2024 CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
DAY ONE: FRI 22 NOV 2024
REGENERATING THE LAND & THE REGION
9.50AM: FRIDAY MORNING PLENARY
FOREVER FARMING: Food security at a time of climate disruption
Philip Lymbery, Author, Sixty Harvests Left, and CEO, Compassion In World Farming
How industrial farming is killing our world and how sustainable, humane alternatives are well able to feed everyone.
Prof Andy Neal, Rothamsted Research
Maintaining the soil conditions that will keep farms productive and profitable whatever the challenges of a changing climate.
Nikki Yoxall, Pasture For Life
The role of grazing animals and species-rich grasslands in protecting and securing the nation’s food supply.
Chair: Kate Hughes, regenerative farmer
11.30AM: FRIDAY MORNING BREAKOUTS
Financing farm transition: Unpacking investment in regenerative agriculture
Tamara Giltsoff (Chair), Paul McMahon, Tim Coates, Mark Drewel, Alex Godfrey & Simon Crichton
Breaking free: Can farming ever escape its glyphosate dependency?
Professor Andrew Neal, Ian Wilkinson & Tim Parton
Restoring biodiversity on livestock farms
Tim Martin, Martin Lines & Holly Purdey
First Milk: How healthy soil leads to a healthy business
Mark Brooking & Lucy Noad
Working collaboratively
Abby Allen & Bertie Matthews
Building a successful local food system from the ground up
Hamish Evans, Adam Lockyear, Cerys Dehaini & Charlotte Barry (Chair)
Opportunities under sustainable farming incentives schemes
Jerry Alford
Unleashing the productivity of your farm
Tim Williams, Jake Corin, Ian Robertson & Abby Rose
Steps on the journey to regenerative farming + Base UK
Edward Gallia, Thomas Mitchell & Stephen Goodwin
1.40PM: FRIDAY AFTERNOON PLENARY
OPPORTUNITY AGRICULTURE: How the transition to regenerative farming will mean better times for farming
Martin Lines, Nature Friendly Farming Network
How nature friendly farming will improve profits for farmers by adding income streams and reducing input costs.
George Dunn, Tenant Farmers’ Association
How tenant farmers and new tenancies can speed the transition to regenerative, profitable farming.
Niels Corfield, Regen Farming Consultant
Transitioning to lower cost, higher profit farming.
Chair: Holly Purdey, regenerative farmer
2.45PM: FRIDAY AFTERNOON BREAKOUTS
New farms for new farmers
George Dunn, Rebecca Laughton, Sarah Whittick
Agroforestry: Farming in Three Dimensions
Kate Hughes (Chair), Ben Raskin, Chris Jones & Jane Acton
The magic of diverse pastures
Andy Wear, Ian Wilkinson & Nikki Yoxall
Regenerative farming and farm income: Do the numbers stack up?
Marianne McHugh & Gemma Spark
The weatherproof farm: Grazing through the seasons
Niels Corfield & Silas Hedley-Lawrence
The magic of diverse pastures
Andy Wear, Ian Wilkinson & Nikki Yoxall
The holistic value of soil health data for farm businesses
Tom Tolputt, Francis Clarke, & Tamara Giltsoff
Outside the box
George Ford, Nick Cavill & Clyde Jones (Chair)
Roots to regeneration
Caroline Grindrod, Claire Hill & ffinlo Costain
Restoring the healthy loaf: Re-thinking bread from the ground up
David Brewer, Fred Price, Heloise Trott & Annie Landless
4.15PM: FRIDAY END OF DAY PLENARY
A quick-fire forum with an ad-hoc panel of speakers dealing with issues and sharing insights that have arisen during the day.
DAY TWO: SAT 23 NOV 2024
HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
9.50AM: SATURDAY MORNING PLENARY
New landscapes, new hope: Transforming our countryside and communities for the challenges ahead.
