2010 - 2024

2022 saw the fourth women’s and non-binary farm hack - a participant created weekend where practical skills, knowledge and solidarity are shared, alongside a deep delve into the political and social implications of being women and non-binary landworkers and land justice activists. The film and discussion bring together many of the important elements of agroecology: land and food justice, peer to peer practical learning through the medium of farm hacks, and solidarity building and networking…

Deep Listening, as developed by Pauline Oliveros, explores the difference between the involuntary nature of hearing and the conscious nature of listening. The practice includes listening to the sounds of daily life, nature, one’s own thoughts, imagination, and dreams. It cultivates a heightened awareness of the sonic environment, both external and internal, and promotes experimentation, improvisation, collaboration, playfulness, and other creative skills vital to personal and community growth. Led by artist Jaimini Patel, the workshop…

Applying soil health principles at scale is a challenge, with many farmers looking to stop ploughing but still relying on chemical weed killers and those unwilling to use chemical weed killers still relying on ploughing. We will explore this very complicated subject in an intelligent and positive way with two passionate soil enthusiasts. We will then hear the neutral perspective from the Environment Agency’s soil expert, who witnesses and has to deal with the end…

Livestock use in farming systems is a polarising topic, from the drive to net zero to the degradation of arable soils, the topic is much discussed and at times misunderstood. This discussion session will present ideas and approaches that look to reframe the case for livestock in the landscape, present approaches that drive farmer decision making related to optimal livestock carrying capacity on farms and moves away from reducing animals’ role in the landscape to…

2023 saw food prices in the UK skyrocket. Combined with a spike in energy prices, the cost of living for families across the UK rose dramatically, pushing countless families deeper into poverty. Meanwhile, supermarkets continued to generate enormous profits. Hiding behind a cost-of-living smokescreen, they hiked up their prices and handed out billions in shareholder profits, all the while attempting to persuade us that price increases are an inevitable result of factors outside of their…

The move away from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) since Brexit has represented a golden opportunity to reinvent agricultural policy for a greener future. Since food and farming policy is devolved, each nation has come up with its own agri-environmental schemes. Whether it be AECS, ELMS, SFS, or EFS, the core principles remain the same - public money for public goods. The past few years have not been an easy ride, with delays, mistakes…

What does it take for us to become deeply connected and in conversation with the land and those other-than-humans in our places? We remember back, to the language and lore of our land-based wisdom traditions, from a time not so long ago, to what it might be like to fully belong to the land. With 'folk memories' from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Africa.

Join Myco Manchester and Bristol Fungarium for a discussion of what it is like to cultivate and scale fungi for food, medicine and community. Myco is a small scale urban mushroom farm based in a market garden which focuses on community development and is currently working on creating a "genetics library" of local mushroom strains inspired by the seed sharing movement. Bristol Fungarium grows two tonnes a month of medicinal mushrooms, which they extract and…

As with fashion trends, many farming techniques have come back around. This session will explore how members of farming families can bring their knowledge, perspectives and approaches to the table, and how different generations can challenge each other’s thinking to future-proof a farm business. Each panellist will share what has influenced their approach to farming, what they have learnt from other family members and how they’ve used each other’s perspectives to make decisions to enable…