Friends of the Earth Malta visited Biome Munch, a project managed by Cane and Cassandra, in Burmarrad and gained insight into their farming practises. The farm has a variety of fresh herbs and produce that are grown with organic practice. Cane Vella is a young farmer and environmentalist at heart, who passionately works on his farm applying sustainable and ethical farming practices.
At Biome Munch it is all about looking at food in a holistic way. Their vision is to promote a Mediterranean Diet and make eating a local and nutritious diet simple, affordable and accessible to people in Malta. This goal encourages and strengthens them to keep producing healthy, clean and local products from local resources thus, reducing the impact on the natural environment. Cane and Cassandra are passionate about educating the community on growing their own food, nutrition and living simply and sustainably. Besides their farm work, they welcome people to the field and host events and workshops.
Despite the current success of their project, Cane was not supported by other farmers and relatives to leave his full-time job to pursue farming, and he would like to encourage anyone who has an inkling that they would make good farmers, to take the leap, experiment, and try farming out for themselves, to see if this is something that gives them joy and worth pursuing.
Projects like Biome Munch and farmers like Cane need to be supported. The common agricultural policy (CAP) does have measures to support young farmers in the sector, however, some farmers fall through the system for various reasons, like not officially having land to their name. As Friends of the Earth Malta we would like to see more support to stewards of the land that take care of all our natural resources, be it soil, water, air, and leave the land replenished, regenerated and full of biodiversity for our and future generations to enjoy.
Listen to what Cane Vella has to share about this experience as a farmer:
