Dario Cortese

🗣️ There is a recurring argument in our field that farms relying on WWOOFers or volunteers are undermining the economic stability of professional agriculture. The logic suggests that if a farm cannot afford to pay full wages for every hour of labour, it is a failed business model that shouldn't exist. 💸 I find this critique ironic because it ignores the rigged game we are playing. Industrial agriculture is propped up by massive State subsidies (CAP) and artificially cheap f

🗣️ Lately, within the ecological small-scale farming movement, I have heard efficiency discussed with increasing frequency. Allow me to develop a line of reasoning on this topic. Bear with me, for this is a somewhat lengthy argument. 🏡 Many of us feel that, as smallholders, we struggle to remain economically viable because we lack access to economies of scale. Furthermore, we cannot—or rather, we choose not to—employ shortcuts such as synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, w

I’ve never really understood holidays. The concept just escapes me. Why would one keep all the work to one side of the year and all the...

🌱 Roots. This is a word that I wish I could rescue from the corner into which our culture has placed it. You will have noticed that...

There is, at times, a light in the evenings, that is wholly magical - as it enables me to see. To see that there is rubbish here, and...