The opening session of the Northern Real Farming Conference explored the principles of real farming, the need for system change and the experiences of farmers in the North. There was also be an opportunity to network and meet other conference participants.
Speakers included:
Ellen Pearce has been coordinating FarmStart work in Lancaster for the last 3 years, undertaking a feasibility study, pilot programme and setting up a local funding scheme for the project. She co-chairs the Food and Economy working group for FoodFutures, North Lancashire’s Sustainable Food Network and coordinates the Northern Real Farming Conference.
Colin Tudge is a biologist by education and a writer by trade. He worked for Farmers Weekly, New Scientist, and BBC Radio 3 before going freelance in about 1990, and is author of about 15 books on natural history, evolution, genetics, ecology – and, in particular, on nutrition, cooking, and agriculture. Around 2008, together with his wife Ruth (West) and help from good friends, he began the Campaign for Real Farming — which has given rise to the Oxford Real Farming Conference and the still peripatetic but ever-growing College for Real Farming and Food Culture. The aim is to help bring about a global, cross-the-board Renaissance – beginning with food and farming.
Anna Clayton sits on the management committee of Claver Hill Community Food Project and is a member of Spud Club (a community grown agriculture scheme) and Lancaster Seed Library. For the past ten years, Anna has worked on a variety of community food and environmental initiatives and currently coordinates FoodFutures: North Lancashire’s Sustainable Food Network. Anna also works part time as a Worker Director, Writer and Researcher at Ethical Consumer Magazine.
Rod Everett has over 60 years of living at Backsbottom farm, has experienced many floods and has recently set up a Natural Flood Management educational trail as part of a wider project working with neighbouring farmers to reduce flooding. He was instrumental in setting up the Northern Real Farming Conference.
You can read a blog post by Colin Tudge on Real Farming and why it matters.
With multiple pressures coming from all angles, one thing is clear: our landscapes will, and must, be managed differently. This session discussed the opportunities and the tensions between upland farming, commercial forestry and rewilding in a post-COVID, post-Brexit, climate-changing future.
Bringing you an all-Scottish panel of farmers and conservationists coming from a range of perspectives – from rewilding to agroforestry to moorland management – we held this space to host a lively debate about the tensions and possibilities that lie ahead for the upland land manager.
Speakers/hosts:
Alan McDonnell is Conservation Manager at Trees For Life, a rewilding charity in the Scottish Highlands. While focused on ecological regeneration and involving volunteers in practical, mindful action to restore habitats and species, much of his work is about finding ways to use the skills, knowledge and livelihoods in today’s landscapes as the basis of a future with a sustainable balance between the needs of nature, business and people’s quality of life.
Andrew Barbour is a farmer and forester, working in Highland Perthshire. He was the chairman of the Scottish Government’s Woodland Expansion Advisory Group which reported back in 2010, looking at the ambitions of Govt to expand forestry at that time. More recently he was part of the Deer Working Group which has just recently reported to Scottish Government.
Finn Weddle is a self-directed student of agroforestry and an advocate of regenerative livelihoods, ecological design and agroecology. He is especially passionate about the landscape and the businesses and communities that shape it, and is bringing this session to the NRFC to highlight the work being undertaken in Scotland and cross-pollinate learnings with English counterparts. He is also a Director of Reforesting Scotland, has worked extensively with Permaculture Scotland and consults on ecological enterprise, sharing learnings through The Regenerative Livelihood Podcast.
Patrick Laurie worked as a project manager for the Heather Trust over eight years, promoting integrated moorland management for a variety of land uses across the UK uplands, including agriculture, peatland, renewables and fieldsports. He then moved to Soil Association Scotland to deliver their Farming with Nature program, before setting up as an independent moorland management consultant. Alongside this work, he now manages the Galloway Hills Network, a project to promote diverse and sustainable upland farming in southwest Scotland. He has also been running a herd of pedigree galloway cattle in a variety of conservation projects for black grouse and curlews since 2015.
This session included a forty minute presentation on some different perspectives about what we need to achieve farming which is sustainable for people (producers processors and consumers), land, wildlife, economics and society’s connection with the environment. We looked at some facts, where we would like to see change, what the benefits of those changes are and what are the challenges. After the presentation there was a conversation with participants about the suggestions made, other options and thoughts for action.
