Letter from Cressida Pryor
June 19, 2024

FOI Letter Summer Solstice 2024
Dear FOI Friends,
As I write this, in two days time we will experience the longest day, midsummer, here in the northern hemisphere, and have more of a sense that the summer has actually started...
We’ve had so much rain leading up to now that the soil has less essential micro elements which means some of the vegetables and other crops have reduced flavour and nutrients. Next week I am attending a regenerative farming and agriculture conference festival, Groundswell, with over 175 sessions taking place over two days exploring soil health and so much more...this is being held in the fields next to where I was raised and where my own children grew up...so it will be a time of memories and I hope new learning for me.
I am there as an interested bystander to the agricultural and farming industry. I am there too as a consumer and I hope to become more aware and educated to the options I have when buying food. This is a festival placed at mid summer...a time when farmers can draw breath before the later hard work of harvest begins. An often isolated profession will be cross fertilising ideas and support that will be crucial for our land’s future.
One of the festival’s big themes is to make ‘nature restoration and agroecology accessible to all’ and a particular panel I want to listen to is how do we increase awareness in this area and find a scalable solution...the young people heading up this research and discussion session give me hope that the light of Gaia has not been extinguished.
Divine Mother may we celebrate and open our eyes
to new and creative solutions to our current problems.
May we honour the soil that is our bedrock
From which all nature depends...
May we honour you, Gaia as our bedrock. So may it be, Amen.
With Solstice Blessings,
Cressida, FOI Steward