About

About Living Earth College

Living Earth College is an independent educational initiative dedicated to strengthening local food systems through practical learning, collaboration, and living systems thinking.

Across the world communities are rediscovering the importance of resilient regional food economies. Farmers, citizens, and institutions are increasingly seeking ways to support healthy soils, viable farms, local food infrastructure, and vibrant food cultures.

Yet the knowledge required to organise and activate local food systems is rarely taught in a coherent way.

Living Earth College was created to address this gap.

The college brings together insights from agriculture, community food initiatives, regional infrastructure development, and food policy to support people working to strengthen food systems in their own regions.

Through courses, partnerships, and collaborative learning across regions and bioregions, Living Earth College connects practitioners who are working to rebuild food systems from soil and seed to community and governance.

A living systems approach

Living Earth College explores food systems as living systems.

Healthy food systems emerge through relationships between land, farmers, communities, infrastructure, and governance. They require both practical agricultural knowledge and the capacity to organise cooperative systems that support local economies.

The college’s educational programs therefore explore multiple layers of food systems, including:

• soil and farm ecosystems
• seed diversity and crop exchange
• community food economies
• regional food infrastructure
• governance and policy frameworks

This whole-systems perspective helps participants move beyond isolated projects toward coordinated food systems capable of thriving over time.

Origins

Living Earth College grew from many years of practical food systems work across Australia.

Projects such as the Magical Farm Tasmania, Docklands Food Garden, the Peach & Pear Food Box, and the Shepparton Food Hub explored how communities can strengthen local food economies through collaboration between farmers, citizens, and institutions.

These initiatives included the creation of seed libraries, crop swaps, food box programs, and regional food infrastructure designed to support small farmers and community food access.

Much of this work has been developed through Regen Era Design Studio, a living systems design practice working across community food initiatives, regional infrastructure development, and policy innovation.

Through the studio’s work, practical projects, strategic design processes, and policy proposals have been developed to support the emergence of stronger local food systems.

One example is the Grow Small Feed All campaign, a meta-design proposal exploring how public investment and policy frameworks can strengthen small farms, community food infrastructure, and regional food economies.

Together these initiatives form a broader body of work exploring how communities can activate local food systems in practice.

This work later became the focus of doctoral research examining how place-based collaboration, community initiative, and supportive policy can enable resilient food systems to emerge.

From research to living practice

Magical Farm Tasmania emerged as a place where these ideas could be explored through practice.

Magical Farm Tasmania is a small biodynamic farm and living landscape in the Huon Valley where soil stewardship, seed diversity, and community food culture have been cultivated through everyday agricultural practice.

Through seed libraries, crop swaps, community gatherings, and land stewardship, the farm became a small but meaningful place where ideas about local food systems could be explored in real life.

At the same time, this experience revealed a wider challenge.

While there is increasing recognition of the importance of local food systems, there are still very few places where these ideas can be implemented and tested in practice. Planning systems, institutional frameworks, and economic structures often struggle to recognise the value of small-scale community food initiatives.

This insight became one of the reasons Living Earth College was created.

The college provides a space where the learning from these experiences can be shared more widely with practitioners working across many regions.

Founder

Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne

Founder and Academic Director

Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne is a living systems designer, researcher, and practitioner working at the intersection of agriculture, community economies, and public policy.

Her work focuses on how communities can activate resilient local food systems through collaboration between farmers, citizens, institutions, and regional infrastructure.

Emily has developed and supported a range of food system initiatives including the award winning Huon Valley Food Hub, Docklands Food Garden, the Peach & Pear Food Box, COLTIVANDO Convivial Garden at Politecnico di Milano and the Shepparton Food Hub.

Her doctoral research explored how communities can strengthen food systems through place-based experimentation and collaborative governance.

She is also the founder of Magical Farm Tasmania and the director of Regen Era Design Studio.

Through Living Earth College she now works with practitioners across regions and bioregions who are committed to strengthening local food systems.

Emily is also known through her creative and educational work as Dr Demeter.

Partners across regions and bioregions

Living Earth College is developing as a collaborative network connecting farms, educational organisations, community initiatives, designers, and policymakers working to strengthen local food systems.

The work of rebuilding resilient food systems is inherently place-based. For this reason the college seeks to collaborate with partners across regions and bioregions, supporting local initiatives while sharing knowledge through a wider learning network.

Partner organisations may host place-based courses, field visits, or regional learning programs that allow participants to engage directly with landscapes, farms, and community initiatives.

Become a Partner

We welcome collaboration with:

• farms and agricultural organisations
• community food initiatives
• regional food hubs
• educational organisations
• research institutions
• local governments and regional development organisations

Partners may host learning programs, field visits, or regional courses connected to the work of Living Earth College.

Become a Partner

The Founding Circle

Living Earth College is currently forming a Founding Circle of practitioners, educators, and supporters who wish to contribute to the early development of the college.

Members of the Founding Circle help guide the evolution of the college during its formative years.

The circle brings together people working across farming, food systems practice, education, design, and policy who share an interest in strengthening local food systems.

Founding Circle members receive

• early insight into the development of the college
• invitations to strategic conversations shaping future programs
• connection with a network of practitioners across regions
• recognition as early supporters of the college
• opportunities to contribute to courses, collaborations, and regional initiatives

Join the Founding Circle

If you feel aligned with the vision of strengthening local food systems and would like to contribute to the development of Living Earth College, we warmly invite you to connect with us.

Join the Founding Circle

A growing network

From small farms to regional initiatives, the work of rebuilding resilient food systems is already underway in many places.

Living Earth College exists to support those ready to take part.