Speakers/hosts:
Graham Bell MA FCIM FRSA DipPerm Inst, is the author of The Permaculture Way and the Permaculture Garden and lives in Coldstream in the Scottish Borders. He is Chairman of Permaculture Scotland, and of the UK wide Education Working Group which has just made working with young people its number one priority. Along with his partner Nancy he has cultivated and nurtured a forest garden, which is the longest established of it’s kind in Scotland. The forest garden is a ScotLAND demonstration site for permaculture students and specialists alike. Graham now works largely in regeneration and community development at a strategic level but has many years experience in teaching and guiding students on the permaculture learning path. He is in constant contact with senior politicians and the media and so is also in a position to influence Government policy. He is currently consulting on various farm scale projects in the North with an emphasis on environmental and social improvement. Graham is an internationally respected teacher, author and lecturer in Permaculture and other allied disciplines. The lead instructor on the Countryside Premium Scheme (for farmers) for Scotland in the nineties, he has taught on five continents. His home in the Scottish Borders boasts the longest standing intentional food forest garden in Britain. Over a thousand visitors a year (in previous times) attest to the amazing productivity of this space. His main career he shares “is as a storyteller”. We learn and teach understanding for all the creatures in the living environment, how they interact and how we can make them available sustainable for all with the least amount of work. We never cease believing a better future is possible and we keep sharing the skills to make it happen. This is only possible because we respect the prior knowledge of everyone who joins us in this progression.
Charlie Wannop is an extension worker on organic farming and rural development and an adviser on Organic farming and management. He has worked extensively overseas and is a trainer in business management and strategy, organic production rural enterprise, development. Previously he was Head of Outreach for the Organic Farming Centre based at Edinburgh University, and the Scottish Agricultural College. He has lectured at several colleges both in UK and overseas.
Hosted by the Forest of Bowland AONB and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.
This session was an interactive discussion around the following points:
– Best bits and challenges of group work – Outcomes which can be achieved through group working – Advantages of membership – Ways forward including funding group working
There is a view that facilitated cluster groups can be a very effective way of building good relationships with farmers, providing interesting and relevant training and encouraging landscape scale action and delivery. There have been many case studies from the South of England, but much less discussion of the particular issues for groups in the uplands – in terms of how groups operate, how they can be funded and how delivery (in addition to training sessions) can be achieved.
This session explored how to integrate cluster groups into ELM and to hear from people about various funding models. Farmers attending the conference may be inspired to join or think about forming a group, after hearing about experiences and achievements in this session.
Speakers/hosts:
Sarah Robinson has worked within the agri-environmental sector since 1994, advising farmers on scheme applications and on the production and implementation of habitat management and restoration projects. Sarah has been part of the Forest of Bowland AONB team since 2012, implementing meadow and moorland restoration schemes as well as advising farmers and landowners on conversation more generally. Since 2018 Sarah has also been the facilitator for the Pendle Hill Farmers Network, which has 29 members and operates within the Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership area in East Lancashire.
Hannah Fawcett joined the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority in 2004. Her current role is largely around delivering advice on Countryside Stewardship and she has also recently facilitated the Lunesdale Facilitation farmer group. In addition, Hannah also farms with her partner Andrew Keiley in upper Wensleydale, They were active members of the Wensleydale Facilitation Fund group, that finished in March 2020.
Tarja Wilson has worked within the agri-environmental sector since 1990, advising farmers on scheme applications and worked on the development and implementation of landscape/habitat/access management and restoration projects. Between 1990-2016 worked for Lancashire Countryside Service in North Lancashire and Forest of Bowland AONB, followed by 9 months working for a upland contractor before I joined the Farm Conservation team at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority in 2017. Facilitated the Wensleydale Natural Flood Management Group which ran for 3 years between May 2017 and March 2020; this group was made up of 34 farmer/landowner members based in Upper Wensleydale.
