Building Fair & Resilient Systems - Northern Real Farming Conference

Facilitating a transition to regenerative livestock farming in the North

Hosted by the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association.

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.

Our Common Cause: Collective and collaborative management of upland commons and beyond.

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.

Will Rawling and Rosie Snowden.

Practical ways to achieve Net Zero

Hosted by the Nature Friendly Farming Network.

This session will share advice from farming experts and those with first-hand experience of reducing carbon emissions. Participants will hear from experts from the farming, NGO and academic communities, including some pioneering farmers who are already making significant headway to Net Zero on their farms. NFFN have created a guide to help achieve Net Zero which will be shared with attendees.

‘Net Zero’ refers to the overall balance between emissions produced and emissions taken out of the atmosphere. Achieving Net Zero is required to meet the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global temperatures below a 1.5°C rise above pre-industrial levels. According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have less than 12 years to contain global warming within the 1.5°C target. To achieve the scale of change needed, action must be taken now to reduce emissions and lay the foundations for the longer-term transformation required. Following expert advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the UK Government has committed to a legally binding net-zero carbon target for 2050. The NFU has recently set out an ambition to achieve Net Zero from agriculture by 2040 (in England & Wales).

Achieving Net Zero will require all sectors to act urgently, and the UK farming and land use sector, which currently contributes 10% of overall greenhouse gases, can make a significant contribution. Recent research by Green Alliance suggests that by cutting emissions from agriculture, restoring ecosystems, planting trees and protecting soils, emissions from UK land use could be reduced by 60% by 2030.

There is no silver bullet. A range of measures are required to achieve Net Zero from UK agriculture and land use, and the most effective actions will vary depending on farm type and geography. Attendees will leave the session with a clear understanding of Net Zero and some practical action they can take now to contribute to the target.

Speakers/hosts:

Helen Chesshire is lead farming advocate at the Woodland Trust, responsible for working with both the farming sector and policy makers to promote the benefits of trees on farms. Otherwise known as agroforestry, the deliberate integration of trees within agricultural crops and livestock is a win–win for sustainable food production and the natural environment. The Woodland Trust can provide advice and support to farmers interested in agroforestry. Helen grew up on a dairy and sheep farm in the Midlands.

Chris Clark, with his wife Fiona, owns and manages Nethergill Farm. They are currently building a 180 ha eco-hill farm business with a sustainable added-value meat activity, an educational and field study facility and eco-tourism holiday lets (www.nethergill.co.uk). He is a partner in Nethergill Associates, a business management consultancy currently assisting with the conjecturing and management of future farming uncertainties nationally. A former farm tenant and farm manager, he now has thirty years of business management experience, many within the agriculture and allied food industry, of which over thirty years were managing his own businesses. Nethergill Associates has expertise in financial management, marketing and farm business planning. Chris is also a member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and the North Yorkshire Rural Commission.

David Lord manages the farming side of his business on the North-East Essex coast, farming approx. 750ha of mixed soils but predominantly heavy London Clay. His farming system revolves around soil conservation and regeneration using cover cropping, diverse rotations and direct drilling to reduce inputs and improve biodiversity on the land he farms. His farm is also in HLS, and neighbours SSSI salt marsh owned by Essex Wildlife Trust, so he sees a lot of interesting bird life and a variety of habitats on the farm. David is a strong supporter of independent science and farmer-led decision making. He is currently chairman of Colchester branch NFU, and a steering group member for the AHDBs Eastern strategic farm.

Martin is a farmer and contractor in South Cambridgeshire, growing mainly arable crops on his family farm and rented land. He has a special interest in farm conservation management, currently running an ELS and HLS agreement and has Countryside Stewardship schemes on land he rents and manages. He also supports the delivery of Stewardship schemes for a number of other farmers. Martin is the UK Chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network.

Selling better food – the Better Food Traders.

Hosted by Natasha Soares, Better Food Traders with the Manchester Veg Box People.

Where you buy your food from could be seen as equally important to what you eat.

Better Food Traders enable citizens to connect with food retailers who genuinely support a better food system – they are community-led, support sustainable farmers and provide decent jobs.

By working collectively as Better Food Traders, we make it easier for people to reduce their food choice impacts on the climate and nature crisis. Using our principles as guidelines, we support those farmers, growers, organisations and businesses committed to a more sustainable food system, who feed people really well too.

