Small is Successful! Creating sustainable livelihoods on ten acres or less   Small is Successful! is the outcome of 12 months research commissioned by the Ecological Land Co-operative (ELC). This research addressed the lack of information on financially viable, small scale farms in the UK.    Working with eight real life case studies, the report demonstrates that economically viable and highly sustainable land based livelihoods can succeed on holdings of ten acres or less. The report and its policy recommendations opens up truly affordable opportunities for new entrants into farming.  

The report presents examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America to demonstrate approaches to integrate food and energy crops that offer benefits to poor rural communities. It underscores that integrating crops can be an effective climate change mitigation approach. The report describes the benefits of generating biogas for cooking, the reduction of time spent collecting fuel wood and the use of compost from generating biogas.

  The Sustainable Development Commission has published its report Making Sustainable Lives Easier: A Priority for Governments, Business and Society.  

This news comes from FCRN mailing list members in Sweden:   The Swedish Climate Certification for Food initiative is now up and running.  The scheme was initiateed  in 2007 by KRAV and Swedish Seal (Svenskt Sigill) in order to develop a climate certification for the food chain. Currently, the project is managed in cooperation with several major Swedish food companies: Milko, Lantmännen, the Federation of Swedish Farmers, Scan and Skånemejerier.  

This report was commissioned by Pulse Canada (pulses as in peas and beans) and written by FCRN member, Chris Anstey, formerly of Tesco.  

The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) has produced a document entitled: Climate Change: Farmers’ Solutions - Proposals for including agriculture in a post-Copenhagen agreement.

This briefing by the European Environment Agency outlines the merits and examines some of the environmental demerits of increasing biomass use. The paper concludes that there is sufficient biomass potential in the EU-25 to support ambitious renewable energy targets in an environmentally responsible way but that achieving these gains and minimising the potential environmental downsides of bioenergy production requires careful planning from EU to local level. The report does not specifically address the socio-economic or policy aspects of the issue.