For years most food has been treated as a commodity, with information about its provenance severely limited by a few gatekeepers. Now this is changing - complex information can be provided online, and social media allows consumers to directly interact with farmers.

To take people on this journey, effective storytelling and trust building are more important than ever - reshaping the food system in a way that works for everyone and for the natural…

Local abattoirs are essential for the marketing of local meat. Yet, despite expressions of support from the previous Secretary of State and other Ministers, high level meetings, lobbying by the Campaign for Local Abattoirs and bi-monthly meetings of a DEFRA Action Group, little of substance has changed over the last year. Small abattoirs continue to close, mostly due to severe economic pressure. In this session we will hear from an abattoir owner, the RBST, the…

Got a problem weed you don’t know how to crack? Come and share your woes, questions and solutions with farmers and researchers at this informal weed surgery hosted by Agricology.

Organisations across Europe are investigating ways of minimising and eventually phasing out certain contentious inputs that are used in certified organic agriculture. For growers, inputs like copper as a fungicide and plastic as a weed suppressant are one solution where organic growing margins are tight. But many are coming together to do better. Join this session to hear from a panel of pioneers who are developing a host of agroecological alternatives to strengthen the practice…

How can we support the fairer distribution of ownership and access to land across the UK, and what would that mean for farmers and landworkers? Do current tax incentives encourage the consolidation of farms? Why are the world’s wealthiest buying our farmland as a tax-efficient asset or status symbol rather than as a place to produce food, and how does this impact farm succession and new entrants to farming?

Join us as we consider…

Ben Hartman, author of The Lean Farm and The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables, will explain powerful concepts from the lean system that food producers of any size and type - from livestock or arable farmers to home gardeners - can use to produce more value with less waste and work. He will provide examples from Clay Bottom Farm in northern Indiana, where he and his wife earn a living from one acre of…

Are you thinking about applying to be a farmer with the Ecological Land Cooperative? Come to this Q&A session to get a better understanding of what’s on offer and meet the ELC team. We have plots available at our sites in East Sussex, South Somerset, Gower and Cornwall for passionate landworkers and ecological entrepreneurs to create a small farm with residential planning permission.

Keeping bees can be simple. We’ll look at some basic practices of natural beekeeping, backed by recent scientific research, to show how bees manage their own healthcare. Supporting local bee populations with good nutrition and minimal interference are the best ways we can help them. Honeybees are part of our native wildlife and ecology and, together with all our pollinators, flourish best in diverse agroecological systems full of flowers – meadows, hedgerows and woodland. You’ll…

Following the session on Copper, Plastic and Other Contentious Inputs: How organic farmers are transitioning away in the Assembly Room, this session will be an opportunity for a more informal conversation. Join a more focused workshop for a chance to ask more in-depth questions and to collectively unpack some of the practices being used to transition to agroecology.