlsson have been a pioneer in organic and regenerative agriculture and on mostly rented land they are grazing 500 livestock in a way that regenerates the land. The methods of Backcasting and Scenario planning will be used – exploring two future scenarios of carbon positive regions and how they are both shaping and being shaped by the smaller scale developments of local regenerative farms like Bjällansås. The results will be a design proposal showcasing such a future from the farm scale and up to the regional scale seeing, also pinpoint key projects and strategies that actors such as the region, municipality, farmers & land owners can take to get here.

Below is part 2 in this video series where I visit the regenerativa farm Bjällansås att Bokenäset in Uddevalla kommun (video in Swedish).

More will come up (including some in English) so please follow our channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GrowHere/

What does regenerative mean?

This is worth diving more into and during my Master program – Design and Planning Beyond Sustainable development at Chalmers – I created this Regenerative Index (which is still work in progress) to summarize for me all the dimensions that we need to include as design criteria when we plan and design. Considering its impact for all beings, current and future generations. It is not simply about soil health and carbon sequestration (or planetary health), it’s about building thriving communities and regenerating our collective human health, our local economies and the health of our water and land ecosystems. This subsumes all of the Agenda 2030 SDG’s into a regenerative paradigm of what we need to strive towards, beyond sustainability – towards regeneration!

Holistic management – förvaltning även för kommande generationer

Hur definierar vi regenerativt lantbruk och regenerativa samhällen? Allan Savory har mycket bra att säga om detta.

“No agriculture can be truly regenerative unless it is an agriculture covering all of our Earth’s surface that is managed holistically” Allan Savory (2020)

Managing complex social and ecological systems is crucial to – if we are to find solutions to reverse climate change, biodiversity loss (or even the 6th mass extinction) etc, requires a new framework for management and decision making. Most of the challenges we face today are too complex to solve using our reductionist management methods. In this regard we can look towards Holistic Management as an excellent management framework for defining “the wholes” what we manage, who makes decisions and what a more “holistic context” looks like for individuals and organisations.

Navigating Complexity: Holistic Management for a flourishing future

Managing Earth’s intricate systems requires new approaches. Holistic Management offers a framework for inclusive decision-making, enhancing environmental, social, and economic well-being. As Allan Savory suggests, it’s not fossil fuels, but our inability to manage complexity that threatens humanity.

Crafting a shared vision for landscapes, communities, and generations requires a holistic context. Co-creating this context empowers change and aligns global policies with regenerative ideals.

 The greatest danger to humanity is not fossil fuels, climate change, desertification and the massive environmental destruction being driven by global finance – it is our inability to manage complexity (Savory, 2020)

How would we like our landscapes, ecosystems, communities and future resource base to look not just for all humans today and in the future, but for the benefit of all living beings? I encourage the Västra Götaland Region to co-create their own version of a holistic context (as a basis for creating visions, strategies and decisions) and for all of us inhabitants to make our own and together we can ask global policy to change to align more with this future vision of regeneration rooted in a well defined and clear holistic context. If you are curious about this read more on: www.savory.global

Another inspiring way to learn about regenerative agriculture is through the film Kiss the Ground (2020).

Keyline planning: Let nature’s patterns inform our planning

Another useful design tool and process is Keyline Planning developed by P.A. Yeomans where he set out steps and methods to read the landscape and let the landform and water flows (as more permanent aspects of the landscape) be the basis for designing and planning our cities, farms and bigger landscapes for optimal placement of roads, buildings and forestry and ultimately catch and store water and manage land in a ways that builds healthy topsoil.

“The landscape imposes itself on the planner. The planner doesn’t put lines on a plan.” (P.A. Yeomans, 1979)

Embracing nature’s wisdom – to inform, not impose, our design

PA Yeomans tells us in an interview in 1979 that he produced 7-8 inches of topsoil in just 3 years through this technique – by transforming subsoil into topsoil. Yeomans was one of the first to develop a comprehensive framework for planning but to this day his practices has not been applied much by spatial planners. I hope to change that by using the method and process in my master thesis. Let’s let natures patterns inform our planning rather than impose our design master plans onto nature. Only nature will tell if our design and planning holds the test of time.

Nature guides planners. Keyline Planning harnesses landforms and water to craft resilient designs. By allowing nature’s patterns to shape our creations, we integrate longevity and sustainability. P.A. Yeomans’ methods, untapped by planners, can enrich our design legacy.

