2010 - 2024

Some of us are farmers before we become parents. For others it happens the other way around. Some choose farming as a lifestyle to raise a family and teach the next generation food security, sovereignty and animal husbandry. However farming and parenting match together, there are benefits - socially, environmentally, economically. Farming and parenting also have their challenges. Unreliable wages, weather fluctuations and long work hours. Demands on families are exacerbated by farming. Intergenerational expectations…

The Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest of 1217 inaugurated legal doctrines guaranteeing public access and use of land, water, forests, and myriad social and intellectual commons. Yet capitalist enterprises and complicit states have plundered, privatised and commodified them, generating vast wealth and power for a minority while laying waste to ecosystems, democracy, and social equity. This session features two activist-thinkers discussing how commoning can achieve structural transformation and cultural change. Guy Standing, an…

The Storm Desmond floods in 2015 cost the UK £1.6 Billion. Extreme weather patterns are impacting our farms, either with too much water or too little water. New research now shows the effectiveness of natural flood management and increasingly there is an acceptance that, for many communities, engineering our way out of crisis will not be possible – natural solutions may be the only solutions on the table. Hear from a scientist quantifying the effectiveness…

This session will bring together speakers from three generations and different backgrounds to discuss how they are working together to restore nature, shift towards regenerative agricultural practices and build community across 500 acres at Penpont - the UK’s largest intergenerational nature recovery project. Speakers will discuss how they have worked together across generations, the barriers they have overcome, the benefits they’ve seen in a context where younger generations are often excluded from land, and how…

This session will provide an update on the situation for small and local abattoirs in the UK. With further closures over the past year, many farmers are facing a crisis as they struggle to find an abattoir to meet their needs. Government funding is set to be rolled out at the start of 2024 and this session will provide an opportunity to find out more about the fund, who can apply and how farmers can…

This popular workshop is back, with a difference! Jenny and Angela will guide you gently through a practice that taps straight into intuition, instinct, embodied sense and emotional knowing. The workshop is open to those completely new to this approach, as well as returners from last year. Valuable for problem solving in numerous circumstances, including the challenges faced by agroecological projects large and small, the approach is both deep and highly practical, and can be…

Let’s discuss the elephant in the room during most discussions of agricultural transformation: the capitalist logics which shape how we currently grow, process, distribute, and eat food. Our panel will explore capital’s effects on farmers, the pressures it places on workers, and the ecological consequences of infinite growth on a finite planet. It will also feature the new union, Solidarity Across Land Trades (SALT), who will present their recent workers’ enquiry.We will open the discussion…

How can powerful storytelling further the good food and farming movement? Hear from seasoned journalists and producers on how a good story builds connection and mobilises the democratic voice of farmers, growers, and landworkers. Speakers with expertise in podcasting, broadcast journalism and magazine publishing will share their success stories of how they overcame obstacles and built inspiring stories that brought alternative farming practices to a wider audience. The panel discussion will be followed by an…

What is driving growing land inequality and what can be done to build land and food sovereignty? Land inequality and lack of access to land for marginalised food producers is a critical but overlooked driver of hunger and food insecurity, and a fundamental barrier to achieving food sovereignty. In a forthcoming report, IPES-Food investigates the dynamics of today’s land struggles – from growing land inequality and the financialisation of farmland to green grabs for false…