To meditate is to pay attention and be present in the here and now. During this meditation, led by Satish Kumar, we will pay attention to our body posture and our breath, through breathing in, breathing out, smiling, relaxing and letting go. We will pay attention to the four elements of which we are made; earth, air, fire and water and we will do so with gratitude. Please join this session to learn about how…

2007 marked a key moment in which small-scale food producers and their allies established a shared vision of food sovereignty and developed strategies to make it a reality. Over time, a robust global movement for food sovereignty emerged, gaining significant political recognition and playing a key role towards the democratisation of global food and agricultural arenas, and also influencing food sovereignty policies in various national contexts.

However, our achievements are now under threat due to…

Urgent action on climate change is needed, and reducing livestock production in the UK is often said to be part of the solution. But should reductions be focused on extensive grazing livestock, as is often argued? This session will bring together recent science with implications for how we understand the climate impacts of meat and dairy from different production systems. By considering this alongside the multiple social and environmental benefits that well-managed grasslands and grazing…

While in the field, farmers pioneer and share innovative regenerative practices, research councils continue to pour millions of pounds a year into tech-heavy, top-down solutions to the challenges faced by agriculture. This session will bring together academic researchers, funders and pioneering farmers to discuss how we can work better together. Through their own experiences of successful participatory research, panellists will explore differences in expectations, timescales and language which pose challenges to collaboration, and discuss what…

Industrialised livestock farming is a leading cause of river pollution in the UK, and is a hot topic with voters. The behaviour of sewage companies has grabbed headlines, but we want to turn attention to big agriculture companies who are profiting while overproduction of slurry and manure is destroying wildlife in our rivers. We will discuss the pressure on farmers to intensify, and the policy solutions, and practices on-farm that can turn this around, as…

If the land had a voice, what would it be asking us to do? Is it possible that we could be working in a more reciprocal and mutually beneficial way? In this session we bring together those who work on the land at a subtle level - those who act as intermediaries between that which is seen and that which is unseen, those who can converse directly with the flows and cycles and spirits of…

During the 2023 growing season, four farms in the South West Grain Network (SWGN) – an alternative, human-scale, non-commodity grain economy – collaborated with millers, Stoates and Son, to produce approximately 100 tonnes of a functional stone-ground South West bread flour, milled from two population wheats. These were then available for purchase by bakeries in the South West and the wider UK. The wheats (YQ and Mariagertoba) were selected for their genetic diversity, ability to…

No-till has risen in popularity in recent years but many growers still struggle to adopt the practice and remain chemical-free. While no-till and min-till techniques have taken off in horticulture, a prominent question remains – how do you terminate your cover crops without chemicals or destructive tillage? Through the Innovative Farmers programme, growers are pioneering new machinery and strip till techniques to find ways of maximising the benefits to soil health. In this session, you’ll…

This workshop aims to collectively share stories and experiences of feminist approaches as researchers, food producers, activists or practitioners in the spheres of agroecology, food sovereignty or public health. Our starting point is that we are confronted with patriarchy in multiple ways and spaces: from the institutions we work in, to the colonial capitalist farm and food systems we oppose, from the social movements we work with to our own thinking and doing. To transgress…