We have some brilliant farmers and growers in this country who provide us with a wide range of great food – from small family farms through to large agri-businesses. But when we compare our productivity to some other countries around the world we know we can do a lot better in some areas. The big challenge is how can we be more productive and competitive while, at the same time, enhancing the environment? Tim Mordan…

Power, Privilege + Bio Diversity draws upon the work of May Project Gardens, an award winning community project, specialising in connecting people to nature and plant based food for personal, social and economic transformation. During this talk you’ll get to an insight into our permaculture-designed community garden in South London. The interactive talk explores how food growing and creativity is used to make the environmental and Vegan plant movement more inclusive.

Whether we are undertaking activism, business or any other project, looking after ourselves often takes a backseat. But none of us are immune to burning out. We all instinctively know that burnout is ‘bad’, and resilience is ‘good’, but without space to understand the dynamics involved they remain abstract concepts which are hard to build into our daily (and busy) lives. This practical workshop will explore the symptoms and risks of burnout, as well as…

Despite the buzzwords of “health and harmony”, very few farmers and growers farm for health as a priority goal. In fact, health is an elusive quality – difficult to pin down or describe let alone manage – but on some farms it smacks you in the face. Whole Health Agriculture has been set up to capture, understand and disseminate best health management practices. This participatory session will feature a panel of farmers who are passionate…

In this networking session, which follows on from a panel debate in the Council Chamber, farmers are invited to take part in group discussions, tailored to their specific farm context, about practical action they can take on their farm right now to tackle emissions and store carbon. Discussions will be broken down into arable, livestock, horticulture and mixed farming, and will be facilitated by representatives from Wildlife and Countryside Link and the Nature- Friendly Farming…

Peer-to-peer learning is key to making agroecology a reality. Join us for an interactive session to crowdsource ideas for agricultural research with farmers setting the priorities. We’ll have farmers fresh out of their field labs to soundboard ideas with, and a smattering of researchers to amplify the learning. This session will be led by Innovative Farmers with Agricology and the PFLA on hand to broaden the conversation.

The UK has unacceptable levels of food insecurity and dietary related ill health. Despite being the 6th largest economy in the world, over 8.4 million people living in UK households report having insufficient food and 13% of healthcare costs are from diet-related ill health. Farmers and food system activists argue that local food systems play a significant role in improving access to healthy, affordable food for everyone, regardless of income, status or background. However, policy…

Climate change has already begun to make small changes to UK horticulture. This session will present experiences from UK growers and then model examples of the changes to come, with specific detail on insects. The session will aim to highlight the issues growers should pay attention to, but importantly present techniques to build resilience in organic systems

Farmers Rebellion is a diverse group of farmers and growers who have come together as part of Extinction Rebellion to press the government to put in place policies that enable farming to address and mitigate the impacts of climate change and ecological breakdown.

The discourse around farming and climate change is too often underpinned by blame, criticism and argument when we urgently need to be coming together and finding ways forward through collaboration and communication.…