Own Grown Gardening

Living in rainy Devon, UK, one gets used to the disappointment caused by slugs and snails decimating beautiful young seedlings. Due to this all too frequent occurrence in my own garden, I'm constantly on the look out for ways to keep them under control. I outright refuse to use slug pellets or any other pesticides though.  However frustrating slugs can be, I have no interest in eradicating them or their shelled relatives completely. I merely wish to keep them in check until my delicate seedlings mature to a point where they can hold their own. A little nibble here and there encourages plants to bolster its own natural defences. Similar to how it is healthier for us humans to strengthen our own immune systems coming into contact with visuses like the common cold regularly, rather than cloistering ourselves away in sterile conditions. So today I was excited to welcome a new form of mollosc control to my little patch of paradise, toads! As you can see, they are minute right now, baby

In the context of reimagining farming for the future, people often state that by 2050 there will be almost 10 billion people in the world, so we must boost food production to feed everyone. I don't deny the merit of this logic. What has always bothered me though is, where does it end? We can't perpetuate such thinking infinitely.    To put it simply, the world does not possess infinite resources to feed an infinitely growing human population. Does this mean we are marching inevitably towards an apocalyptic scenario where population is held in check by starvation? This disturbing question has plagued me for years. Recently, I finally did some reading on the subject. My eyes where opened to some remarkable global trends. Ones which aren't discussed anything like enough I would argue.  The UN (United Nations) closely monitors rates of fertility, mortality, and migration for all countries through time. Their data scientists use this information to forecast population projectio