Books: Six Cork farmers among contributors to Farming For Nature handbook 

The Farming For Nature Handbook aims to offer advice to help create a more sustainable future, and Cork farmers are among the contributors

Irish farmers - including six from Cork - have joined forces for a new book combining scientific research with local knowledge that provides practical tips on how to create a more sustainable future, while protecting land and nature.

At a time of great challenge and uncertainty for farm families, The Farming For Nature Handbook is a practical guide to protecting and restoring nature.

With contributions from more than 50 Irish farmers, the book also shares their experiences of how working with nature can help reduce costs and improve incomes.

The six Cork farmers are: Darina Allen, Eoghan Daltun, Jacinta French, Paul McCormick, Paul Moore and Thomas Fouhy. All are also Farming For Nature Ambassadors.

While there is widespread awareness of the environmental damage caused by poor farming practices, the book in contrast attempts to highlight the positive ways farmers can sustain and enhance our natural environment, and benefit from the results.

It is hoped The Farming For Nature Handbook will become the essential guide to caring profitably for our land.

The book, was inspired by regular requests to the non-profit Farming For Nature project from landowners, farmers, smallholders and growers wanting to learn how best to manage their land, big or small, in a way that enhances habitats, protects profits, and safeguards our natural environment and rural communities.

The Farming For Nature project was set up to support, encourage and inspire farmers who farm, or who wish to farm, in a way that will improve the natural health of our countryside.

Among the Cork farmers giving tips, advice and expertise in the book is Darina Allen, a mixed organic farmer and chef from Ballymaloe.

“A growing body of research confirms that both our mental and physical health are largely affected by the health of our gut biome, which to a great extent is determined by the quality of the food we eat,” she said. “it’s vital to feed ourselves and our families with healthy, wholesome, chemical free food.”

Thomas Fouhy, an arable farmer from Mallow, gives insights into how to get started with low-disturbance crop establishment. He says: “Start in a small area first in order to up-skill yourself on a new cultivation method. No new machinery purchases are needed at the start, you can use existing ploughing equipment.

“For weed control, leave adequate time between cultivations for weed seeds to germinate before carrying out further cultivations or planting/drilling.”

Paul McCormick and Jacinta French, beef and agroforestry farmers in Skibbereen, said: “On our small farm in West Cork, we outwinter a small, suckler herd of cattle, a heritage breed, native to Ireland, called Droimeann. They provide beef, they maintain existing pastures and enhance their biodiversity, they prevent dense wooded areas becoming overgrown and inaccessible and they create new pastures within the woods.”

Another Cork contributor to the book is Eoghan Daltun, a sheep and cattle farmer and rewilder from Beara, who has written books about his own experience of nature in West Cork.

“It’s crucial to leave behind the mindset that if land is not producing food, timber, or other consumables we need, it’s therefore somehow ‘wasted’ or ‘abandoned’,” he said.

“Rewilding is often portrayed as a threat to farmers and rural communities, but nothing could be further from the truth.

“Rewilding has the potential to exist alongside traditional forms of farming and to revitalise the life and economies of rural communities, many of which are presently struggling to survive.”

The Farming For Nature Handbook shares tips for a better farming future and shows how to manage land in a way that enhances habitats, increases wildlife and harnesses natural processes while protecting livelihoods, food security and profiles.

It is not just targeted at farmers but is for anyone who wants to grow, garden and gather better.

The book was conceived and developed by Brigid Barry, who originates from a beef and arable farm in Cork.

A conservationist with over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of people and nature, Brigid has managed Farming For Nature since the project’s inception in 2018, prior to which she spent nine years managing the landscape charity Burrenbeo Trust.

Brigid said: “There is a massive gap in the market for this book - an easy-to-access toolkit to help tackle the biodiversity and climate crises.

“We hope it gets into every Jeep and tractor in the countryside to guide farmers in these tricky times.

“Many farmers start by making small changes. Then, as they join a like-minded community and begin to experience the value of nature returning to their farms, they don’t look back. Nature unleashes your land’s full potential.”

The new book was researched and mainly written by conservation ecologist Dr Emma Hart, a conservation ecologist and writer.

She is the owner of habitats.ie, a consultancy service in biodiversity conservation, science communication, and research, and of Oysterhaven Biodiversity Reserve, a farm, research site, and nature restoration project in Cork.

Dr Hart said: “At a time of profound loss - of clean water, healthy soil, and our native wildlife - the Farming For Nature Handbook is both a message of hope and a call to action.

“It shows how each of us can take charge of the health and vitality of the landscapes we inhabit, and help shift the dial toward a brighter, more resilient future.”

The book has been described by President of Ireland Michael D Higgins as “a timely and essential contribution to the ongoing discourse on how we, as a society, must respond to some of the most pressing challenges of our time”.

The Farming For Nature Handbook, published by Dingle Publishing, RRP €30, is available to order (and pre-order) at www.farmingfornature.ie

The book was supported financially by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Lifes2Good Foundation.