Marina O’Connell (1961-2024) was a successful grower, farmer and educator. Born of seven generations of Dutch nurserymen from Boskoop in Holland which is famous for fruit trees, she celebrated the professional women now pioneering the transition to resilient food production and to re-localising the food economy.
Marina, the Apricot team and her family turned the bare land at Huxhams Cross Farm, Totnes, Devon, UK, from being ‘a miserable bit of land’ as a local farm contractor called it in 2015, into a productive, beautiful, community connected and profitable farm.
She action researched the use of biodynamic, organic, permacultural, agroecological, regenerative and agroforestry methods in her work. She led by example. People from all over Britain and the world visited her farm and went on her courses and a Devon apprenticeship scheme for regenerative food systems. She was consulted by farmers asking her to help redesign their farms away from industrial farming, and by farm estates needing help to undertake the successful transition to resilient food systems by 2030.
Author’s Books
Designing Regenerative Food Systems: And why we need them now
Marina O’Connell
A unique toolkit of resilient food production systems, including biodynamic, organic, agroforestry, regenerative, agroecological and permaculture methods, with illustrated case studies, references and resources. Read more →
Links
Huxhams Cross Farm website
In Memoriam Marina Brown O’Connell
The regenerative farm working to improve soil without fertilisers
A piece in The Guardian by Joanna Partridge about Huxhams Cross Farm, including an interview with Marina O’Connell.