In February of this year, Richard and Joseph were fortunate enough to open our inaugural restaurant concept in Manchester: Higher Ground. During the evening of the launch, we were introduced to a local, regenerative cattle farmer named Jane. Jane is based in Nantwich, Cheshire, and has been regeneratively farming cattle for over a decade and is in the process of converting 200 acres of depleted dairy pasture into more diverse ecosystems as she expands her herd.
A young organic grower called Michael Fitzsimmons also attended the evening. Michael has been working with small-scale organic farms and growing operations within the UK for ten years. We first met Michael when he interned in the kitchen at Where The Light Gets In, Stockport. The purpose of his visit was for him to study how to develop the direct relationship between growers and chefs.
A few weeks later we found ourselves around a dinner table, eating and discussing all things soil related. During this discussion, Jane mentioned her vision to have an organic vegetable production as part of the ecosystem she is creating out at her pasture farm, and so began the idea of us working in collaboration. In the past few months and during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have explored how a relationship can mutually benefit everyone involved and how to share responsibilities between us and through this have begun work on the creation of our collaborative project – Poole Bank Market Garden.
The session explored the opportunities for chefs and farmers to collaborate.
Speakers/hosts:
Joseph Otway sees ingredients through a lens that is dictated by nature. He is in constant pursuit of the ingredients which have the most exciting background and draws inspiration from his travels around the globe. Joseph’s quest for sustainability, connection to agriculture and talent for showcasing flavour ensure his kitchens will be forward-thinking and delicious. Most recently, Joseph was Head Chef at Where The Light Gets In, creating a dining experience that took guests through a journey of British heritage and the history of where our food in the North-West originates. A dedicated focus on working with small organic farms has allowed him to create an intimate network of producers and growers to work with. Joseph worked at Relae in Copenhagen, identified as one of the world’s most sustainable restaurants. Working closely everyday with ‘The Farm of Ideas’, this role has focused his ability to use ingredients to their maximum potential. As a cook at Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Joseph pushed his thinking about how vegetables can be used in a new direction. In 2016, Dan asked Joseph to present at the New York Times Food for Tomorrow conference, he spoke about the missed opportunities to be found in culturally undesirable tomatoes. He launched his first restaurant in Manchester in 2020 called Higher Ground.
Richard Cossins’ foray into restaurants began at his local seafood restaurant in Hertfordshire, England. A passion for representing well-sourced, sustainable ingredients was soon established and in 2008 he moved to London to work at the acclaimed fine dining restaurants Pétrus and Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley in Knightsbridge. For a brief period Richard traded the food world for that of marketing but his love for restaurants was too great and became restaurant manager of Roganic in Marylebone in 2012. Richard worked for Simon Rogan for four years and was a part of Fera at Claridge’s senior opening team that won a Michelin star in the first three months of being open. At the beginning of 2016, Richard relocated to Westchester County, New York, to join the management team at Dan Barber’s restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns. During his tenure the restaurant reached a high of number 11 in the World 50 Best Restaurant List and won two Michelin stars when he was General Manager in 2019. He left at the end of 2019 to launch his first restaurant in Manchester in 2020 called Higher Ground.
Michael Fitzsimmons is a Liverpool-born organic grower. After training at Abbey Home Farm in The Cotswolds he has gone on to intern at Farm of Ideas in Copenhagen and currently works as Assistant Grower at Moor Hall in Ormskirk. He is passionate about collaborating with chefs to bring the farm to the fork.
Jane Oglesby owns Jane’s Farm in Nantwich, Cheshire, and has spent years developing an approach to rearing livestock and understanding the nutritional value of her produce. She has established firm principles upon which she wishes to build her business relating to suppliers, range and customer experience. Jane is converting depleted dairy pasture into a more diverse ecosystem as she expands her herd, currently farming 200 acres.
This session highlighted the benefits to the farm ecosystem that integrating livestock and trees can bring. We shared how we have brought together native cattle and on farm woodland to reduce the need for supplements, enable outwintering of cattle and promote positive animal health and welfare. Using Holistic Management has enabled us to manage for both wildlife and, diversity and cattle health.
The session reviewed the work we currently undertake as graziers and explored how the approach could be scaled up and adopted across the agriculture sector and how that affects the contribution it makes as a key component of the biosphere.