We invited participants to consider the Better Food Traders nine principles and to decide which of these are the most important to them in a better food future. We also shared how you can join ‘Know Better Food’, our peer-to-peer support network for anyone who wants to make their food choices work for the environment and people. Participants will understand more about the principles behind Better Food Traders, how they are all linked and how they can see past the ‘greenwash’ to the real radical retailers.

Speakers/hosts:

Natasha Soares is Project Leader for Better Food Traders, Growing Communities’ new network for ethics-based food businesses. She was a co-founder of Growing Communities, Hackney’s multiple award-sustainable food initiative, and has been a board member of Local Greens, a South London-based sustainable veg scheme, since 2011. She also shares the ownership and work of Pear Necessities, an organic top-fruit orchard in Kent.

Amy Shadbolt is involved in the day to day running of Vegboxpeople – a veg box scheme under the umbrella of the Manchester-based co-operative Kindling Trust who use food to catalyze environmental and social change. As well as packing, driving and co-ordinating, she writes the weekly newsletter, regularly trying out new recipes to include in them – look out for her favourite Middle Eastern dishes. In pre-corona days you’d often find Amy at a parkrun, and she is the Guinness Book of Records’ world’s fastest vegetable – having run the 2019 London Marathon in 3:32 wearing a full carrot costume.

You can read a blog post about the session outcomes here.

Race and Ethnicity in Agriculture

Hosted by Navaratnam Partheen, British Veterinary Ethnicity and Diversity Society, in conversation with other speakers.

The Northern Real Farming Conference is exploring the challenges, vision and future of food and farming. The strength of agriculture is not only based on its methodology, processes and output but also in the people engaged, who make this sector what it is today. In such a diverse country, that we are lucky and fortunate to live in, we find that our sector does not reflect this richness. Equity and diversity is essential if we want an industry that attracts and keeps the best and brightest talent and which can effectively serve the country in the future. Improving the diversity and inclusivity of agriculture would help bring more people together from all backgrounds and so allow the public to relate to their food and understand the sector more. This discussion will explore these important themes with a focus on Race and Ethnicity. Topics discussed will include understanding the barriers to racial diversity and ideas on how we should move forward if we are to have a welcoming and attractive sector for all. The speakers are all involved in different areas of agriculture and bring a wealth of personal experiences and ideas to the discussion.

Speakers/hosts:

Navaratnam Partheeban is a dairy vet and has previously taught at the Royal Agricultural University. He is the co-founder of the British Veterinary Ethnicity and Diversity Society (BVEDS) which aims to promote, support and educate on issues of race and ethnicity in the veterinary profession and agricultural sector

Uma Selvon is a 4^th year veterinary medicine student from the University of Surrey. Since starting placements at uni, she has become an aspiring farm or mixed practice vet as has loved working with large animals. She is proud to join this panel as diversity and inclusion in agriculture is still a big issue and it sometimes puts her off joining the community, so she would like to see it begin to change.

Flavian Obiero is a pig farmer managing a farrow to finish unit in East Sussex. The subject of Race and Ethnicity in Agriculture is important as he works in the industry and see first hand the lack of people from ethnic minorities in farming. The British agricultural industry needs to do more to attract people from all backgrounds into farming and not just generational farmers.

Esme Filsinger-Worrell works at St Werburghs City Farm In Bristol as a business manager, as well as heading up a six month research project exploring barriers to access for diverse communities at the farm. Esme is also a business coach for creative entrepreneurs. Esme is passionate about removing barriers to access to green spaces and the wider countryside for BIPOC.

Hannah graduated from the Royal Agricultural University with a BSc in International Business Management (Food and Agribusiness) in 2018 and has been working in Quality and Compliance for a leading drinks company since then. She is based in London but travels all over England to work with suppliers; which has given her even more exposure to the agri-food supply chain. As a white ally, she aims to continually work to achieve and inspire racial justice so everyone does not have their access to opportunity restricted due to their race or ethnicity.

Building food security through resilient short food supply chains; online shopfronts for farmers, growers and producers

Hosted by Nick Weir, Open Food Network, with Woodlea small-holding and Bowhouse Link.

The pandemic has made it even clearer that we need to build more resilient food systems. Systems that enable farmers and growers to have multiple, local, short supply chains enabling them to get their produce to the eaters and the buyers through many different channels that can be quickly adapted to suit changing circumstances.

