Farming Roadmap, Manchesterism, and the SPS deal

I talk to ADOPT facilitators, Daniel Kindred (Agronomy Research Circle) and Harriet Scott (Raft Solutions), to find out how good ideas can become great on-farm research projectsThis is Day 6 of 10 More Days of Groundswell – a series of conversations, recorded in-the-field at Groundswell.

Day 5 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.I talk to Hannah Thorogood (Inkpot Farm) and Jamie Jack (Pasture for Life, Scotland) about how sheep can be a fantastic ecological force for good.

Day 4 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.I meet Martin Lines (Nature Friendly Farming Network), Vicki Hird (Wildlife Trusts), Alice Groom (RSPB), and Joe Stanley (GWCT Allerton Project). I find out what they thought of the Secretary of State's address to the Groundswell Big Top audience - and what needs to happen next with English farm policy?

Day 3 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.I meet Sally-Ann Spence down in the Groundswell fields as we sift through cowpats and discuss the role of entomology in archeology.

Day 2 of our 10 More Days of Groundswell series, which continues every day for 10 days.This time:Sam Beaumont (Gowbarrow Hall Farm) and Helen Browning (Soil Association) discuss the benefits of agroforestry - both as a commercial venture and for on-farm resilience.

This is the first of our impromptu in-the-field programmes, recorded at Groundswell 2026. 🪱 "We've got to tell the truth." That's the ethos behind of the new ⁠Centre for Dynamic Soils⁠ — a new farmer-led research venture co-founded by ⁠Andy Neal⁠, ⁠Andy Gray⁠ and ⁠Mel Bradley MBE⁠, backed by ⁠Yeo Valley Organic⁠, ⁠Wildfarmed⁠ and ⁠Waitrose & Partners⁠. 🎤 I spoke to the two Andys - We discuss soil structure, glyphosate, and why real farms beat university plots for soil science every day of the week.Find out more here: https://www.centrefordynamicsoils.org/

It's that time again - it's Groundswell, the key festival of the UK regenerative farming year - an event that's now been running for 10 glorious years. This is our essential guide to the festival's hot tickets.So who's with me? It's only bloomin' Alex Cherry, the Director of Groundswell and of Lannock Farm - and Sally-Ann Spence is here - an entomologist and farmer and Britain's Got Talent winner... We've got the fantastic Annie Landless, the Farm Manager at Ampney Brook Farm - and I'm thrilled to be sharing a screen and a microphone with Thomas Slattery, the ADOPT Programme Lead... ADOPT has very kindly agreed to sponsor not only this programme, but all of Farm Gate's content at Groundswell.

Martin Lines (Nature Friendly Farming Network), and ffinlo Costain (Farm Gate) discuss England's hot-off-the-press Farming Roadmap - what to make of Brexit 10-years on - what values Andy Burnham might bring to Number 10 - and the new UK/EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement.They are joined by Alex Gray, a farming and environment lecturer on the Brooksby campus of Loughborough College, and ask how to get progressive farming better-embedded into college and university courses, and how to attract young people into agroecological farming practice.#farming #AndyBurnham #policy #Agroecology #regenag #climatecrisis #foodsystem #naturalcapital

What could the future could look like for European pigs, egg laying hens, and broiler chickens?ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) is joined by Dr Jenny Yngvesson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, by Dr Catherine Pfeifer, lead researcher in the FiBL Switzerland Agri-Food Systems Group, and by Dr Lizzie Rowe, a farmer and researcher, and the founder of Leaf and Feather, an eco egg company based in the UK.This is the fifth of our programmes investigating Pathways - a 5-year EU Horizon 2020-funded research project that's been running since 2021.

ffinlo Costain talks to Dr Frédéric Leroy (Vrije University, Brussels) and Dr Jason Rowntree (Michigan State University).Frédéric and Jason's new research paper argues that while livestock systems represent a considerable environmental challenge, anti-livestock and anti-meat perspectives over-simplify the issues, ignore regional variations, and rely on unbalanced carbon accounting. They argue that carbon tunnel vision is a threat to good climate policy.* Find out more and read the research at 8point9.com