In Defence of Life

Subtitled 'Essays on a Radical Reworking of Green Wisdom' this passionate and informative book is the fruit of 40 years of research and practice as a farmer. Interestingly, Sir Julian also trained as an actor, which gives him a special insight into how best to convey important messages. He writes that many pieces originated in his response to blocks in the road, commenting that 'we live in a compartmentalised culture that stifles holistic awareness and represses the true spirit of humanity.' This reflects an equally impoverished monoculture than damages both the landscape and the health of the planet, including ourselves. There is an intrinsic connection between food, landscape and culture, which we need to rediscover. Julian has been inspired by EF Schumacher and one of his important ideas is the Proximity Principle (he converted his family farm to organic in 1975), which we are now seeing in the proliferation of local farm shops. He is politically astute in understanding the machinations of food and agriculture multinationals and the system that they are trying to impose on humanity for their own profit. For personal reasons, he was specifically involved in the battle to save local farming in Poland, and has some revealing insights into EU agriculture policy. In a country of high unemployment, it is a crime to scale up agriculture and move 1 million people into the cities where there is already not enough to do. He urges us to break the cult of passivity and wonders why the revolution of consciousness has not already happened. Too many of us have swallowed the standard propaganda-fed status quo recipe for life, but this is increasingly being called into question. Recent events like the GMO Summit organised by the Food Revolution Network will help galvanise awareness and lead us in the direction recommended by this powerful book.