Mass commercial farming is a modern ill with extreme environmental and social consequences. Traditional, rural farming communities are decimated by conglomerates, and once fertile fields are rendered wasteland. How might craft help?

Fernando Laposse is a Mexican designer who has developed a project he calls radical agriculture in a rural farming community in Mexico. Planting heritage corn crops doesn’t just restore biodiversity to the land and give control back to the farmers, but Fernando has set-up a workshop in the community and trained locals to transform the colourful corn husks into expressive marquetry panels. The project, called Totomoxtle, has established a viable circular economy at the heart of the community, and Fernando has taken to the stage of the World Economic Forum at Davos, to promote the possibility of the model to a global audience. 

In this podcast series, Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters, Harewood Biennial curator Hugo Macdonald meets the designers, artists, makers and creators who are using craft and design to tackle the urgent crises that shape our lives. 

Radical Acts: Why Craft Matters will open on 26 March 2022 at Harewood House, Leeds. Full details at harewood.org/biennial to be released soon.

This podcast is produced by Bird Lime Media.