Thinking (maybe) but not doing

The other day I was thinking through the different choices I have to make soon about what to do from the next month or so onwards; I think I mentioned it here. One of the things that crossed my mind was whether it was possible to estimate the number of people in the UK or France, or maybe across Europe who are in 'nature conservation or environment' type jobs, but are not directly involved in land management in any way. So not nature reserve or park staff, but policy-makers, support staff, academics, advisors and so on.

Then I wondered how many farmers are struggling to make a living, or otherwise facing dramatic changes in their working context. Again, in the UK, France or Europe as a whole.

The I wondered how much progress or impact there would be in attaining some form of economic, cultural and environmental sustainable land management if a significant number of the first group of people, together with their funding, had a go at taking on some of the changing or failing farms and trying things out to make them sustainable. This is not to say that what they're doing now isn't valuable; I'm making no comment about that. I'm just thinking that maybe a massive number of real 'experiments' could generate massive opportunities for sustainable land management. If all the learning was pooled and fed into CAP reform and other major decision-making, those opportunities could lead to a seismic shift over ten years in our practice and understanding. Even, or maybe especially, learning from those that fail.

That was yesterday's garden thinking. Today's thinking is in the form of a question to myself. Aren't I effectively one of these people doing indirect things? What could I do in my current choices to do what I've just been mulling over for others. So as I am answering this, I'm realising that to some extent I have been trying to do both for the past three years or so, trying through growing my own food, working with my neighbours on various farming activities, and enjoying the perspective that gives me as I work on the advisory, research, planning and thinking type work that I've been doing.

So I'm now at the point where I'm asking if that's enough, or if I want to invest a bit more into the land management activities, take some risks, invest some cash and personal commitment into a farm-type land management business? Full-time? Or mixed like I do now? I don't know the answer yet. I'm coming up with a few ideas about what that might mean in practice. It's an exciting time ...