Based in the city of Bath in Somerset (UK), Middle Ground Growers has developed a viable economic and ecological model for small-scale regenerative growing.
Its team comes from the low-income communities they came from, and its project works in a context of wealth inequality.It sees the work of closing nutrient loops on the farm as the same work as closing wealth loops in the local economy: each benefits the people and land’s well-being.
Middle Ground Growers’ has a thriving 15.5 acre farm which provides fresh organic food to over 200 households. It aims to provide up to 10 subsidised or free veg boxes every week.
It hopes to expand this work and develop the UK’s first sliding scale regional Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) network so it can provide an ongoing supply of fresh healthy food for all communities in an affordable, equitable and regenerative way.
It is developing a cyclical and circular approach to farming. For example, exploring the use of ramial woodchip from coppice to fuel the farm’s compost, and developing systems to utilise the natural spring water on site, pumping it to the crops, which store the water before letting it gradually drain through the orchard, the wetland and then back to the source.