The Cambridgeshire Fens are a landscape of low-lying peat soils in East Anglia. Once a wetland, much of the land was enclosed and drained for agriculture from the 17th century onwards. Nowadays only 4 fragments of original undrained fen habitat remain and years of drainage have resulted in the peat degrading as it shrinks, oxidises and erodes. Soil loss is estimated to be between 8-12mm a year in the Fens. Degradation of peat soils is also associated with greenhouse gas emissions. Some sources estimate that agricultural land use in the Fens produces approximately 2.6 million tonnes of CO₂ per year.

Paludiculture is the practice of farming on rewetted peat, with an elevated water table closer to the ground’s surface. It has the potential to reduce the degradation of peat soils and CO₂ emissions whilst still cultivating the land and supporting fen biodiversity. There are currently no commercial paludicultural sites in the UK, but it presents an opportunity to rethink the way we interact with land in the Fens.

‘From the Fens, With the Fens, For the Fens’ uses paper artefacts made from potential paludicultural crops to tell playful stories of interconnection and changing values, whilst demonstrating the potential commercial properties of these novel crops.