It's a question that often becomes surprisingly divisive. The more I speak to farmers and learn about the pressures they face, the more I realise that farmers and environmentalists often share the same goals—healthy soil, clean water, thriving wildlife and a secure future for food production. The challenge isn't agreeing on the destination. It's finding a path that allows farms to remain profitable while restoring and protecting the natural systems they depend upon. In the latest article in my Stories from the Farm series, I explore why this doesn't have to be an "either/or" debate, and why our future may depend on farmers and nature succeeding together. I'd love to hear your thoughts after you've read it. 🌾🌿 Find it here 👉

Please welcome @Suki Zoe. Suki is a fellow Green Party member and our social media Director for the East Hampshire Green Party. But she is also my girlfriend. So I am a very biased. All members are equal, but some are a little bit more... special. Sorry, but it is true. We live in a world of individuals, some of whom have close family, but even they may be scattered across a nation or even across continents. One of the greatest challenges facing us as we try to reduce the impact of the Climate Crisis is the need to connect with others, build alliances and friendships, build communities, and work together. Village life, for most of us, is not even a memory. So our understanding of what community looks like may be sketchy at best. I have found recently that even when ideals overlap, you can have conflict. The sense of urgency battles with the concept of the right or wrong way to do things. Even when I feel our efforts are minuscule and will have no impact at all, I still want to do the right thing, say the right thing, treat others with respect, and yet I want to move forward quickly. We are in an emergency; tipping points loom on the horizon. When my efforts seem thwarted by my colleagues, I feel panicked. We can battle over the minutiae of wording and intent, or we can do the best we can and keep moving. But the cost of haste can result in weeks of delay. The need to align efforts, again and again, is vital in order to avoid the kind of conflict that can tear nascent communities apart. I find this requirement agonisingly frustrating, but I have found this last month even more painful as I see the results of pushing for speed, rather than understanding, have set us back. The broken nature of our modern lives means that trust is low. Intention is doubted and tested. We are willing to offer some leeway, but we seek the proof that the other is genuine. We are ready to pounce at the slightest hint that ill will is intended. It is understandable; there are so many examples of deviousness and self-serving actions all around us. The only way to overcome this is self-reflection, owning our own actions, then seeking to understand the other. When a conflict occurs, time is needed for this process to run its course.

There was a time when it represented progress. It meant making something once instead of cutting down another tree. It meant building products that lasted instead of replacing them every few months. That intention wasn't wrong. What changed was us. Somewhere along the way, we stopped seeing plastic as something worth keeping and it became something to throw away. That's a very different idea, which is why I don't think the answer is to clear the house of everything made from plastic. If you've got a bucket that's been in the shed for twenty years, it's doing exactly what it was designed to do. The bucket isn't the problem. Throwaway thinking is. That's one of the reasons I like the idea behind Plastic-Free July. Not because anyone needs to be perfect for a month, but because it creates a pause. A chance to notice how often convenience quietly wins, or how quickly we replace something that's still perfectly useful simply because replacing it has become normal. Once you notice those moments, they have a habit of staying with you. The next decision feels a little different, not because someone told you what to do, but because you've started seeing the choice in front of you. I believe most lasting change begins with that.

Welcome @Adam Nealis, who is based in Thailand. As Adam joins us I have been preparing focus groups within our local Green Party to work on key areas of the Climate Crisis at a local level. The idea is to translate global and national issues into local narratives. How are these huge events playing out, or going to play out, in our local communities? What actions can we take now as a political party, but also in collaboration with our fellow citizens, to start mitigating the worst effects and preparing for or adapting to effects that we cannot avoid? The energy in our local group is growing. The seemingly thankless task of political campaigning is made bearable by becoming more active and making these connections. The food in our town is 95% imported from elsewhere - we think. Now we start the work of determining the real number. The next step is working with local growers to increase the amount of food we produce for local consumption. To do that, we need to know who is already working on this and what help they need to make it happen. One example might be to get around 100 families to commit to buying produce from a local grower; this guarantees the grower's income and allows them to change how they farm. Making the variety of crops wider. The risk diminishes for the farmer, and clients/supporters know exactly how many "food miles" their food has travelled. Through this work, we learn more about the fragility of our food supplies and make changes to reduce the risk of food shortages. Our party members feel that at last they are doing more than making donations and voting once every few years - they can see the results. Now, when they vote, they have a better idea of who they are voting for. Even if we are not elected to office, we will have changed the outcome for our community.

@Alexander So , thank you for joining. The last two months have been quiet for her as I have been working hard to help with a local election in the UK - we were aiming to get at least one councillor out of the possible seven districts. We had high hopes of riding the Green Party wave in a local town. But it was not to be. This is a Conservative stronghold - a safe seat. We may not have won, but for the first time, we developed an amazing team. Typically, candidates are left on their own to do the best they can - this time, 40 volunteers came together to distribute leaflets to 6000 households twice. In a rural area, this is not a small achievement. But now that we are past that, I am already back in her working on new sections in the classroom. They will be going live this coming week. So welcome, Alexander. Feedback is always welcome and sought.