2010 - 2025

After a decade of searching and a community shares campaign that raised over £1 million, this 800+ member coop purchased a 78 acre farm just outside Liverpool in 2023 to grow organic fruit and veg. Helen and Chris will be presenting this inspiring story and sharing lessons and mistakes made in their first year. The session will focus on the very practical steps being taken right at the start of transforming a conventional farm into…

Join us to learn about our work with farmers on the transformative potential of welcoming bats and other wildlife onto your farm. Discover how the Bat Conservation Trust’s Connecting People and Landscapes in a Changing Climate Project is not only promoting biodiversity but also supporting regenerative farming practices, training a new generation of conservationists and engaging local communities. We are supporting the transition to a more nature friendly, vibrant, and sustainable farming landscape in Devon…

The practice of making tree hay predates the making of hay from herb and flower rich meadows and has been used for over three millenia. In Europe and modern farming landscapes the practice has fallen out of favour, however the fodder can provide a vital source of feed and nutrients, add resilience to farm systems and provide a supplementary feed source. Join us for this session to learn all about the benefits, challenges and considerations…

Manda Scott will explore dreams, visions and life-changing questions that drew her to write Any Human Power, her first novel in the new Thrutopian genre. What does it take to be a good-enough ancestor? How can we construct a flourishing future from the ashes of modernity — and do this peacefully, in time, in a way that brings a critical mass of the world with us? We live in a complex world, and there is…

While whittling on the shaving horse Nick will discuss the nature of the human and the impelling need we have to make. Nick will seek to set this in a historical context so as to understand how we have arrived in a place of profound separation from the daily relationship between our hands and making things. In a time when the farming community and many others are asking about their relationship to the land and…

For many small-scale, localised, and regenerative food producers, profitability can feel like an uphill battle. Direct-to-consumer sales offer the best chance for profitability — but how do you get there when marketing feels like another full-time job? The Nest, a non-profit creative and marketing incubator for agroecological producers, is here to support the transition to a localised, agroecological food system. In this live session, marketing expert Rose Davis and producers from The Nest will share…

The decreasing number of small abattoirs negatively impacts animal welfare and reduces opportunities for direct marketing. This session gives an update on the current situation. Marianne Landzettel’s book, The Sustainable Meat Challenge — How to graze cattle, slaughter humanely and stay profitable, shows solutions from the EU and the US: from farmer owned small abattoirs and on-farm slaughter to slaughter boxes and new ways of value adding through processing and branding. The presenters are working…

Living mulches offer an alternative approach for growing arable crops, with research showing the practice can improve nitrogen availability, reduce runoff, increase biodiversity, promote soil health and improve ecosystem services. However, adopting the practice comes with many challenges and considerations. Join this deep dive session to hear from Mark Lea of Green Acres Farm as he looks back at four years of living mulches work on his farm in Shropshire. Hear about the challenges Mark…

Learn from fully-replicated no-till field trials at Newcastle University and East Durham College. Vegetables were grown in mulched cover crops (crimp rolled or mowed) or transferred mulches of silage or compost and compared with tillage-based controls. The trials include different scales, using both 4-wheel and 2-wheel tractors. Differences in yield and weed pressure have been marked, and monitoring investigates underlying causes, including weeds, soil moisture, earthworms, soil penetration resistance, and the release of nutrients from…