Rowan Phillimore and Ally Nelson from The Gaia Foundation, the charity which is behind the project along with more than 40 collaborators, refer in their introduction to the book to Nobel prize-winning chemist Ilya Prigogine.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said that \u2018when a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order,\u2019 they wrote.\u201cThe stories in this book are such \u2018islands of coherence\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sankofa<\/p>\n Series photographed by Arpita Shah<\/p>\n In north London, two growing projects are tending to injustices in the food system. Sandra Salazar D\u2019eca founded Go Grow With Love in Tottenham and Enfield, to support women of African and Caribbean heritage in nurturing a reciprocal relationship with local land.<\/p>\n In Haringey, Paulette Henry, Pamela Shor and their team run Black Rootz. The UK\u2019s first multigenerational, Black-led growing enterprise is reconnecting Londoners with seed, ancestral knowledge and earth. This cultivates more than crops. Together they are growing grassroots solutions for racial equality, land reparations and food justice.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call it agroecology. We call it permaculture. But these lessons have been passed down and we\u2019re just trying to keep them alive,\u201d says Shor, from Black Rootz (pictured above). \u201cOur ancestors taught us to protect the land, and we all have a duty to future generations to live in balance with nature. Being able to connect food with communities allows them to understand heritage, allows them to understand power; it allows us to share.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A Fish Called Julie<\/p>\n Series photographed by Jon Tonks<\/p>\n \u201cOceans have nourished us for thousands of years, but the bounties of our blue planet are ebbing,\u201d writes photographer Jon Tonks. He focused his lens on the fisherfolk who are trying to work with, not against, waters off Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. Pictured on Scilly are Jof and son, Inigo, holding up handmade withy (willow) pots.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a small-scale fisher offers a few metaphors for life,\u201d Tonks continues. \u201cWhen the weather tells you not to fish, listen. Allow the seas to replenish. Sustainable fishing means something different to everyone, but real sustainability teaches us not to be greedy, to give nature a chance, and leave enough for the next generation.<\/p>\n There is an understanding in these parts, an atmosphere, of people who live by the sea. Knowing when to fish, but more importantly when not to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Cultivating Equality<\/p>\n Series photographed by Sophie Gerrard<\/p>\n Sons inherit Scottish farms in 85% of cases, yet over half of UK family farm workers are women. In Edinburgh, Lauriston Farm is run by a majority-women workers\u2019 cooperative, whose members are restoring a 100-acre urban growing site.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a plot run by a group of over-50s who didn\u2019t know each other before, and one further up who are all from Kenya,\u201d says Lisa Houston from the project. \u201cWe have a Ukrainian group, a Polish group, a group from Hong Kong, from South Africa. We only have communal sheds so that allotment holders can grow these diverse crops, cook together and eat together. We\u2019re creating an abundance of food, and saying to people: \u2018You can eat it\u2019. Simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Intergenerational Custodians<\/p>\n Series photographed by Andy Pilsbury<\/p>\n Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons) is home to the UK\u2019s largest intergenerational nature restoration project.<\/p>\n The Penpont Project\u2019s custodians are a co-management council formed of 13 to 18-year-olds, tenant farmers, landowners and representatives from charity Action for Conservation. They make decisions by consensus, young people making bonds with older generations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is incredible to witness how much fresh energy young people bring to a sector that desperately needs creativity,\u201d says local farmer, ecologist and educator Forrest Hogg. \u201cWe live in a beautiful part of the world that needs nurturing back to life. But we all stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. \u201cYes, there is a story of degradation, but there is also a deeper story of connection and of love for the land.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Clean Blue of Linen<\/p>\n Series photographed by Yvette Monahan<\/p>\n Irish fax has been turned into linen for 2,000 years, or so the peat bogs tell us. But a 20th century tangle of shifting circumstances, including two world wars, was the downfall of homegrown handkerchiefs. After 50 years, Helen Keys and Charlie Mallon (pictured) are reviving the tradition of growing flax for fibre in County Tyrone. Their \u2018wee blue blossom\u2019 is chemical free, sown with a fiddle, harvested by hand, scutched on a restored turbine, and threaded into local supply chains.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been so lucky that we\u2019ve been able to speak to people who remember the industry and worked in it,\u201d says Keys. \u201cIt\u2019s not just us. There have been little pockets of people that have kept bits of knowledge and kept things going. Our flax is part of a crop rotation. It\u2019s not taking land out of food production; it\u2019s part of a food production system. It\u2019s important to view it as part of this diverse system where we are growing lots of things that fit together.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/PN_Xmas2025_EarlyBird_WEB_01.jpg\")
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