'Soil fertility is a defence issue'

In this episode of Farm Gate Leaders, ffinlo Costain speaks to Lieutenant General Richard Nugee.Nugee is a retired British Army officer who served in senior roles, including Chief of Defence People. He's also a Soil Star - a member of a group of scientists and experts, each a pioneer in their respective field, who share a commitment to soil as a lever to deliver action on climate change.

ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) and Martin Lines (Nature Friendly Farming Network) discuss what's happening on Papley Grove farm in the coming month of April. They also turn their attention to English farm policy - and then to the Welsh and Scottish Government elections, coming this May. ffinlo and Martin are joined by Rhys Evans (NFFN Cymru) and Nim Kibbler (NFFN Scotland).

New pests and diseases are threatening UK livestock, crops and forests. They're coming to the UK in the wind, with birds, on people and in imported soils. Why are these pests and diseases migrating? Can we prevent them from coming? And what do we need to do to mitigate the risks?ffinlo Costain is joined by Catherine Harries, Senior Crop Protection Scientist at AHDB - by Kate Palmer, the Technical and Industry Support Manager at Confor - and by Yoav Alony-Gilboa, livestock vet and director of Friars Moor Livestock Health.

Cattle in regenerative farm systems deliver remarkable ecological value at the same time as producing food and fibre. In this programme, we focus on methane and hydroxyl radicals - the highly reactive molecules that wash methane out of the sky, dismantling it back into its constituent parts of carbon and hydrogen.We talk about where hydroxyl radicals come from, and why, in well-hydrated regenerative pastures there are more of them - meaning that they can work more rapidly to break down the methane produced by the grazing cattle present in those managed ecosystems.To take us through the science, I'm joined by the blogger known on X as @Regenetarianism. Stephen shuns the spotlight and speaks publicly only extremely rarely. He isn't an academic, but he is someone that high level academics turn to for insight on these subjects, because his knowledge is so deep and broad following a great many years of research, synthesising knowledge from hundreds of peer-reviewed papers that address methane's physical and chemical processes, and working to understand them in the context of ruminant agriculture. Stephen has kindly written a referenced blog to accompany this podcast. It's called - On hydroxyl radicals and increasing the atmospheric oxidation capacity: key points and an outline. The blog can be found at lachefs.net.Direct link: https://lachefnet.wordpress.com/2026/02/15/on-hydroxyl-radicals-increasing-the-atmospheric-oxidation-capacity-key-points-an-outline/

The government has published England’s first ever Land Use Framework. What does it all mean?ffinlo Costain (8point9.com) is joined by Sue Pritchard (Food, Farming and Countryside Commission) and by Phil Stocker (Chief Executive of the National Sheep Association and Chair of the Dartmoor Land Use Management Group).

Which of our farms will exist in 20 years? Can they survive a breakdown in global supply chains? Do we need to change our stocking rates, our breeds, cropping and soil health? These are not academic questions - they're real, immediate and practical - and to discuss them ffinlo Costain is joined by a fantastic panel of southwest farmers and rural professionals.Helen Rogers is a farmer, a vet and a director of Friars Moor Livestock Health. Dan Gammon is a new entrant organic dairy farmer from Oakvale Farms. Hugh Morrison is a tenant farmer producing cereals, sheep and beef, both at Stonehenge and Amesbury. Ollie Blackburn is Farm Manager at the Dillington Estate in South Somerset. Greg Ridout is a partner and the head of agricultural auctions at Symonds and Sampsom estate agents.

'Well, I'm not going to read that to the kids at bedtime' - ffinlo Costain (Farm Gate/8point9) and Joe Stanley (GWCT Allerton Project) discuss rock 'n' roll science, the profound effects of pesticides on soil, the new Sustainable Farming Incentive for England, the intelligence chiefs' biodiversity assessment - and Joe asks, 'Is ffinlo a spy...?'More food, farming and land news at 8point9.com

Farm Gate Leaders: Nikki Yoxall, Regenerative farmerNikki Yoxall, a regen farmer based in the north-east of Scotland, embodies the UK regen farming movement - young, passionate, outspoken, media-savvy, first generation into farming, focussed on the ecological impact of her system just as strongly as she is on her cattle management and the food that she's producing.In this programme, ffinlo Costain finds what makes Nikki tick.

A new report, the RegenCompass Version 1.0, developed by EARA (Euro Alliance for Regen Agriculture), offers the first comprehensive, farmer-led evaluation of the systems designed to identify and distinguish genuine regeneration while remaining accessible and valuable to the farmers doing the work. The report evaluated 29 monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems.ffinlo Costain joined by report author, Simon Kraemer, co-founder and policy steward at the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture - by regen farmer, Clare Hill, from Planton Farm - and by Adele Jones from Rooted Strategies who worked for many years with the Sustainable Food trust on the Global Farm Metric.Read the report here: https://8point9.com/eara-releases-first-farmer-led-assessment-of-regen-verification-systems/https://8point9.com/eara-releases-first-farmer-led-assessment-of-regen-verification-systems/

At its heart, regenerative agriculture is an opportunity to reset a farm's relationship with both nature and economics. Most farmers who take the time to re-think their system, to reduce their use of expensive inputs, to mix livestock and crop production into long rotations, and to maximise the efficacy of free natural resources (such as sunlight and water), find that they are more economically resilient, that nature thrives in their fields and that they're just happier and healthier people.In this programme we hear from four UK farmers who've unleashed the power of regeneration on their farms - we'll hear their stories, and we'll ask what tools have enabled their success.With Graham Rutherford from Viewlaw Farm in Northumberland, Verity Megginson from Kirkburn Manor Farm in East Yorkshire, Rhys Jones from Pearson Gape Farming Partnership in Cambridgeshire, and Sian Jones from Moelogan Fawr in North Wales.This programme has been sponsored by Regenerate Outcomes.Farm Gate is part of 8point9.com.Listen to the edited audio version by searching for Farm Gate wherever you get your podcasts.