Sowing Seeds of Change: Embarking on a Regenerative Odyssey

As I journey through my Master’s thesis, I hope this snapshot of my exploration ignited inspiration. Watch this space for updates, insights, and progress. Together, we weave a future rooted in regeneration.

Read part two of the blog series here:

Carbon positive food regions & Food system design – Part 2

5 years ago News , Odlingstips , Premium articles , Tutorials No comment

Make your family self-sufficient in veggies – How many square meters are needed? (Full article & videos)

Self-sufficient in vegetables – How many squares are actually needed? More and more people are interested in growing their own food. Many people see their home cultivation as a way to provide the family with nutritious food but also as a way to increase the cash. Kristider has also made many people aware of the country’s low degree of self-sufficiency and dependence on food imports. In Sweden less than 20% of the consumption of vegetables & fruit is produced and in Norrland less than 10%, the rest is imported, which also contributes to large carbon dioxide emissions. The question is how much space do you need to make your family self-sufficient in vegetables? This article will help you figure out how much space your family needs.

It is discussed how large an area is needed to be able to be self-sufficient in vegetables as the success of the harvest depends on a number of different factors.

Factors affecting the cultivation area size:

• The climate where you live
• The quality of the soil
• Access to sun
• Precipitation (how much it rains)
• What you grow
• Your diet
• Cultivation methods such as crop rotation, cover cropping, companion-planting (read more on companion planting in this premium article)

Self-sufficiency in vegetables – How many square meters are needed?

According to a degree project by the gardener Jenny Helsing, approximately 500 square meters of open-air cultivation and one hour of work per day are required to support a family of four people on vegetables in a mixed diet. The calculations are based on nutritional recommendations by the National Food Administration and are based on a woman eating an average of 145 kilos of vegetables and a man 187 kilos of root vegetables and coarser vegetables per year. This means that a football field of farms could provide 4-5 families with their annual consumption of vegetables.

Example cultivation area for a family of four people

260 sqm for potatoes (gives approx. 330kg)

13 sqm for onions (gives approx. 45kg)

5 sqm for beets (gives approx. 10kg)

50 sqm for broccoli (gives approx. 25kg)

23 sqm for carrots (gives approx. 78kg)

Exactly how much you need to grow, however, depends entirely on how much you and your family eat, and what you like to eat. Below is a guide to help you specify the size of the growing area to provide your family with vegetables all year round. Remember to start small and expand your cultivation slowly to maintain good motivation.

Make your family self-sufficient: 

Step 1. Look in the fridge and freezer what you usually eat. Write down vegetables and fruits that are in the refrigerator or in ready-made packages. Maybe you can make your own tomato sauce for spaghetti, chili sauce for pizza or jam for pancakes?

Step 2. Estimate and measure how much your family eats per week and year. Feel free to use the table below for support.

Step 3. Choose crops to grow based on what is possible in the climate you live in. Search the latest and earliest frost day in google for your area.

Step 4. Cultivate what you can indoors or in a drive bench. Read more here about how to breed.

Step 5. Plant out your preschooled plants or directly according to your planting plan.

Use the table below. You as Grow Friends or Grow Pro get a printable version when you become a member.
Become a premium member of the Grow Here communityn today!

Here is also an excerpt from the material where you can calculate how much space you need. Below you can also read average figures on how much harvest you can get per plant and how much area the plants take up. Get access to the entire cultivation plan as a Grow Friends/Pro member.
(It can be translated to English upon request)

 

50 sqm might be enough for some!

Jonathan at Grow Here is personally growing most of the families needs of summer vegetables of specific types on a much smaller plot than 500 sqm. He argues we might just need 50 sqm for a family if you focus on growing mostly leafy greens and want to cover your summer consumption. Learn more in this video:

Start small and consider your actual needs

It can be good to consider your life situation and set realistic goals. Perhaps just focus on one vegetable or a few. Growing salad for example does need that much space but is much more tasty and enviromentally friendly to grow yourself rather than buying in the store transpoorted from southern Europe all the way to Sweden. In part two of the video series on Becoming self sufficient as a family on food Jonathan shares how he has used the plan described above to calculate his families needs. Hope you get some inspiration and feel free to ask questions in our facebook group if you have any doubts.

Good luck on your gardening journey!

Feel free to share your tips and experiences or thoughts on becoming more self-sufficient in vegetables.

Warm greetings,
Victoria & Jonathan
The Grow Here team