Farmerama

This month we start at Folx Farm in Sussex with new entrant farmers Chrissy, Rae and Dunia. Next, we learn about the power of a composting network with Thomas Daniell and catch up with food activist and grower Jo Kamal about attending La Via Campesina’s international conference last year in Brazil, as part of the Landworkers’ Alliance. To finish, we ask Marco Carbonara about his experience learning to grow olives in Italy.

This month we start in Hawaii hearing about the importance of native plants to Hawaian culture, then we head to Portugal to learn more about the value of C4 grasses in mediterranean silvopasture systems, we dive into the Basic Income for farmers campaign in the UK, and we end with an excerpt from a podcast series about what it takes to run a Farm Hack.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In this final episode, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham reflect on everything they’ve heard over the course of the series, thinking about what they personally have learned and considering what common ground has been found amongst the values and priorities of everyone they’ve spoken to.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In this episode, co-hosts Olivia Oldham and Katie Revell look into the question: can it ever be morally right to farm animals? They speak to farmers, researchers, meat eaters and abstainers, to discuss various cultural and personal ways of relating to animals, and explore if and how it's possible to square caring for animals with eating them.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 6, co-hosts Olivia Oldham and Katie Revell explore questions of food justice as they relate to less and better meat. By speaking to food producers, researchers and eaters, they explore whether less and better meat risks entrenching existing injustices, or could support a transition to a fairer, more equitable food system.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 5, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham ask: does a future of 'less and better' meat also mean a healthier future? They speak to researchers, farmers and those who follow meat-free diets, to explore how what we eat interacts with the physical, mental, spiritual, and collective health of both consumers and food producers.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 4, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham ask: why do we use land the way we do, and how should we use it in the future? They meet with farmers, academics and land management advisors, to delve into the history of land use in the UK, reflecting on the cultural and political factors that continue to shape it, and looking for common ground between advocates of different approaches.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 3, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham explore the question: if we decide to eat less and better meat, what do we eat instead? They speak with a legumes specialist and a cellular agriculture entrepreneur, and ask whether we should see “alternative” proteins as “alternatives” at all. In doing so, they reflect on what we value in our food system once we do away with the meat/non-meat binary.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 2, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham meet a climate scientist, along with regenerative and organic farmers across the UK, to discuss the complex ways that animal agriculture interacts with our natural environment. From how we measure emissions of greenhouse gases, to what we feed our animals, and which management systems we use, they ask – what is the place of farmers when it comes to less and better meat? Thank you to everyone on our Patreon. Your support helps us in bringing you the stories of regenerative farming around the world, each month. We appreciate it. If you'd like to join, please visit patreon.com/farmerama where you can choose your level of support.

It feels like one of the biggest questions of our time: what do we do about meat? Rather than choosing either extreme – business as usual, or ruling out meat altogether – some people suggest the best approach is one of ‘less and better meat’. But how much less is ‘less’? And which meat is ‘better’? How do we even begin to answer these questions? In this series, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham attempt to unearth what lies beneath questions of technological change and consumer choice. On an expansive, and sometimes personal, journey, they learn that – as much as the debate about meat is sometimes painted as a binary choice between right and wrong – things might not be quite so simple. They ask who – and what – benefits from different systems of production? What priorities and values do seemingly simple solutions obscure? And, perhaps most importantly, can we find some common ground, some shared principles and values, on which to build a better meat future for all? Thank you to everyone on our Patreon. Your support helps us in bringing you the stories of regenerative farming around the world, each month. We appreciate it. If you'd like to join, please visit patreon.com/farmerama where you can choose your level of support.

This month we bring you a conversation Abby convened at Groundswell Festival back in June, focused on Landscape Scale Regeneration. We hear from three people involved in different ways in an initiative in Waterford, Ireland. This discussion expands upon the Commonland initiative in Southern Spain we featured back in Episode 68, highlighting the power of a common vision and the benefits of working across a whole region.

