Seeding Change, The Stories Of Trees, Adventures And Mindfulness

Retreat: Breathe In

Full disclosure, none of the Another Escape team has been on a Breathe In retreat, however we’ve been chatting with the founders and really love their concept of combining mindfulness, adventures, good food and good times. The founders say that: “the Breathe In retreats are for anyone who wants to travel and discover the present moment. It doesn't matter if you've ever meditated, hiked, surfed or skied before. Or equally, if you are an experienced meditator, hiker, skier or surfer. Breathe In is for everyone and we hope you find an adventure that fits you!” Breathe In retreats sounds like a great opportunity to practice mediation in beautiful places, whilst becoming more present and connected to yourself and nature.

In Our Hands: Seeding Change

This short film documents the growing movement of people creating vibrant farms, living soils, thriving food markets and a fairer food system for all. In a time of food and farming crisis, In Our Hands sets forth a vision for the future, and debunks the myth of our need for an industrial food system. Set in the UK, the issues discussed are particularly pertinent with the looming changes of Brexit; but, the film is relevant to all and reminds us the power our food choices have in sculpting the world we want to live in.

"Food and farming is in crisis. In just over a decade we’ve lost more than 33,000 farms from our countryside, and alongside this, bad diet is now causing more health problems than smoking! The fundamental link between people, food and the very land we stand on is being broken. Yet it need not be this way."

Online article: Your Stoke Won't Save Us

This intelligent and thoughtful read by Ethan Linck questions the idea that outdoor recreation leads to meaningful conservation. It explores the perhaps tenuous connection between the outdoor industry and environmentalism, and whether it is possible for an alternative outdoor culture to develop that places more emphasis on understanding the wild over scenic beauty and ‘stoke’.

I’ve spent a lot of my adult life in search of stoke, and like a lot of recreationists, I have implicitly linked my passion for skiing, climbing and running with a passion for conservation and environmental stewardship. But after accepting this premise for most of a decade, I am no longer so sure. Can outdoor recreation really support conservation for the long-term health of the land, not just human access? In the face of the daunting planetary environmental challenges ahead, can stoke really save?

This article later questions:

What are we conserving in the first place? Should we fight for public lands because they provide us with recreation opportunities, or because they support biodiversity? Should we only protect those plants and animals that directly benefit us or that we find beautiful — or should we fight for the entire community of life? The field of conservation biology tells us that long-term ecological stability requires the latter. But stoke fundamentally centers on the self and the quality of human experience, and thus has no intrinsic stake in biodiversity or ecosystem stability. More than anything else about recreation culture and its relationship to conservation, this troubles me.