The session will introduce the Better Food Traders Network - a new initiative launched by Growing Communities, aiming to promote the Alternative Routes to Market (ARMs) model that needs to be developed in tandem with agroecological production in order to support growers with fair prices sufficient to create viable livelihoods. We’ll look at what the BFT network has to offer ethical retailers, how Sustainable Food Cities can support this work, and outline work by the…

This is a practical discussion on how farmers can get tangible insights from simple soil health tests that we can do ourselves. How can we use data from slake scores to understand levels of soil carbon? Can data from visual evaluation of soil structure be combined with infiltration rates to show soil erosion risk?

Farmers, scientists and soil health specialists will share learnings; and the Soilmentor team will share plans for ecological tools such as…

Animal feed is increasingly under the spotlight for its environmental impacts. What we feed livestock matters, because it relates to about half of the agricultural land on the planet, 80 percent of which is grasslands. In particular, pig and poultry production has a major dependency on soy imported from Latin America, and fish oil which is linked to overfishing.

In this session, we’ll provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities, showcasing some of the…

How do you effect bottom-up change in the UK food system? We know that change is vital for justice, equity and tacking climate change and biodiversity loss, yet instead of system change we face proposals for further concentrations of power, including linear techno-fixes that will merely increase our problems. In a situation where farmers take the risks and companies reap the profits, how can systems thinking and solutions help in building new, fair, resilient food…

Join members of the Land Justice Network for a participatory workshop about land rights past and present in the UK, and how this affects our food system. We’ll be updating people about and consulting around our work on a People’s Land Policy, which is bringing together land workers, consumers, tenants, farmers and everyone else affected by our highly uneven patterns of land ownership, to start writing the policies and legislation we need to bring about…

Nicolas Supiot is one of the most famous peasant bakers in France, often credited as the man who revived the word ‘peasant’ from its derogatory past. For this session, Nicolas will be joining Rupert Dunn from the Welsh Bakery, Torth Y Tir, to talk about his practices for taking grain from genetically-diverse landrace seed populations all the way to woodfired sourdough on his Brittany farm.

The session will focus on the key ethos, methodology and…

Do you have land and want to support a new entrant to establish a business? Does your organisation want to support new entrants to access land, training and markets? Perhaps you’re already involved in running a Farm Start or an Incubator Farm project? Come along to hear about the Farm Start model and the network being set up by the Landworkers’ Alliance with OrganicLea, The Kindling Trust and Tamar Grow Local.

This session will feature…

Some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices - from organic agriculture to the farm cooperative - have roots in African wisdom. Yet, Black farmers experience discrimination and marginalisation worldwide. Author, activist, farmer and founder of Soul Fire Farm in New York, Leah Penniman is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system. Through programmes such as the Black-Indigenous Farmers Immersion, a sliding-scale farmshare delivery programme, and reparations work, Soul Fire Farm is…

Pulses have historically formed a key part of crop rotations. They deliver a large range of beneficial agroecosystem services including nitrogen fixation and habitat for pollinators and natural enemies. As such, diversifying rotations with pulses can enhance system productivity.

Moreover, with increasing demand for plant-based protein, there is a growing potential market for UK-grown pulses. However, growing pulses is considered inherently risky and farmers face several challenges in production and marketing.

This session will get…