UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 6
To celebrate the summer solstice, men wear wreaths of
oak leaves and women of linden leaves. Painting at the
Skrīveri Agricultural Institute.
person, illustrated with the famous photorealistic
painting “Will you become profitable, little,friend?” by Peter Tillberg from 1970 (Swedish
Museum of Modern Art). It depicts a colorless
elementary school classroom in Sweden, with students in straight rows of tables. The painting was a
contribution to a larger debate about the impoverishment of the Swedish countryside after the social
“efficiency” transformation of society that was at
the time underway.
Meanwhile, habits and beliefs are deep rooted,
and the old-school industrial efficiency persists as
a leading ideal at agricultural universities and institutions, as it fits better into yesterday’s economic
model. While climate change increasingly challenges farmers to partner with nature’s ability to
create balance, trees on farm land are still considered tabu. Arguing for example that “trees provide
a reliable hydrology regulation in agriculture” is
still met with skepticism, while demanding more
covered drainage ditches in response to heavier
rain falls remains status quo.
But, wouldn’t a cost-benefit analysis of a completely independent food system be rational? - Even if
that system is inferior in today’s economic competition?
Our perception of future landscapes is not solely
agroforestry, but a myriad of solutions inspired by
the vitality that food forests and woodland pastures provide.
“THE OAK IS MY FATHER,
THE LINDEN IS MY
MOTHER...”
During the road-trips, veteran oaks were a recurring and comforting feature, - a tree that hosts
more species than any other tree here, that buffers large amounts of water and provides shelter,
food and mycorrhiza collaborations. In Sweden
we rested in the shade of magnificent oaks in
ancient, species rich pastures, and in Latvia, we
learned about how sacred oak forests were cut
down and burned when the country was Christianized.
L
