Once a year, a group of travelers heads out to visit one of the 50+ Hubs in the Savory Global Network. These Savory Journeys are an opportunity to experience Holistic Management up close and personal, going further than what you’d typically experience in ecotourism and diving deep into the work of those building the capacity for regeneration in their local farming communities.
This year, a group of twelve ventured to northern Sweden, the site of the first Savory Journey ten years prior.
Led by Jörgen Andersson, Fjällbete isn’t just a sheep farm in Undersåker, Sweden. It’s one of the first Savory Hubs and also the epicenter of a flourishing grassroots movement of regenerative practitioners and organizations.
What started as the Nordic Savory Hub many years ago –– a group of like-minded Swedes and Norwegians who saw the potential of Holistic Management to transform their agricultural countrysides –– has now evolved into two individual Hubs, one Swedish and one Norwegian.
The Savory Journeys tour group had the good fortune of visiting with both Hubs and their local partners, learning about their respective strategies for supporting their local farming communities, the unique attributes of their landscapes, innovative approaches for communal land management, and more. There was even a drop-in from the leaders of the Turkey Hub, Anatolian Grasslands, which provided additional perspective on working with land managers in a Mediterranean context.
The Influence of Fjällbete
While Jörgen is the figurehead of this local movement, his approach is one rooted in “let” rather than “make.” He’s less interested in forcing Holistic Management on people and more about allowing new folks and their ideas to incubate in his community with his support and mentorship.
For him, Holistic Management is so much more than a better way to graze his sheep. It’s a framework that helps agrarians both young and old align their lives with a real sense of purpose, and by “letting” individuals discover their potential in a safe and supportive environment, a group he lovingly refers to as his “25-year-old’s” (i.e. ages ranging from 18 to 35) have found community and purpose in Undersåker.
while many farmers focus their efforts on increasing their land’s carrying capacity, Jörgen is focused on increasing Sweden’s caring capacity
One young couple has just taken over Jörgen’s flock of sheep, while another is growing a cattle operation without the need for land ownership. The latter is accomplished by knocking on doors and allowing local landowners to rediscover Sweden’s lost history of having cattle graze their hillsides. In doing so, they’re building a community rooted in the local landscape, its history, and its potential.
To that end, while many farmers focus their efforts on increasing their land’s carrying capacity, Jörgen is focused on increasing Sweden’s caring capacity. By shifting the focus from land to people, he’s tapping into the unlocked potential of what individuals can accomplish when they find alignment in their lives, and for the Savory Journeys group it was a magical thing to witness firsthand.
Sámi Reindeer Herders
Beyond connecting with the local Holistic Management community, the group had the privilege of meeting with the last remaining indigenous community in Europe, the Sámi.
Having resided in northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and northwest Russia for the last 2,000 years according to a local expert the group spoke with, the Sámi culture is one deeply rooted in transhumance, a seasonal form of livestock movement from summer grazing in the mountains to winter grazing at lower altitudes.
For the Sámi, herding reindeer isn’t just a source of food, hides, and antlers that has afforded their people’s survival. Sámi live among and because of reindeer, and the reindeer live among and because of the Sámi. This mutualism, unfortunately, is being put to the test by the pressures of modernity and a changing climate.
Their reindeer graze lush mountain pastures in the summer, then in the winter are moved down into the forests where they subsist on lichen. Once plentiful in Sweden’s old growth forests, these slow-growing lichen now face a challenge given Sweden’s incredibly productive timber industry that clear cuts large swaths of forest and replants with fast-growing plantations of pine and spruce.
While those raising cattle or sheep get appropriately compensated by the Swedish government for predation loss, reindeer receive only a fraction of their loss while shouldering an outsized portion of the predation control.
Further complicating things, tightly-spaced trees pose a challenge for reindeer to move through. Machinery from timber activity compacts snowfall making it difficult for reindeer to dig through and find food, as does the increased frequency of warmer temperatures whose freeze/thaw cycles create impenetrable layers of ice. (We did, however, meet with forward-thinking players from the timber industry who are trying to advance continuous cover close-to-nature forestry management, so there is a thread of hope in that domain.)
Predation is another issue of great concern for the Sámi. With wolves, wolverines, bears, lynx, and eagles all preying on reindeer, and with predator populations all on the rise and taking out more than 10% of their herds each year, the Sámi spend a significant portion of their time trying to keep their reindeer safe. While those raising cattle or sheep get appropriately compensated by the Swedish government for predation loss, reindeer receive only a fraction of their loss while shouldering an outsized portion of the predation control.
Add in a history of colonization and thinly-veiled racism against the Sámi that exists to today and it becomes clear that the future of reindeer herding, despite its long co-evolved relationship with Sweden’s landscape, is in question.
Visiting with the Sámi and seeing the reindeer in their mountain pastures was an opportunity that many do not get –– it was even Jörgen’s first time being invited to these Sámi grazing lands –– so the weight of such an invite carries with it a responsibility to share what we learned.
Seeing the whole
For those of us who come from brittle-leaning landscapes, the abundant and persistent moisture of non-brittle environments is like entering an entirely new world. Productivity is rarely an issue, bare ground is nowhere to be seen, soil capping comes in the form of moss, and the overwintering of animals becomes the limiting factor for many. Despite these ecological differences, the common threads we all share were readily apparent.
For the Savory Journeys group, we were privileged to experience so much in such a short period of time. Sure, we plunged into ice-cold rivers, warmed up in saunas, kayaked through fjords, moved livestock, and had incredible meals, but the people we met along the way and the depth of our conversations were what really made this journey special.
What we shared together was profound, inspirational, eye-opening, and something that each of us will cherish long into the future.
Keep an eye on the Savory Journeys page for the announcement of next year’s trip. Hope you can join us…
