Dumbo Feather

Dear reader, I have to admit I was reluctant to do an entire issue of Dumbo Feather about farming. It seemed too niche, specific only to farmers themselves or those with a green thumb. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The art and practice of working

The mining and shredding machines of the soil cityscape, these comparatively giant animals feed on plant residues and convert them into food for smaller organisms. The most famed and prized of all soil life forms, the threads of mycorrhiza fungi fo

Spring’s surge begins while the wind still blows frigid air from Antarctica, while the ocean roars and crashes under stormy skies, while we humans settle into the long, cold nights of winter. Daylight increases, very slowly at first. The legumes and

When Masanobu Fukuoka was 24 years old, he had an epiphany that would set his life on a completely new track and ultimately change the world. This was in 1937, and Masanobu, who had trained as an agricultural scientist, was working as an agricultural

Dear young farmer, I want to start by saying “thank you.” Thank you for choosing to be a farmer and for choosing to take care of the planet. Thank you for dedicating yourself to feeding us all. And thank you, too, for being the inspiration for my res

I’m 16 and my mate and I are standing out the front of his farmhouse watching a wall of fire rolling across the fields in the distance. It’s the middle of harvest and I’m shitting myself. To get to this point, the crops have already dodged every othe

SUBJECT Charles Massy OCCUPATION Farmer and author INTERVIEWER Mikey Densham PHOTOGRAPHER Rohan Thomson LOCATION Cooma, Australia DATE October, 2018 ANTIDOTE TO Domination UNEXPECTED Excitement Most of us can still remember a time when we were taugh

SUBJECT Wendell Berry OCCUPATION Poet and farmer INTERVIEWER Helena Norberg-Hodge PHOTOGRAPHER Guy Mendes LOCATION New Castle, US DATE May, 2018 ANTIDOTE TO Senseless agriculture UNEXPECTED All about limits Poet, philosopher, novelist, social

Mossy Willow Farm is a thriving market garden that uses regenerative, no-till practices and feeds more than 500 people a week. Based in Main Ridge on the southern coast of Victoria, it is run by dynamite farming duo Keren Tsaushu and Mikey Densham, a

Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar are permaculture educators and partners in love, work and parenthood. Through their business Milkwood, they share everything they’re learning about being in relationship with the land and enjoying its abundance. Having

Odonata is not a farm, per se. It is an organisation that supports biodiversity solutions on farms across Australia. Founded by Nigel Sharp, a biodiversity impact investor with a long-term passion for conservation, Odonata uses business as a tool for

SUBJECT Chido Govera OCCUPATION Mushroom farmer, campaigner INTERVIEWER Nathan Scolaro PHOTOGRAPHER Esquives Photography LOCATION Harare, Zimbabwe DATE April, 2017 ANTIDOTE TO Impossibility UNEXPECTED Rebel grandmother Chido Govera says she i

Michael Ableman is a farmer, author and the co-founder of Sole Food Street Farms, the largest urban agriculture enterprise in North America. Established in 2008 in downtown Vancouver, its mission is to provide employment, community and agricultural t

SUBJECT Bruce Pascoe OCCUPATION Writer and farmer INTERVIEWER Lydia Fairhall PHOTOGRAPHER Supplied LOCATION Yuin Land DATE November, 2018 ANTIDOTE TO Scarcity UNEXPECTED Doesn’t want to be a farmer Yarning with Bruce Pascoe (Yuin/Bunurong) is an

SUBJECT Katharine Wilkinson OCCUPATION Author and strategist INTERVIEWER Lachy Ritchie PHOTOGRAPHER Buck Butler LOCATION Atlanta, US DATE December, 2018 ANTIDOTE TO Mainstream narrative UNEXPECTED Soil chant A handful of books have come my way at

When we enter the supermarket and see the variety of food items on the shelves, we’re likely to assume that we have a lot of food choice. All those coloured cans and packages offer a façade of difference, but in actuality they’re pretty homogeneous.