Every year farmers around the world grow £120 billion worth of wheat, a crop that provides the planet with a significant proportion of its calories. Big challenges and opportunities lie ahead. Climate change and the spread of plant diseases are impacting on farmers. On the other side of the equation, in the field of public health, the world needs better and more nutrient-rich food.

So what should the future of the world’s oldest domesticated cereal…

The first results of a new study, led by researchers at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology with sixty Pasture for Life farmers, will be discussed in this session. The project: Sustainable Economic and Ecological Grazing Systems – Learning from Innovative Practitioners (SEEGSLIP) looked at the agronomic and social impacts of this certified approach to grazing management and asked ‘What is its potential as a basis for a sustainable, UK-wide system?’ Come and hear from…

Many environmental NGOs are now advocating plant-based diets as a solution to climate change, yet is this approach to eating compatible with the productive capacity of sustainable farming systems in the UK? What can the UK produce in a truly sustainable way?

In order to answer this question, we need to differentiate between livestock that are part of the problem—feedlot beef, intensively reared chickens and pigs, intensive dairy—and livestock products that come from systems which…

With the death of Martin Wolfe in March 2019 agriculture lost one of its outstanding thinkers and innovators. For more than 25 years at the 56-acre Wakelyns farm in Suffolk, and always with the vital support of his wife Ann, Martin developed and demonstrated the science and methods of agroforestry and “population breeding” of cereals – increasingly recognised as key components of agroecology. Now their sons, together with supporters for whom Martin and Ann were…

Making a viable living from farming is no easy thing. Come and hear from four farmers and growers about the business models enabling them to make a livelihood from the land. Inspiring a new kind of agricultural economy, speakers for this session all agree on the need for small and medium scale farms to produce healthy, good and diverse food for localised markets.

Each of the speakers will present approaches that illustrate how small farms…

An overview by Chris Smaje of his forthcoming book A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self- Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity and a Shared Earth, focusing particularly on the need to rethink our approach to market trade and economic exchange as the basis of society; and on the political forces operating in the crisis conditions of today’s world which are forcing that rethink. Chris will discuss the agricultural implications…

The rising movement around land, food and agroecology in the UK has been encouraging, but to solve the multiple crises we face, solutions will need to come from all parts of society, including our faith communities.

This session will explore the ways in which faith and spiritual communities are engaged with land, food and farming and the specific questions that arise in relationship in this context: the politics of faith-community owned land; diaspora and…

Automation and robotics are increasingly viewed as a necessary and desirable development in farming by government, the private sector and some producer organisations. They are considered to offer solutions to a host of issues from soil compaction and farm emissions to low profitability and labour shortages. However, many farmers and civil society organisations argue that far from solving these issues, automation and robotics will make it harder for us to create a socially and environmentally…