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Are you a farmer, farm worker or grower? Do you believe there’s more we can collectively do, not just to produce great food, but also to nurture people, animals and the planet? Want to talk, share and listen? The Food Ethics Council is hosting a space for the farming community to share “what’s your beef?”, but also to identify the slivers of hope that have emerged from the pandemic.

There are many efforts made to promote better nutrition in Africa, with the hope that it will improve health concerns ranging from chronic malnutrition that causes mental and physical impairment, to non-communicable diseases to cancer. However the focus of these efforts is often very narrow and addresses the symptoms rather than the cause. They do not look at the underlying problems in industrial farming and the widespread use of chemicals to grow food and then…

The foundation of any agroecological food system is secure land title, especially for farmers and pastoralists displaced from ancestral lands and vulnerable to land grabs. This session will explore land rights and access to land for agroecological producers. We will explore indigenous and peasant experiences, especially from the perspective of youth interested in pursuing a farming livelihood. The session will feature a moderated conversation between La Via Campesina and the International Indian Treaty Council, two…

Grasslands are an essential habitat. They are home to thousands of species, many of which are threatened and endangered. Grasslands also help to sequester carbon, reducing emissions,storing water and mitigating flood risk. Yet, many of our global grasslands have been destroyed. Decades of development, industrial agriculture or overgrazing have led to swathes of healthy, biodiverse grasslands being lost. Almost half of all temperate grasslands and 16 percent of tropical grasslands have been converted to agricultural…

ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED. LIMITED SPACES: 500

The community of Shashe in the central Masvingo province of Zimbabwe is home to 500 farming families. The agricultural calendar here is marked by four seasonal ceremonies and as well as many other rituals that celebrate the relationship of soil and water, that is key to their food sovereignty.

Shashe leader, Nelson Mudzingwa, says, “The soil is very important because every living organism is dependent on it. We…

This panel will explore the implications of technology--both high and low--on how we grow, harvest, distribute, and consume food. Farmers today are using image recognition technologies to detect signs of bacteria or fungus—such as color change, wilting, or spots—to identify pests and plant diseases. Predictive ordering algorithms are modernizing food retail and helping to cut food waste in half. Natural language processing applications can read tweets and restaurant reviews in order to identify sources of…

Agriculture and the food system accounts for nearly one third of all greenhouse gases, but the vast majority of this is from the energy intensive production and distribution of a few internationally traded commodities. Whereas farmers operating agro-ecological systems around the world produce food and resources for their communities while reducing cO2 emissions from agriculture and sequestering carbon at the same time.

Many governments now accept the need for net zero but there is…

New research has found that for every pound spent buying organic food through a farmers’ market or veg scheme, almost £3 more is generated in benefits to farmers and growers, their workers, local suppliers, citizens and the environment. We show how buying food is an agricultural act with far-reaching consequences.

One of the main problems with our food system is that the price you pay often doesn’t reflect all the factors that have gone into…