Daniel Kelly: To grow food without oil (forests must return)
This image tracks the growth of the syntropic forest garden I planted (and still manage) at an urban marae in Auckland. Work here is ‘action research’ – part of a larger project exploring what the calls for transformation associated with climate change actually mean when it comes to food. This garden (and my autoethnographic reflections on what’s involved) form the basis of a chapter looking at the ways such agricultural practices can support different decolonial ‘shifts’ argued to be central to responding well to climate change. In contrast to the fossil fuel-derived fertilisers associated with industrial agriculture, syntropic systems include many diverse species that are regularly pruned for mulch; a process that accelerates topsoil creation but also requires more human labour and more consideration of ‘others’ than existing mechanised systems – changing us in the process too. In face of such transformation, what else might we imagine and change?