This session started with brief screen-sharing presentations from a producer and a distributor who have used the Open Food Network to quickly build an online shopfront to enable shoppers and buyers to browse products from multiple local producers, order and pay online and then either collect from pick-up points (with social distancing) or have home delivery.

Participants were then be able to discuss how they are distributing produce and share ideas on distribution, collaborating with neighbouring producers and options for online shopfronts.

Speakers/hosts:

Rosie Jack manages Bowhouse Link an online market place for local food and drink producers and traders in the East Neuk of Fife. The Bowhouse Link is an online market place to continue the connection between producers with customers. Shoppers and buyers use our online shopfront to access to local, fresh and seasonal produce from our Bowhouse traders. During the Covid-19 outbreak all orders will be delivered but looking to the future when we can all get out and about again we will also offer a free collection service at Bowhouse and other mini-hubs in our East Neuk community.

Liane Cumming is part of the team running Woodlea Stables – a smallholding in West Fife. They sell eggs from our small flocks of free range hens and bread from an on site artisan bakery. During the lockdown she had to quickly set up an online shopfront to sell our eggs and bread.

Nick Weir is a part-time grower on a CSA project. He also helps to run an online food hub which is a co-op of 85 producer members and 350 shopper members. He is part of a team supporting farmers, growers and community food enterprises to build resilient, secure local food distribution systems by linking producers to eaters using open source, not-for-profit online shopfronts.

You can read a blog post about the session outcomes here.

From research to action: Supporting food, farming and health transitions to a greener and fairer society for all.

Hosted by Hannah Field, Sue Pritchard and Julia Aglionby, Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.

The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission are turning the recommendations from the ‘Our Future in the Land’ report, developed over 2 years of participatory research, into practical actions with our partners in governments, businesses and communities. This is being supported through 6 place-based inquiries – 3 in England, and 1 in each of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, with funding from Esmée Fairburn Foundation. The recommendations are, at their core, focusing on connecting food, farming and the public’s health for a just transition to a greener, fairer economy in response to the climate, nature, health and now Covid-19 emergencies. To enable these actions, we are helping to convene collective leadership and collaboration across sectors and stakeholders.

Cumbria is our Northern England inquiry, focusing on upland contexts. This session was an excellent opportunity to engage with stakeholders and gain valuable input and collaboration to support this 3-year implementation, action-focused phase. There will be an overview of the inquiries nationally and then a focus on Cumbria to explore how we might implement some of the recommendations. The recommendations we discussed could include (subject to change at this early stage of the inquiry):
• a National Nature Service to support young people from different backgrounds to experience meaningful land-based work to kickstart the regenerative economy
• a roadmap to support the transition into agroecological farming practice
• supporting equitable distribution of the health and wellbeing benefits of access to landscapes and nature connection.

Participants received a summary report of the session and next steps in the inquiry.

Find out more about the work and reports at ffcc.co.uk

Speakers/hosts:

Sue Pritchard is Chief Executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, a newly independent charitable organisation working across the UK and funded by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Its mission is to help implement the recommendations contained in its reports in June 2019, accelerating the transition to a fair, sustainable food and farming system and a thriving countryside, reversing climate change, restoring nature, and improving public health and wellbeing. Sue runs an organic, permaculture livestock farm in Wales, home to the Silver Birch Foundation, a charity providing education, training and development for disaffected young people, in partnership with local schools.

Hannah Field is the Cumbria Inquiry Coordinator for the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Hannah 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 in case studies of common land contexts. During this time in Cumbria, 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.

You can read a blog post about the session outcomes here.

Moving beyond food aid – how do we change it from a hand out to a hand up?

Hosted by Feedback with Food Works, Sheffield and the Open Kitchen Manchester.

What role does locally-owned redistribution and food entrepreneurship play? A discussion about access and changing environments from food deserts and swamps to food oases.

An opportunity to have a conversation with a wide range of people on the subject of changing the nationalised food system to a more regionally-focused, people-centred one. Is this possible? How can we get locally-based growers and food producers more embedded into the food economy? What are the challenges and what are the opportunities?

The recent Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how fragile our centralised food supply systems are. Brexit will bring new challenges. Is it time to do things differently? This session will posit various questions and scenarios and invite participants to help co-create an ambitious Plan B that offers a practical vision for food redistribution, both surplus and first harvest, to support a regional food economy and sustainable menus for the north.

