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Articles by Paul Jennings

Criafolen is a One Planet Development in the heart of West Wales. We are a family of 5 living off grid, doing sustainable building and land use, Permaculture design, Site consultation and Crafts.

Articles by

Paul Jennings


Hydrological Democracy

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Water is the ubiquitous precondition for life on Earth. The great hydrological cycle, which passes through us, as much as through any river, cloud, or ocean, encompasses the living soil, plants and animals. The Gaian system is one, unified, watery, cycle. Water is essential to the functioning of our bodies, and to linking all living

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One Planet Development smallholder Paul Jennings : how to make a living on an organic smallholding

Trying to make a living on an organic smallholding: Paul Jennings, ‘One-Planet’ smallholder

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This is part 2 of an interview with Paul Jennings, who has built his own straw-bale house and lives with his family on a smallholding in Carmarthenshire in Wales. They were able to build their house via the One Planet Development (OPD) policy in Wales. Here’s part 1 of the interview.

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One Planet Development smallholder Paul Jennings : how to make a living on an organic smallholding

One Planet Development and access to land: Paul Jennings, OPD smallholder and self-builder

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This is the first part of an interview with Paul Jennings, who lives on a smallholding in Pembrokeshire with his family, and built his own straw-bale home under the One Planet Development policy that exists in Wales (but not in England), which allows people to build a home on their land, even if it is

Read more about One Planet Development and access to land: Paul Jennings, OPD smallholder and self-builder


chickens-and-people

What might poultry farms and human society look like if chickens and humans weren’t treated as machines to maximise profit?

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Making use of biological resources, or renewable resources and services as David Holmgren characterises them, is an important principle of Permaculture Design. ‘Renewable services (or passive functions) are those we gain from plants, animals and living soil and water without them being consumed.’

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childrenandnature

What are we supposed to teach children about nature nowadays, without frightening them?

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My little boy Alfred, just turned 6, pays close attention to what he hears. Sometimes this means that we need to be very careful in case he remembers something and then blurts it out in front of just the wrong person. It’s already clear that he’d make an awful spy.

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planningcottage

Why does the planning system make it so difficult for people who want to live on the land sustainably?

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Being able to go through the process of making a planning application for a low impact development may be a sign that there has been some progress for those of us who have hitherto lived, to paraphrase, as outlaws on the planning frontier.

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chickentractor

How a ‘chicken tractor’ can clear and improve soil, as well as getting rid of pests

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My vegetable field has some problems. It’s not that vegetables don’t grow there; over two seasons I’ve had some notable successes, it’s just that there’s verdant weed growth throughout, more slugs than you can shake a stick at, and the soil needs improving

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Paul Jennings : his journey building a home on a smallholding in Wales under One Planet Development

One Planet Development arrested: my attempts to build a home on a smallholding in Wales

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We moved to Wales because of an extraordinary Welsh Government policy. I shan’t lie, despite all experience and political conviction to the contrary, we were optimistic. One Planet Development seemed to be the kind of advance for low impact living and sustainable land use that we had been hoping for

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stargazing

Fermi’s paradox: does the lack of contact from extraterrestrials have implications for human survival?

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“Where is everybody?” Enrico Fermi is supposed to have asked in 1950 of his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Working from first principles, Fermi calculated that extraterrestrials should have visited the Earth long ago, and many times over

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fracked

Community vetoes for wind farms, but not for fracking? What’s that about?

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On the one hand the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Amber Rudd, appears committed to stopping the spread of onshore wind farms; this despite the fact that they are already the most important and cost effective source of renewable energy in the UK, and enjoy the support of two thirds of the population; and

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sunflowers

Should we be planning to ‘drought-proof’ our food production for a warmer climate?

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The weather is not the climate. Nonetheless, over the last few years I have noticed that I have developed a slightly panicky fear of the weather; I can’t notice the weather I suppose, without it triggering all sorts of associations in my mind to the myriad articles I’ve read, and conversations I’ve had, about Anthropogenic Climate

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Are schools just for preparing kids for a corporate world, and should home education be the norm in a future, non-corporate society?

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There was a time when it was much easier for me to stumble into an argument over the choice to home educate than almost any other subject. People who would hesitate to call me a fool for being an anarchist or a vegetarian would wade in with all kinds of

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lynas

Mark Lynas thinks that corporate capitalism can solve climate change – that’s like burning your house down to keep warm

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Oh do beware someone who comes before you and claims to be the voice of reason. Mark Lynas does exactly that in this morning’s Guardian and it doesn’t wash. His argument is barely an argument at all, more like a sort of faux man-in-the-street flimflam. Beware.

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