Speaker/host:
Nikki and her husband James run a small farm and grazier business in NE Scotland. They raise cattle and poultry in a low input system utilising agroecological principles. Nikki has a role with the Pasture Fed Livestock Association as Research Coordinator, supporting knowledge exchange in the context of pasture fed livestock.
Permaculture is often used in rural settings, which don’t reflect the reality for the majority of the world’s population. This is set against an uncertain and rapidly changing world. Working with refugees, P4R has gained experience in ways of life that are, unfortunately, likely to become common. With mass migration, crowded settlements will become a new norm in urban and rural areas, compounded by economic collapse, global warming, and possibly further pandemics. Permaculture has the potential through its relevance to local bioregions and knowledge, and, working through principles to meet their needs. Facing an uncertain future requires people, materials, and methods to convey these to vulnerable communities and those living in crowded environments to the point where they can manage and scale up the learning and applications themselves.
It can reasonably be expected that: • life will become precarious even in rural settings, • informal settlements will increase • wealthy may leave cities and work from home etc. • future of teaching people under COVID-19 conditions, as now, becomes, impossible • food and water security will be less secure • refugees, IDPs and other victims of political and environmental breakdown will have fewer rights
P4R looks at different applications for diverse people and cultures in such media as radio, comics, books (clear illustrations with simple language), animation, online courses and workshops, written materials, and posters. Links will be made with local organisations, WhatsApp, and other social media to teach hosts/local people (1/2,1/3 ratio) and with concepts to be easily translated into a variety of refugee languages as a priority. Creativity helps us to live and adapt to our realities.
This session explored learning, future models and their relevance to the North of England and Scotland.
Speakers/hosts:
Marguerite Kahrl is a permaculture artist. Her artistic projects include citizen initiatives, and collectives activating change in a culture of living towards a more resilient existence. As an artist, she has demonstrated a way forward by articulating and responding to change on various levels. Her projects range from onsite participatory projects in support of sustainable and equitable leadership to creating relational objects that exist as artefacts with the power to change perspectives and establish collaborative collectives. For the last twenty years, Marguerite has dedicated her time and energy to permaculture and art to address global challenges, including but not limited to the current refugee crisis. Committed to social impact design, she has collaborated with diverse communities in the USA and Europe and co-designed with them inspiring examples of socially engaged design. These projects successfully bridge social, economic, and political divides and create laboratories of human coexistence that communities use to change the culture of living towards a more resilient existence and coexistence, in rural and urban contexts. Her work has been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions. She has lectured widely on her art projects and participatory practices in Europe, the US, and China, India, Turkey, and Armenia. She has given panel discussions for the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Architecture Information Centre Finland, Design, Helsinki; Communication for Eco-Social Transitions, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy; and the Hayata Destek Derneği | Support to Life, Ankara, Turkey. www.kahrl.com
Rosemary Morrow has been engaged since the 1970s in critical development work and food security with countries suffering war and civil war. Her work has been involved with the most disadvantaged people. Rebuilding societies and food security is challenging work and requires personal qualities of connection with others and sound techniques and strategies. She recognises these in colleagues. She has worked with many NGOs. As a Quaker and permaculturist, her work took her to Viet Nam when the country was broken, Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime, Albania, East Timor, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Iraq, and others. She has realised the needs of people in forced mass migration for autonomy, respect, and occupations. Projects in these countries were largely successful when decisions and management were handed over to the local people. She is author of one of the world’s best-selling books on Permaculture. She is a co-founder Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute and Permaculture for Refugees.
You can read a blog post about the session outcomes here.
This session highlighted two examples of farmer groups that are encouraging a transition to more regenerative farming practices. Attendees gained an insight into the challenges of running farmer groups and how further successes may be achieved in other regions in the UK, as well as learning first hand from farmers that are pioneering new approaches in the Cumbrian uplands.
Speakers/hosts:
Jimmy Woodrow is primarily responsible for growing the market for Pasture for Life products through building public awareness of the PFLA’s activities and developing pasture-fed supply chains. In addition, he is leading on the PFLA’s upcoming ten-year strategy. Jimmy started his career in corporate finance and has recently spent seven years in a range of senior roles within the food industry, including at Neal’s Yard Dairy and GAIL’s Bakery. He is now freelancing and focused on the financing and development of agroecological supply chains.