We think this may be of interest to: growers and farmers who would like to provide a direct supply to communities; food citizens who want to find out how they can support local supply chains; anyone who eats and cares where it comes from!

Speakers/hosts:

Lucy Antal is Project Manager at Regional Food Economy NW. In this role, Lucy has created the Alchemic Kitchen, a social enterprise using surplus food and turning it into new products, as well as creating the food partnership the Knowsley Kitchen, which seeks to improve access to fresh food for everyone in that borough. She is an active participant in the Sustainable Food Cities Network, Co-founder of the Knowledge Quarter Sustainability Network and supported the creation of the AgroEcoCities European Network. Lucy held the post of Sustainable Food City Liverpool Coordinator for the Liverpool Food People project. She spent 10 years working in food and hospitality within London, before working for 13 years as Operations Manager & Project Developer for environmental charity the National Wildflower Centre. Lucy chairs the Alexandra Rose Voucher project steering group in Liverpool.

Jessica Sinclair Taylor is Head of Communications and Policy at Feedback. Jessica is a communications specialist and has extensive experience of campaigning and communicating on various issues including child poverty, ethical banking, women’s rights, climate change and development, working for the Fawcett Society, Move Your Money UK, the Overseas Development Institute and the Child Poverty Action Group. She was also a Fulbright Fellow. Jessica plans how Feedback can spread the word on the challenge our current food system poses to our environmental sustainability and climate, and our hard-hitting campaigns to tackle it. Spokesperson on: waste in supply chains; supermarket food waste scorecard; misleading labelling; fish farming.

Corin Bell founded Open Kitchen MCR (formerly Real Junk Food Manchester) in 2014. She is a project manager and campaigner who has worked with the community, charity, public and private sectors on projects around sustainability, environment, food waste and plastics reduction for over 10 years.

Rene Meijer joined Food Works Sheffield when it was founded in 2015 as ‘The Real Junk Food Project Sheffield’ and is the current CEO. Food Works is a social enterprise that aspires to create a more sustainable and fair food system in Sheffield. Food Works prevents up to a tonne of surplus food from going to waste every day, working with a small team of staff who support around 200 volunteers. This food is used to provide meals in community cafes, a daily food market, educational programs and public and private events. In total Food Works provides the equivalent of more than half a million meals per year while saving the same amount of carbon as sequestered by 30,000 trees. Rene moved to the UK from the Netherlands in 2004. Before joining Food Works he worked as a project and change manager in education, most recently for the University of Sheffield and the University of Derby.

All about Community Supported Agriculture

Hosted by Community Supported Agriculture Network UK with CSA farmers.

Are you thinking about setting up or converting to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model? Then this session is for you!

This is a practical session run by the CSA Network UK to answer some commonly asked questions and get you started. After a brief introduction to CSA participants will be able to choose to go into a group focusing on a specific topic and then move to a second topic for the second half of the session. Groups will be led by experienced individuals and participants will be able to discuss and ask questions.

Topics will include: Crop planning and scaling up production; Marketing and promoting your CSA and recruiting members; creating a founding group, legal structures and finance; Community-led CSA and how to run a producer-led CSA.

Speakers/hosts:

Gareth Davies is a passionate advocate of local food production and helped to set up Canalside Community Food CSA. As well as being a member of the steering committee, he helped establish an orchard and do the book keeping, finances and business planning. Recently he helped to set up Five Acre Community Farm on land rented from Garden Organic. He has also worked as a researcher with Garden Organic/HDRA looking at weeds, pest and diseases and varieties among other topics.

Ben Raskin has worked in horticulture for more than 20 years and has a wide range of practical commercial growing experience. For the Soil Association, he provides growers at all levels of production with technical, marketing, policy, supply chain and networking support. He also leads on their Agroforestry work. Ben is an author of gardening books for children and grownups. He is also currently implementing a 200-acre agroforestry planting in Wiltshire. Ben also co-chairs the newly formed Defra Edibles Horticulture Roundtable and sits on the boards of the Organic Growers Alliance.

Charlotte Barry spends a lot of time on her hands and knees growing and harvesting vegetables, as well as cooking and eating them! She is a founder member of Camel CSA in Cornwall, set up on two acres of rented land near Wadebridge in 2008. So she has plenty of hands-on experience running a community veg box scheme and working with volunteers. She also kept and bred poultry for many years. Her specific skills are in media and digital communications, arising from her career as a journalist, renewable energy publicist, media trainer and university lecturer. Follow Camel CSA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Rosa Bevan and James Reid run Tap o’ Noth Farm; an 8 acre, permaculture designed smallholding in rural north east Scotland. They operate a CSA market garden and veg box scheme from a quarter of an acre with a 20 week season for 50 shares. The veg box has been running for 5 years as a producer led CSA scheme and is one of just a handful of CSAs in Scotland.

