What the farmers say

In my experience, it is rare to hear farmers from the Global South discussing their challenges and aspirations, and what might be useful support to receive from successful restaurateurs and resort owners. That’s why I’m delighted to release a short film that brings you the voices of organic and regenerative farmers in dialogue with others in the food business sector in Bali, Indonesia. 

After 2 years of operation as a demonstration farm, school, and event space for organic and regenerative agriculture, at Bekandze Farm we hosted a meeting of organic farmers, distributors, NGOs and food retailers. The participants discussed why organic farming is such a small part of agriculture in Bali, despite the opportunities provided by the environment and the visitor economy. After discussing the challenges, we explored potential solutions for scaling organic farming on the island, and more widely in Indonesia. Achieving that would help all the people on the island, as it would increase their food security by decreasing dependence on agrochemicals. In that sense, organic and regenerative methods of farming are also methods of collapse preparedness, or practical Deep Adaptation. 

The enabling of collaboration across the value chain to pursue such goals requires support. To help this initiative, please contribute to our crowdfund. All supporters will be invited to an online meeting about progress, in August 2025.  

The film was directed by myself, Jem Bendell, and my colleague Ezca Rizqia. It was edited by Ezca Rizqia and Made Marga. It was filmed by Made Marga, Moritz Springer and Dewi Yuliani. It was produced by myself, Jem Bendell, with support for the meeting it features and the production process coming through The Schumacher Institute and our crowdfund. 

If interested in these topics, you can also read the text of the speech to the Ubud Food Festival that I gave about the discussions at the event that is featured in this film. More information on Bekandze Farm is available at http://bekandze.net  

This is the third short film I have made. The first was Grieve Play Love, about my personal process of coming to terms with my harrowing conclusions about the climate and ecological crises. The second was Oskar’s Quest, on my experience of discussing such troubling outlooks with school children, including those like Oskar who had been leading the adults on taking this seriously. Getting creative with filmmaking as part of the response to our predicament will be a topic in the forthcoming Metacrisis Meetings. I look forward to chatting about that with some filmmakers and paid-up members to this blog (yes, you can upgrade to paid membership to join meetings!).

Cheers, Jem