Regrarian Darren Ó Dochartaigh (AKA Darren Doherty) met Patrick for a yarn at the Doherty family café in oldtimer Djaara country a few weeks back. What unfolds in this meeting is a complex and joyous discourse that spans biology, ideology and politics, and a slow building analysis of how white institutional paternalism and shareholder science have come together to erode personal responsibility and play false gods with ungovernable biomes.

Darren’s critique of scientific hubris is important for anyone wishing to understand the current and interrelated health and ecological crises, which have in large part been augmented by industrial food, medicine and energy productions and consumption.

Darren and Patrick’s conversation highlights the importance of doing-saying-thinking so chronically missing from anthropocentric academies. The importance of feedback loops is something David Holmgren and Darren have been arguing for over decades and is what makes these farmer-thinkers so valuable at this time of depletion, over consumption and stubborn intransigence to the earth’s actual capacity.

We welcome your comments and respectful debate relating to this provocative yarn.

Each episode in this series costs a minimum of $250 to produce so your support of our work enables us to keep having these conversations that are disallowed in mainstream media and in the academies. We are so grateful to those who have supported our work thus far, in many different ways. Thank you to Miles once again for shooting this conversation. The north facing window and the fast moving clouds made it quite a challenge with the light.

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We’re taking a short break from publishing to move back into Tree Elbow after a beautiful 9 month gestation of transient living. We are so looking forward to returning home. We look forward to seeing you back here shortly.

With love from our family to yours,

Meg, Patrick, Blackwood & Zero