Lars Veraart is a veterinarian and agroecological farmer. Together with his wife Robyn, Lars moved from the Netherlands to a small village in the mountains of Romania, where he co-founded ALPA – Land for Life — an initiative supporting small-scale ecological farming, young farmers and bioregional regeneration. He and Robyn also run Provision Transylvania, an example farm and centre for agroecology and non-violence.

In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Lars offers a concise and lovely story of social, cultural, and ecological regeneration in action. He describes the process of 'becoming a peasant' in Romania and the surprise of the local villagers as he and his family began to emulate their ways. He speaks of change and ecocide, but also of hopeful signs, stressing the oft-overlooked relationship between small-scale farming and wild biodiversity conservation. He also shares about how non-violent communication and localisation have informed his work.