Caroline Grindrod, Roots To Regeneration
Charting the social changes that have brought about our separation from nature and our current, environmentally-destructive farming system. Caroline will shows how the change to a holistic, systems approach to farming will lead to flourishing communities, farms and economies.
Sue Pritchard, Food, Farming and Countryside Commission
An update on the politics of bringing about the much-needed transformation of our food and farming systems.
Merrick Denton-Thompson, Former President of the Landscape Institute
Merrick shares the results of a Defra-funded project on what would happen if an English county were farmed in ways that were ecological and took account of landscape differences. The results show big increases in biodiversity and farm profitability, plus huge benefits for the whole economy.
Chair: Rebecca Pow, former DEFRA minister
11.30AM: SATURDAY MORNING BREAKOUTS
Boosting local ecologically grown foods through the hospitality sector
Josh Eggleton, Luke Hassell & Matt Chatfield
Food, health and climate
Charlotte Carson, Hugh Thomas, Becky Lovegrove, Manda Brookman
Integrating food and fibre production to diversify farm income and build soil health
Zoe Gilbertson, Pauline Laurent, Luke Middleton, & Tamara Giltsoff
Accessing affordable ‘real’ food
Dr Rebecca Sandover & Ped Asgarian, Carol Adams, Ian Smith & Andy Johnson
Land sparing or land sharing? Why Britain’s wildlife needs both
Holly Purdey, Ed Green, James Grischeff & Simon Clarke
The living soil: Nurturing nature’s way
Nigel Cox, Sally Morgan, Jess Gough
12.40PM: SATURDAY LUNCHTIME PLENARY
Southwest Regional Food Security Forum
Dr Rebecca Sandover, Andrea Gibbon, and Adam Lockyear
1.40PM: SATURDAY AFTERNOON PLENARY
Re-settling rural britain: Building new farm communities
Kim Brooks, MD The Community Farm
Kim explores the connection between community and food. Every year The Community Farm welcomes over 1,500 people for well-being courses, social events and volunteering sessions on beautiful land overlooking Chew Valley Lake, south of Bristol.
Nigel Cox, Organic Horticultural Consultant
The triumphs and pitfalls of running a community project based on healthy soils and permaculture.
James Odgers, Founder of Stream Farm
How can land use include the benefits of belonging in a community? From serfs to villeins, from Wat Tyler to the Levellers, from the Luddites to the common bond. Seeking to recreate a sense of village on a Somerset farm using a sharing model developed from experiences around the world.
Chair: Max Cotton, Smallholder and BBC radio presenter
2.45PM: SATURDAY AFTERNOON BREAKOUTS
How the NHS crisis will accelerate the transition to regenerative farming
Genevieve Relton, Dr Lucy Williamson & Holly Whitelaw
First Milk: Evidence to support the activity. What consumers think about regen.
Leona McDonald
The critical role of short food supply chains in supporting sustainable farmers
Rich Osborn
Butterflies, bogs & beavers: Restoring biodiversity on livestock farms
Tim Martin & Chris Jones
Skool Beanz – How we can inspire the future generations of growers and caretakers of the land? If we don’t engage our young, what is the point of being here?!
Lara Honnor
Reclaiming our farming narrative
Graham Harvey, Ben Eagle, ffinlo Costain, Mark Helyar & Anthony Bellekom
Business Information Point: Taking full advantage of subsidies landscape
Marianne McHugh & Giles Adam
4.15PM: SATURDAY END OF DAY PLENARY
A quick-fire forum with an ad-hoc panel of speakers dealing with issues and sharing insights that have arisen during the day.
ORGANISERS
LandAlive was organised by Sustainable Food Somerset, in collaboration with the Royal Bath and West of England Society. It was supported by DEFRA’S ‘Farming in Protected Landscapes’ (FIPL) fund through Mendip and Quantocks National Landscapes and Exmoor National Park, with in kind support from Somerset Council.
