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As Britain’s food system faces growing pressure, Ed Kyrke-Smith is showing how local farming communities could reshape the future of the land.
With great soil, comes great things.
While it may seem hard to see at times, change is taking hold. Current global food systems are no longer serving us. We need to work with our land, for our future.
For Ed Kyrke-Smith–known to many as “Rebel Farmer”–this realization started in the treetops of London.
Before becoming a permaculture aficionado and bioregional advocate, Ed worked as a tree surgeon. Each week ended the same way: with truckloads of branches, leaves and woodchip that the industry classified as “waste”.
“It used to cost me money to get rid of it,” he recalls. “You’d drive up to the River Thames…(and) dump it off…I just knew early on that it was a resource they were burning…then I discovered permaculture.”
Looking for space to process his “waste” Kyrke-Smith and his family moved to 3 acres in Kent. Here permaculture–with a core principle that nature produces no waste–started him on a 10 year journey.
“I didn’t come down here to grow food. I came down here to grow soil.”
Instead of paying to dispose of the debris left from his tree work, Kyrke-Smith began turning it into compost. What began as a practical solution slowly became something deeper: a pathway to soil, community and regeneration.
Using this compost and diverse plantings, he began rebuilding fertility in the ground beneath his feet. Gradually the land transformed from a simple grass field into a polyculture landscape of grains, vegetables, trees and wildlife habitat.
With great soil, comes great things. The ecological shift was dramatic.
“Fifty metres away there’s still monoculture pasture with maybe one or two bats,” he says. “Here we’ve recorded eight species.”
On his land Kyrke-Smith grows heritage wheat populations, vegetables and perennial crops in systems designed to mimic natural ecosystems. Rather than relying on fertilisers or pesticides, the farm depends on biological processes—soil microbes, insects and plant diversity—to maintain fertility and resilience.
Seeds for the Future
Modern agriculture depends heavily on a narrow range of uniform crop varieties produced by a handful of multinational companies. By contrast, resilient local food systems use a much wider diversity of seeds adapted to regional conditions.
“During COVID we saw seed companies sell out instantly,” he says “that’s so telling.”
Regional seed networks—saving, sharing and growing locally adapted varieties—could play a crucial role in building future resilience.
“Having diversity in crops means that you get a diversity of nature,” he explains “that diversity in nature then helps your soil, helps you grow.”
The heritage wheat varieties that Kyrke-Smith grows, for example, have complex genetic diversity. Unlike modern monocultures bred for uniformity and chemical inputs, these grains are naturally equipped for local conditions.
By growing diverse crops specific to the region, farmers are able to reduce the need for fertilisers and pesticides. Less fertilisers and pesticides means healthier soil and reduced costs for farmers–or stability in uncertain times.
Bioregioning for the Future
The holistic approach of permaculture has restored biodiversity and soil health to his 3 acres, it has also inspired Kyrke-Smith to look at the bigger picture and the future of farming in the UK.
“(Agricultural) financial economics at the moment doesn’t really work. And for that reason, we don’t have many small farms… we (need to) train up a whole new generation of small farmers…and the only way to do that is to practice,” Kyrke-Smith explains.
Small farms often struggle within a food economy dominated by large-scale industrial agriculture and global supply chains. Prices rarely reflect the true value of soil restoration, biodiversity and skilled labour.
Kyrke-Smith believes that the next phase of change may come not from policy alone but from broader shifts in energy, economics and community organisation saying, “I think we’re coming into a lower energy system…It’s a re-localization, a de-globalization.”
Kyrke-Smith believes this change is inevitable, citing increasing oil, energy and fertiliser prices. The future, he says, is in bioregioning.
A bioregion is defined not by political borders but by natural systems—watersheds, geology, ecosystems and the communities that live within them. Instead of dividing land by administrative boundaries, bioregional thinking asks how landscapes function as living systems.
Kyrke-Smith sees himself as a bioregional weaver. The future is to connect and empower farmers, the assets stakeholders of the land.
A collaborative initiative with Commonland, an organization with the mission of connecting people with the goal of land regeneration, in Southeastern Ireland offers a framework.
Commonland’s 4 Returns Framework reflects a growing recognition that conventional agricultural economics no longer serves farmers or landscapes. It challenges profit-first models by prioritising four returns: inspiration, social, natural and financial. It argues that lasting economic value can only emerge from restored ecosystems and strong, connected communities. In this view, farmers, landowners and stakeholders become active participants in regenerating living systems. The framework supports a transition toward more localised, resilient economies, where cooperation and ecological health underpin a new, more viable agricultural future.
Supporting Small Farms
Kyrke-Smith, who is aligned with Commonland’s bioregional approach, shares “I feel like my work is in this bioregional weaving–to bring (farmers) in and make them understand that they’re part of a bigger movement and to share resources and to collaborate on funding.”
Kyrke-Smith devotes much of his time networking and talking with the farming communities of Kent. He wants them to understand the dynamics of the bioregional approach and to give them space to be understood and supported.
“What they are doing is really important. It’s about bringing them in and showing them the possibilities. Getting them inspired to think a bit differently.”
The goal? A regional holocracy, a system of self-organizing teams, built from local food producers and regenerative agriculture.
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This article was authored by Katie Johnson A lover of food, nutrition and sustainability, Katie writes by the sea in South East England. Find out more at writerkatiejohnson.
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