“There is an emergency on the land”, warns Patrick Holden, founder of Sustainable Food Trust — a charity promoting regenerative food and farming systems better for people and planet. With over half a century’s experience in biodynamic farming, we would be wise to heed his warning.
Although farming is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, SFT does not blame farmers – many of whom are struggling financially – but the policies that push them to intensify their practices.
Holden describes farmers as brothers and sisters on the land who share a common experience, and SFT‘s informative podcast shines a light on these human stories.
Talking to organic farmers, chefs, herbalists, molecular geneticists, heads of sustainable development initiatives, activists, and educators, Holden takes a balanced look at a future where eating habits are transformed and farming systems work in harmony with nature.
Some of the farming methods SFT promotes are crop rotation (avoiding chemical use) and systems tailor-made for specific environments, aligning farming with regenerative practices of the circular economy — a system based on reducing, reusing, and recycling. To find out more, watch their beautifully-filmed videos showcasing the findings of their report, Feeding Britain from the Ground Up.
In one podcast episode, Holden speaks with Sarah Langford, author of Rooted: How Regenerative Farming Can Change the World (Penguin, 2023), exploring her journey from barrister to farmer. Langford discusses how regenerative farming was seen as fringe as recently as 2018, but says this is now the direction of travel. With intensive farming comes competitiveness, says Langford – who recounts a tale of one farmer spraying extra nitrogen around his field edges to make his crops seem bigger than his neighbours’.
Regenerative farming shifts from showing off how big your yields are to sharing mistakes so we may learn from them, and farm clusters have been created to empower farmers through knowledge sharing. Langford speaks about enterprise, economics, and diversity in farming — of plants, animals, people, and financial diversity.
As farmer Angus Nelless says in a Feeding Britain Case Study, sustainable farming has great benefits for environment, wildlife, and biodiversity, but has to start with being financially sustainable. Organic farming, says Langford, teaches us to look for the root of problems — a guiding principle for farmers, ourselves, and governments.
By looking at our food systems, Langford suggests we may find the answers to many crises society faces, such as obesity, pollution, and climate change. We exist in a unified whole and, as King Charles III, Patron of SFT, puts it, “What we do to nature, we do to ourselves”.
If you are a farmer, policymaker, business leader, food producer or campaigner interested in regenerative food or farming, or a consumer wishing to educate yourself on eating sustainably, listen to SFTs podcast.
It is vital, says Langford, we take the message and spread it beyond the narrow reach of the farming community. Real yet hopeful, SFT opens a window into another world — one we all depend on but many of us know nothing about.
The Sustainable Food Trust Podcast
Reviewed by Wicked Leeks’ Resources Editor, R. B. L. Robinson
