Forest farming Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Letter From The Farm | Cresting the Peaks of Constant Change

June 10, 2022 Chiara Garini

We’re back at the foot of the Italian Alps, where Chiara Garini is growing like the shiitake mushrooms on her forest farm. Given our precarious, hyperconnected and crisis-stricken planet, Chiara is sticking with the realism of making and maintaining –food and employment, forest and qualify of life– over the idealism of saving the world. The farm is growing too, and the long-awaited renovation of an old building is helping the now-expanded team to diversify activities. […]

Letter From The Farm | The Slower Path To Paradigm Change

November 5, 2021 Chiara Garini

We’re back on Chiara Garini’s farm at the foot of the Italian Alps. After her ambitious plans to open an on-farm restaurant, Chiara reflects on the benefits of taking the slower path to paradigm change. Paradoxically this setback serves well her overall vision of agri-food systems as the farm continues to reap the benefits of diversification. Meanwhile in local politics, divisive narratives around farming have led to a disappointing development, leaving Chiara more convinced than ever that agroecology is the way forward. […]

Letter From The Farm | Three Years In: Realism And Planning For Utopia

March 5, 2021 Chiara Garini

We are back on Chiara Garini’s forest farm at the foot of the Italian Alps. Three years in, her mushroom farm and forest garden is at a crossroads: should she expand or diversify? In any case Chiara is determined to bring utopia into her business plan, and tells us about an exciting new development on the farm… […]

Letter From The Farm | Thriving In The Ford

May 30, 2020 Chiara Garini

We’re back on Chiara’s mushroom farm at the foot of the Italian Alps, where forest farm life goes on regardless of the lockdown. She is determined to get her on-farm processing facility up and running for this season. During the Covid-19 crisis she’s been even more socially isolated than usual, giving her time to muse on the deeper meanings of the “ford”: the site of her farm, but also a metaphor for agroforesty and agroecology. […]

Reforesting Portugal: Taking Communites From Extraction to Regeneration

May 29, 2020 Antonieta Lopes

From the ashes of Portugal’s devastating wildfires in 2017 rose Reflorestar Portugal, a national network for forest and ecosystem regeneration. In this interview for ARC2020, Susana Guimarães, coordinator of Reflorestar Portugal, speaks to Antonieta Lopes about empowering local communities to be guardians of the forest, moving from an extractive to a regenerative economy, and letting go of what has proven to be of no use to us. […]

Letter from a Farm – Ruminating on the First Two Years in Italy

March 4, 2020 Chiara Garini

We are back in northern Italy, with mushroom and agroforestry farmer Chiara Garini. Writing after two years on her own farm, she reflects on her experiences and takeaways and what plans lie ahead. […]

Letter From The Farm | Seeking Sustainable Shiitakes

December 10, 2018 Chiara Garini

With the cold season setting in, we are back on Chiara Garini’s agroecolgical farm in Italy to talk mushrooms and sustainable forest management. Introducing Gunter Pauli’s Blue Economy concept, Chiara discusses the pros and cons of shiitake cultivation and how she has approached it on the farm. […]