Sam Beaumont is a farmer at Gowbarrow Hall Farm near Ullswater and recently started the Wilder Gowbarrow project, a hybrid between regenerative agriculture and rewilding. He has a herd of Shorthorn cattle, Kune Kune pigs and fell ponies. The beef enterprise became certified pasture-fed last year, and beef is sold direct nationwide. He has also been the PFLA Cumbria upland group co-ordinator for nearly 2 years, organising a range of events from farm visits, to talks/ seminars.
Danny Teasdale set up the Ullswater Catchment Management CIC, after the storms of 2015 ravaged the county of Cumbria and, in particular, the village of Glenridding. In an effort to help improve flood resilience and prove it possible to restore nature in a way that complements sustainable farming, the CIC was created, and now has a proven track record of delivering real projects and facilitating groups.
Garry Miller is a farmer from Penruddock, near Ullswater and keeps sheep, cattle, chickens and pigs. He is a member of both the PFLA Cumbria Upland group and Danny Teasdale’s Ullswater Catchment group, and has recently been using rotational grazing and both planting and laying hedges in order to improve his farming system.
Nicola Renison is from near Renwick, Cumbria, where she farms with her husband, Paul. They are pioneering many regenerative approaches to farming their sheep, cattle, pigs and chickens and host farm visits, including one for the PFLA Cumbria group. Nicola is also the knowledge exchange manager for the AHDB and is part of the team organising Carbon Calling Festival, set to take place in Cumbria in June 2021.
Julia Aglionby is the Chair of the Cumbria Inquiry for the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Julia is Executive Director of the Foundation for Common Land, Chair of the Uplands Alliance, a practicing Rural Chartered Surveyor and Agricultural Valuer and a Professor in Practice at the University of Cumbria. Julia was a Board Member of Natural England from 2014 – 2019. She has worked as an environmental economist on National Park Management in Indonesia and the Philippines. Julia’s PhD research was at Newcastle University Law School and her thesis was entitled Governance of Common Land in National Parks: Plurality and Purpose. Julia lives in the Eden Valley, Cumbria with her family on an organic Care Farm of which she is a Trustee – Susan’s Farm CIO – where she enjoys practical farm work at the weekends.
Hosted by the Hannah Field and Julia Aglionby, Foundation for Common Land.
The Our Common Cause (OCC) project completed its development phase in 2019 and now has funding for the delivery phase from the Heritage Lottery Fund and match funding from partners. The delivery is starting this year and will be complete in 2023. Focusing on upland commons, but with implications for land management more broadly, this project has 4 themes: collaboration, resilience, commons for all and commons for tomorrow. Commons differ to other forms of land management as they are based on the ancient practice of commoning, where communities of interdependent farms manage resources collectively for the benefit of all, with a view to being sustainable and resilient. The OCC project will deliver opportunities to co-create a sustainable future for common land, improving commons management and providing shared learning that can apply to other landscapes.
There are 3 commons from each of Cumbria, Yorkshire, Shropshire and Dartmoor in the OCC project so there are specific examples in a Northern England context to focus on. This session will be a set of presentations based on the OCC theme of collaboration, looking at collective management and what this means in practice including the challenges, benefits and opportunities. Working collectively is not always easy but it can provide opportunities to build supportive, resilient communities whilst delivering multiple benefits from landscapes to society, such as food, biodiversity, water quality and carbon storage. We hope that participants can learn about commoning as a form of collaborative management through the presentations and questions, and through following the progress of OCC delivery over the next 3 years. Presentations included one from Julia Aglionby, Chief Executive of the Foundation for Common Land and chair of the OCC project and from Hannah Field who is doing her PhD research alongside OCC. Hannah is researching the different narratives, perspectives and values within commons and how these can be brought together for social and ecological benefit through place-based decision-making.