Is it possible or productive to organise around a common language in order to reimagine how we produce grain and bread? In the third and final part of Good Bread, Kim and Ruth reflect on some of their experiences working on the project and consider what the future of good bread might look like. This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

Consistency is at the heart of industrial bread production, from the field to the mill to the oven. But what is it costing us? This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. Thanks to Shipton Mill for their openness and generosity in allowing the Body Lab to explore these ideas. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. In part 1, she explores the question - what is good bread? She speaks to Kim and Ruth about what makes good bread for them, and unpacks what the Body Lab is about, and why they started the project. We hear from farmer Fred Price and baker Rosie Benson from Gothelney Farm (@gothelneyfarmer) and Field Bakery (@fieldbakery) about their understanding of good grain, and speak with Chris Hollister from Shipton Mill (@shiptonmill), about the different tests that take place when wheat arrives at an industrial grain mill, and some of the justifications for this process. With each of them, Lucy discusses why reimagining this testing system could be positive for bakers, farmers and Millers. Also hear some of the responses to our Breadline - where we asked our audience what makes good bread to you - which will be woven throughout the series. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

This month we learn how some people importing Brazil nuts to the UK is supporting the indigenous people of the amazon. We visit a restaurant who are making use of spare growing space in their community and learn about agro-ecological approaches to managing vineyards across Australia.

This month we begin in Ibiza where we learn about a project matching new and diversifying farmers with abandoned farmland to grow more organic produce on the island. We hear from a food growing project in London that teaches to produce food and care for the land and has a foundation in traditional African philosophy. And we dive deep into the world of, potatoes, looking at them in a fascinating new light.

In this months episode we head to Scotland to hear about a Beltane celebration for young people in rural areas. We speak to the organiser of the London-based Black Farmers Market, and we check in with another farmer benefiting from the Pasture for Life mentoring program. This episode of Farmerama was made by Abby Rose Jo Barratt Katie Revell and Dora Taylor. A big thanks to the rest of the Farmerama team Olivia Oldham, Fran Bailey, Annie Landless and Eliza Jenkins . Our theme music is by Owen Barratt.

This month we meet two people who are building a community group to celebrate an earth-based connection between their religion and the land. We learn about the success of a mentoring programme for farmers. And we end with a request from a Botanist.   We're very grateful to those of you that support us and allow us to bring you these stories every month. Even the smallest contribution makes a big difference to us. So if you'd like to become a supporter, you can visit patreon.com/farmerama.

This is a short episode about the Jumping Fences report. Jumping Fences is about understanding the barriers that prevent Black people and people of colour from accessing land for agroecological farming in Britain – and addressing those barriers. The report is a collaboration between the Landworkers’ Alliance, Land in Our Names and the Ecological Land Cooperative. It builds on a previous project, Rootz into Food Growing, which was focused on London. Jumping Fences was launched in the Justice Hub at the 2023 Oxford Real Farming Conference. Following the launch, Katie spoke to Jumping Fences’ lead researcher, Naomi Terry, as well as two of the people interviewed for the report – pig farmer Flavian Obiero, and cut flower farmer Cel Robertson. Links: Read the report here: https://landinournames.community/projects/jumping-fences Listen back to the launch event and discussion here: https://orfc.org.uk/session/jumping-fences-report-land-justice-food-justice-and-racial-justice-in-british-farming/ Tags: Naomi Terry: Instagram @naomitez Flavian Obiero: Instagram @thekenyanpigfarmer / Twitter @kenyanpigfarmer Cel Robertson: Instagram @forevergreenflowerco Landworkers’ Alliance: @landworkersalliance Ecological Land Coop: @eco_land_coop Land in Our Names: @landinournames Oxford Real Farming Conference: @oxfordrealfarmingconference

This month we start by hearing about the possibilities of supply networks fuelled by sailing ships. We are encouraged to think again about water in the landscapes we are part of, and we hear how one woman in Mexico is working on connecting people in the financial world and those who work with the land with the aim of re-orienting our economy so it serves life. We're very grateful to those of you that support us and allow us to bring you these stories every month. Even the smallest contribution makes a big difference to us. So if you'd like to become a supporter, please visit. https://www.patreon.com/farmerama This episode of Farmerama was made by me, Jo Barratt, Abby Rose, and Dora Taylor. A big thanks to the rest of the Farmerama team Katie Revell, Olivia Oldham, Fran Bailey, Annie Landless, Eliza Jenkins and Lucy Fisher. Our theme music is by Owen Barratt