The Forest Garden at farm Rydeholm appears like a towering island of soil health and biodiversity in a sea of monocultures: cereals, oilseed rape and sugar beets on the Scandinavian Söderslätt. The main tree crops here are sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa), walnut (Juglans regia), hazelnut (Corylus), but also korean pine (Pinus koraiensis), almonds (Prunus dulcis), ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) and araucaria (Araucaria araucana). Biodiversity, ecosystem services equivalent to wild, forest-like environments and regeneration have been set here as equal goals with the food production. The long-term vision is a replacement of the annual crops with tree crops; sweet chestnut and araucaria (which produces seeds) as replacements for cereals. Hazelnut and walnut as replacements for vegetable oil. The film is based on interviews with Anders Lindén, the sixth generation on the farm and one of the pioneers of the Swedish agroforestry movement. Running time: 38 min.

In this the second part of the film "Life within Planetary Boundaries - Agroforestry" (part 2) some of Sweden's and England's pioneers in Agroforestry explain how our food production can play a key role in restoring ecosystems, creating food security, new jobs and an improved quality of life.

Etta Säfve and Jona Elfdahl are growers, artists and teachers in permaculture. Over the past twelve years, they have been building an edible landscape, a 3 hectares forest garden at their homestead in Gärsnäs, Skåne, Sweden. This is one of the first nut orchards/forests in Sweden, including walnut, sweet chestnut, hazel, almond and other nut species in a big mix, with a lot of different varieties of each tree. In forest gardens across Sweden, exploratory work is underway into how we can eat from and at the same time contribute to living ecosystems including nuts, fruits, berries and perennial vegetables, all poised to replace the more resource demanding annual equivalents; "Those of us writing books about this right now, and those of us who teach about it, we’re just beginners. But the idea that we could eat our food from living, perennial ecosystems, which interlace a diversity of plants and fungal systems, is an amazing thought that was once obvious to humanity. Even though we have not previously recognized what happened before as farming. All over the world, you once grew food in a way where you were part of nature, part of the ecosystem. Lived on it but also contributed to it. And now we are at the very beginning of and examining those systems." The film is produced by Maja Lindström Kling/paradigmshiftfilm.com for Agroforestry Sweden with economic support from Swedish Board of Agriculture.

Jesper Sandström is one of Sweden’s agroforestry pioneers. For the past several years, he has been establishing meandering alleys of fruit and nut-trees on his land in order to improve the water management, biologic diversity and production on his farm. The trees decrease evaporation both by forming a windbreak and providing shade, and are planted in rows placed on countour, which slows the movement of water through the farm land. Between the three rows, cows and hens are grazing according to a planned rotation. In time, when the trees are well established, the grazing animals will also be let in under the trees and get protection. This creates a more vital ecosystem with increased photosynthesis as well as a diversity of products: meat, eggs, juice, cider, fruit, nuts and sweet chestnuts, in a more productive and resilient landscape. The film is produced 2022 by paradigmshiftfilm.com for Agroforestry Sweden with economic support from the project grant "Potential and developmental needs for competetive agricultural systems with agroforestry – an inventory of knowledge with focus on fruit, berries and vegetables,” from Swedish Board of Agriculture 2021.  https://kyrkbygard.se/