Find out more about OCC: foundationforcommonland.org.uk/our-common-cause
Speakers/hosts:
Julia Aglionby is Executive Director of the Foundation for Common Land, Chair of the Uplands Alliance, a practicing Rural Chartered Surveyor and Agricultural Valuer and Professor in Practice at the University of Cumbria. Julia was a Board Member of Natural England from 2014 – 2019. She has worked as an environmental economist on National Park Management in Indonesia and the Philippines. Julia’s PhD research was at Newcastle University Law School and her thesis was entitled Governance of Common Land in National Parks: Plurality and Purpose. Julia lives in the Eden Valley, Cumbria with her family on an organic Care Farm of which she is a Trustee – Susan’s Farm CIO – where she enjoys practical farm work at the weekends.
Hannah Field grew up in Rochester, Kent and has spent the last 10 years in Cumbria, beginning with her studies at the University of Cumbria gaining a BSc (Hons) in Animal Conservation Science and then, in 2019, her PGDip Ecosystem Services Evaluation. Hannah is currently a PhD Student at the University, researching how diverse perspectives and values in land management can be brought together for social and ecological benefit through place-based decision-making. During this time, Hannah has worked for Forestry England in communications and visitor experience and runs her own business. She is an artist and tutor in wool crafts, designs and teaches nature-based and regenerative livelihood programmes and helps with horticulture and livestock on a permaculture smallholding. Hannah weaves together practical experience and academic knowledge to inform her research and practice. Building relationships with the land threads Hannah’s life through fell-walking, mountaineering, lake swimming and gardening, always with collie-dog Nova.
Since the 1980s, permaculture pioneers have been creating innovative farms and smallholdings around the world using a design approach and ecological principles. From the initial information, it looks like permaculture-designed farms will score very highly under The Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), the payment scheme that will be used to distribute “public money for public goods” as the Basic Payment Scheme is phased out from 2024. Farmers and land managers will no longer be paid to produce food, and will instead be paid to deliver public goods like clean air and water, biodiversity and heritage.
This session brought together two experienced permaculture designers and practitioners, who, alongside the CEO of the Permaculture Association, demonstrated the design approach, gave practical examples and showed how permaculture design provides a clear pathway to farmers looking to diversify their land, improve soil, biodiversity and income.
The session combined short, focused presentations and video clips with Q&A and panel discussion.
Speakers/hosts:
Hannah Thorogood is a permaculture farmer, designer and teacher. She has set up and runs her own 18 acre permaculture demonstration farm, The Inkpot. Hannah has taken the farm from a depleted, compacted, toxic arable field into the diverse, abundant farm it is today demonstrating permaculture, regenerative agriculture and producing nationally award winning food. Hannah is a senior tutor with the permaculture diploma system and has been teaching permaculture design courses for 15 years and permaculture teaching courses for 10 years. She has a reputation for creating a very accepting and fun learning environment, putting people from all backgrounds at ease to enjoy their learning together. Hannah has a BSc in Environmental Studies from Manchester University & an MSc Organic Farming from Scottish Agricultural College. She also loves to knit and crochet using her own Inkpot wool.
Niels Corfield is an advisor, researcher, educator, designer, grower and nurseryman who has been working to deliver a truly sustainable food system for over 10 years. Over this time Niels has acquired an amazing breadth of knowledge and gained experience on many different farms. This enables him to draw on a wide range of practical tools and techniques to find what works in every new situation. He works to create sustainable/regenerative landscapes, farms and spaces in the UK and Europe with a focus on agro-ecological systems that are low maintenance and productive. Niels works in partnership with the PFLA on soils, coordinating the PFLA soils monitoring project – establishing an empiric case for healthy soils on pasture and mixed farms – and provides a number of services direct to farmers.
Andy Goldring is the Chief Executive of the Permaculture Association and has been supporting the organisation’s farm policy work since 2000 through projects such as the influential Low Carbon Farming initiative, member working groups and network learning events. Andy has provided direct project support to many member farmers and smallholders and initiated the LAND demonstration network which now has 100+ sites that can be visited in the UK. Andy is currently working to develop the association’s advice and support for farmers wishing to use the permaculture design approach to achieve maximum ecological, social and financial benefits once the new ELMS scheme has been implemented.