Roger Plumtree from Kirkstall Valley CSA. Roger’s father was a farmer and his involvement as one of the leading figures in Kirkstall Valley CSA has taken him back to his roots. He is a keen supporter of the community supported agriculture model – and is also quick to stress the value of producing organic food, using natural pest control. He’s inspired by the smallholding model of agriculture the Chinese have mastered as a way forward for this country.

Mick Marston from Gibside CSA. Mick has previously worked for the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens and for the Soil Association in Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. He is a founder member of Gibside Community Farm

Jo Cartwright is from Swillington Organic Farm, a CSA on a mixed family farm outside Leeds

Suzy Russell has worked in environmental and arts-based community development for over 20 years and has skills and experience in relationship building, strategic management, leadership and income generation. She started out organising an environmental arts festival and running a community environmental centre in the North East before living in Spain for six years where she worked with a community street theatre group and set up an environmental community development project. More recently she’s been CEO at participatory arts organisation in West Yorkshire, building skills and knowledge in health and training and alongside this learning to teach mindfulness. She’s always had a patch to grow on, albeit with a wide range of growing conditions. She’s passionate about local food, wellbeing, creativity, nature, community and the magic of everyday life.

Unlocking land for CSA in the North of England: Challenges and Opportunities

Hosted by Community Supported Agriculture Network UK with perspectives from a panel of experts.

How can we access more land for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms and other small-scale regenerative agriculture in the North of England? Why is it so difficult to access land and what can we do to unlock more?
Hear from a fantastic panel of speakers coming at the topic from a range of angles. Panelists are Kate Swade (Shared Assets); Helen Woodcock (Kindling Trust); Graeme Willis (CPRE) and Guy Shrubsole (Environmental Campaigner) and the session is hosted by the CSA Network UK.

Speakers/hosts:

Kate Swade is Shared Assets’ co-executive director. She has over 15 years’ experience helping local authorities and communities collaborate in stewardship of their environments and neighbourhoods. She has designed and delivered qualitative and quantitative research projects at a variety of scales, and is an experienced trainer and facilitator. She has experience as a consultant to as well as an employee of land based social enterprises, supporting the creation of numerous business and governance models, and the crafting of business plans and strategies. She works across the full range of Shared Assets work including policy, research, consultancy and advocacy, and leads on organisational development and culture. Kate is a trustee of Toynbee Hall, a social justice charity in East London.

Graeme Willis is farming lead in the Rural Economy and Communities team at CPRE, the countryside charity. He joined CPRE in 2006 and launched new tranquillity and intrusion maps. He went on to manage research on local food webs across England. More recently he has written on farm diversity (New Model Farming, 2016), the loss of smaller farms (Uncertain harvest, 2017) and on agroecological management of soils (Back to the land, 2018). His current interests are: promoting better use of county farms and changing land use to address the climate emergency. Graeme was previously a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and tutor and research officer at Essex University where he gained an M.Env in Environment, Science and Society. He grew up in Cheshire where he regularly worked on family farms.

Helen Woodcock is a founding member of Greater Manchester’s Kindling Trust – working to create a fairer, more sustainable food system for Manchester and beyond. Over the last 13 years Helen has helped establish Kindling’s practical initiatives including our FarmStart programme, to encourage and support a new generation of organic growers; Woodbank Community Food Hub; and Kindling’s sister co-operatives Manchester Veg People and Veg Box People, to create fairer markets for organic growers and make local organic food accessible to all. Helen is currently focused on establishing the Kindling Farm, a 100+ acre organic agroforestry farm for the Northwest.

Guy Shrubsole is an environmental campaigner and author of Who Owns England? (William Collins, 2019), a book that delves into the secrecy surrounding land ownership, why it’s so unequal, and why that matters for how we use land. Guy helped co-author a recent report, Reviving County Farms, about the sell-off of council-owned farms, with NEF, Shared Assets and CPRE; and he’s currently campaigning to get a ban on moorland burning by grouse moor estates, coax landowners into investing more in natural climate solutions, and extend Right to Roam.