2010 - 2025

Speakers from three continents individually share their experience facilitating farm clusters to practically deliver more regenerative practices on farm — reflecting on commonalities around good facilitation as well as differences in practice. In the second half of the session Guy Watson leads the panel in a collective discussion on which practices might be suitable to transfer across continents to support climate adaptation as weather patterns shift.

Dairy is increasingly challenged for its environmental impact and its ongoing social licence with consumers. More and more farmers in the UK and further afield are exploring ways to do dairy differently, whether that’s enabling cow/calf contact, share milking with calves, integrating into arable systems or finding alternative routes to market that create stronger connections between the farm and the consumer. We will hear from farmers who are exploring these varied approaches and have been…

The use of agroecology as an ‘umbrella term’ for sustainable farming is leaving it vulnerable to cooption. As the term appears more and more in government policy, public discourse and even the PR of agrifood giants, there is a growing urgency to understand and defend agroecology as a social movement with strong political and social roots. This panel discussion will hear from farmers, activists and academics who are building a social movement for agroecology, to…

Under military occupation, Palestinian farmers face intensifying and catastrophic challenges across the territory. The Israeli military assault has weaponised hunger, systematically targeted food and water infrastructure, destroyed farmland and contaminated soils in Gaza. In the West Bank, land confiscations, settler attacks and restrictions on movement and trade have all accelerated at an unprecedented rate. This session discusses Palestine’s embattled food and farming heritage, with George McAllister who works on action-research in Gaza, and Cathi Pawson,…

New alliances are emerging between local governments and civil society to protect farmland and promote the development of agroecology in Europe. This session will be an opportunity to learn how local authorities can establish strategies to enhance regenerative use of public farmland and deliver public services from agriculture. We will dive into concrete examples of local government-led projects (Paris, France and Powys, Wales) and learn about the challenges they must meet to work on land…

Join us for an informal discussion of the government’s proposed inheritance tax legislation. Policy expert Jeremy Moody and Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson will be digging into the impact the new policies could have on farmers and landowners, and explore the bigger questions of how best to use farmland with policies that are just and well-designed. How do we ensure that land stewardship and access to land are protected for good food and farming? And how…

Diverse types of food retail are a vital part of creating a better food system – one that is fairer to farmers, better for the environment, and that connects local people to local food. But in a sector that has experienced a turbulent 12 months, it can be difficult for these businesses to flourish, We’ll hear from three sustainable food retailers – the iconic Manchester grocery store Unicorn; the Norfolk market garden and delivery business…

Discover the innovative food spray method attracting beneficial insects to combat insect pests. Produced on farm from maize and brewers yeast, more than 16,000 farmers in Benin and Ethiopia used this method to manage cotton and vegetable pests without insecticides in 2024. Meanwhile the method has been exported to India, where trials are underway by 16 organisations that support almost one million smallholder farmers. In this session, experts from the UK and Ethiopia will present…

Join our panel and discussion on the role of LGBTQ+ identities and experiences in the food and farming system. We will explore reasons for centring identity, gender and orientation in landwork, the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ workers, the gifts diverse perspectives bring, and the value of affinity groups and allyship within and across communities of identity in our movement. Panellists from Teasel Coop, Agrespect, Landworkers’ Alliance Out on the Land and Cultivating Justice, as well…