2010 - 2024

This moderated panel conversation features Dorn Cox, a US-based New Hampshire family farmer and open source technologist, and David Bollier, an American commons activist and scholar with the Schumacher Center for a New Economics (US). Cox has long been in the vanguard of using open source technologies to help improve crop yields, soil health, and ecosystem resilience, especially in the face of climate change. His 2023 book, The Great Regeneration, describes the use of free…

This is not a traditional panel and is run as a podcast discussion. It will explore, honour and celebrate experiences, wisdom and intergenerational practices of black and brown people in relation to land justice and presence in the environmental scene. The discussion will reflect on areas such as: professional and personal experiences, intersectionality of marginalisation/exclusion across different backgrounds, identities and abilities; access to land and opportunities working with land; nature connection; heritage and genetic memory.…

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…

This discussion will examine how to unlock the potential of agroecological farming in the transition to net zero and overcome existing barriers with respect to the scaling up of low-carbon farming methods (in the UK). Bringing distinct perspectives and experience, the expert panel will weave through topics such as improving the provision of and access to local food through mobilising communities, strengthening the law to support the agroecological transition and priorities for delivering on the…

Building on an existing collaboration between Food For Life, My Food Community and Back to Our Roots, Growing and Sharing Without Borders is a project in partnership with Kushinga Community Garden about growing Afro-Caribbean veg in gardens. Launched in March 2023 the project aims to skill up people in the community interested in growing any veg but with an interest in Asian-Afro-Caribbean crops. The project includes all types of growing conditions from window sills to…