Perhaps the most positive project to be initiated in this neck of the woods to promote local resilience in the face of global economic meltdown is the Bantry Community Supported Agriculture scheme.
You can read about this in detail on Ivan McCutcheon’s excellent local food blog, Food Culture West Cork.
Brainchild of John Dolan, a Cavan man who settled in West Cork nearly 10 years ago, the pilot scheme involves three farmers on the Sheep’s head peninsular who have agreed to grow plots of oats and potatoes, which are open now for subscribers to buy shares in.
John writes:
A pilot project has been started in the Bantry / Sheeps Head area. It has started with 3 – 5 acres of oats and 1/2 acre of potatoes for the 2009 planting season. The aims of the project are: • To introduce the concept of CSAs to potential producers and consumers in our area and pave the way to extend the project in the 2010 season. • To develop the infrastructure necessary to produce roled oats for porridge locally. Were not making breakfast for everyone! • Extend awareness of issues concerning local food security. • To identify producers for the 2010 season who are interested in better crop rotation – heading for an organic cycle. • To explore ways to expand the project to other crops for the 2010 planting season – barley - energy crops – biomass willow?.
John has focussed on staples like these because many people already grow their own vegetables in west cork, while grains in particular may be harder to produce on the garden scale and require the input of experienced farmers. It is a great achievement for john to have found local farmers open to the idea, and others should study the model closely as it is surely one that will need to be widely adopted.
would love to become involved with this when i move back