Regenerative Land & Food Systems
Regenerative Land & Food Systems
We see land within its complexity of relationships between the geological, ecological, social, cultural, spiritual, historical, and economic aspects of place. We seek to understand and incorporate all these aspects of the whole in the co-design of land-use projects.
Regenerative land and food production practices build up the health of the soil, water, and ecology of land while also building up the health of people and enabling local economies, thereby adding to the resilience of a community and place. Some of these practices include permaculture, biodynamics, and holistic management.
One of the main problems of our current, modern system is our paradigm of and relationship with land--that it is only a means to an end such as to grow food, graze animals, or accumulate wealth. By commodifying land practices, it narrows the ability to take into consideration the social, ecological and cultural functions and meanings of land and creates a transactional rather than reciprocal relationship with nature and all the elements that make up a place, which in turn creates imbalance with wins and losses.
Conventional industrial agriculture and land management techniques have created polluted waterways, dead soils, eroded land, decreased biodiversity, and in some cases, desertification. It also contributes to climate change as nearly half of the greenhouse emissions in NZ are from agriculture, according to the NZ Ministry for the Environment, with a lot of that from animal agriculture.
In addition, food sold in most parts of New Zealand is very expensive, travels a distance to get to towns and cities, is grown using chemicals, and many communities are not food secure.
In light of the current climate crisis, we need to make radical shifts in our paradigm and practice of land management and food production. If we don't act proactively now, we will have exponentially more work and cost in remediation of the damage we are causing. It takes hundreds of years to build a centimeter of topsoil but only a few years to destroy it--the same for the quality of our waterways and biodiversity.
Creative solutions to land use can also add to increased human health, employment opportunities, greater local economic prosperity, and better carbon sequestration--we should not delay getting to these beneficial solutions.
The knowledge and systems exist to create regenerative land and food systems now both on a large and small scale, both in rural and urban areas. What would help our current systems transition to success and support new initiatives to get jump started are:
The types of projects we support
New & existing development regenerative land design
We work with developers, stakeholders, and Council to co-design human settlements that are ecologically sustainable in the areas of water, infrastructure, green spaces, energy, and food production.
Transitioning conventional food production to regenerative systems
We work with food growers to understand the current and future societal, ecological and political factors affecting operations, offer relevant learning and co-design responsive systems.
Urban food forests & gardens
We work with community groups who want to grow food in an urban setting to set up a permaculture food garden or food forest. This can be done in the form of a permablitz which includes practical learning.
Smallholding regenerative food & land systems
We build capacity for landowners to design land systems that creates the greatest value and yield from the land while being ecologically sustainable, economically viable, and socially efficient.
How we support project success
Systems Design and
Project Architecture
When starting with any project or idea, we begin with understanding the complexity of relationships at place and the ecological, social, economic, cultural and spiritual contexts of the project.
Network Weaving and
Stakeholder Engagement
We collaborate with a wide variety of stakeholders on regenerative land and food systems, because we recognize the interconnections and that each stakeholder influences the social, ecological, and economic aspects of a project.
Facilitation and
Team Dynamics
Successful projects need dynamic team leaders and enthusiastic and capable team members which in turn needs values-driven and people-centred processes.
Transformative Learning & Capacity Building
We offer courses, customized to the needs of your team, project, or community. Below are just a few of the topics that we can put together to ensure all role players involved have the knowledge and the skills they need for the project to get off to a good start and have ongoing success.
Whole systems approach to ecological design
Ecological and localised food growing systems, small or large scale
Local and appropriate water solutions for human settlements
Applying the Sustainable Development Goals to land use and food production
Ecological land design for neighbourhoods
Community garden projects to increase community health & resilience
How can we support your regenerative land or food project?
Common Ground
Whakatū/Nelson, Aotearoa/New Zealand│Director, Zola Rose │(027) 449-0422│kiaora@commonground.net.nz
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