Farmerama

As lockdown came into effect, and supermarkets struggled to restock their fruit and vegetable aisles, the idea of “growing your own” took on a new significance. In towns and cities across the UK, those of us lucky enough to have access to gardens or balconies – even if we’d never grown anything before – suddenly started looking for compost, tools, and seeds.

Many of us discovered, perhaps for the first time, the joy of eating freshly picked, homegrown fruit and veg. It’s a joy that you just don’t get when you bite into something that’s been harvested unripe on the other side of the world, flown across oceans to be processed somewhere else, then eventually picked up from a supermarket chiller here in the UK – maybe weeks later.

But, to grow your own food, the first thing you need are seeds. For millennia – for the vast majority of our agricultural history, in fact – farmers saved their own seed. Over time, plants adapted to the specifics of the area they were growing in, and local varieties emerged. But when seed companies developed F1 hybrids, which can’t be harvested and re-sown year after year, things changed. The genetics of these hybrids are too unstable – there’s no knowing how your crop will turn out. So farmers and growers reliant on F1 hybrids have to buy their seeds every single year.

By saving and sharing open-pollinated seed, farmers and growers – and communities – are helping make sure our food supply can withstand the shocks of climate change. And, they’re also reclaiming collective control of the seeds we all depend on to feed ourselves – ensuring that we all have access to those seeds, even during a crisis – like a pandemic.

Featuring:

Astrid Guillabeau:

Neville Portas: https://nodiggitygdns.wordpress.com/

Dee Woods: https://granvillecommunitykitchen.wordpress.com/

Helene Schulze: https://www.seedsovereignty.info/

Farmerama.co

Producer: Alice Armstrong

Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose

Community Collaborators: Andre Reid, Dhelia Snoussi

Project Manager: Olivia Oldham

Artwork: Hannah Grace www.hgraceoc.com/

Music: Michael O'Neil

PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow

Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

American poet and farmer Gary Snyder writes of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the food chain. He says, “To acknowledge that each of us at the table will eventually be part of the meal is not just being ‘realistic.’ It is allowing the sacred to enter and accepting the sacramental aspect of our shaky temporary personal being.” In this episode, we explore the ways in which a growing consciousness is developing around food, based on ideas of reverence, and gratitude.

How have the people who care for the animals that feed us – both in life and in death – changed during this time of crisis? How has the way they understand the future of food been altered by the pandemic, and their own responses to it? How do they see their own place in that future? Who Feeds Us? is a celebration of these key workers, a thank you and a call to action – so we don’t forget just how ‘key’ they are.

Featuring:

Dean Wright: https://www.ballyliskofarmagh.com/

Muhsen Hassanin: https://abrahamshalalmeat.com/

John Martin Tulloch: https://www.tasteofshetland.com/producers/island-fish-shetland-ltd

Farmerama.co

Producer: Phil Smith

Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose

Community Collaborators: Zain Dada, Col Gordon, Fern Towers

Artwork: Hannah Grace https://www.hgraceoc.com/

Music: Michael O'Neil

Project Manager: Olivia Oldham

PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow

Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

As the COVID-19 lockdown hit the UK in early 2020, our nation suddenly looked very different. Supermarket shelves were empty and, for the first time in most people's lives, we started to question how we were going to feed ourselves, and our families. Almost overnight, localised food systems went from being niche fantasies to a vital source of sustenance for many people around the country.

But who – and what – made up those localised food systems? Where did this sudden burst of community provision come from? In this episode we hear from four very different corners of the food system. From people supplying high-end restaurants to people on the frontlines of emergency food response. They all share what the lockdown meant for them and their communities, as well as how what they are doing helps feed us every day – the strength of close farm-restaurant relationships, the difficulties dairy farmers have faced in the last few decades, the health benefits of local honey, and the need for culturally appropriate food. All of these stories begin to hint at what a food system woven with dignity might look like.

This is only part 1; we will be meeting each of these people again in the final episode to hear their visions for the future and what’s next for those who feed us.

As we learn in many different ways throughout this series: Food is not just a question of calories. Food is nourishment for the body and soul. Food is about community, culture and our relationship with each other and with the Earth. We are all the food system.

Interviews with

Skye Gyngell https://springrestaurant-shop.co.uk/

Jane Scotter http://fernverrow.com/

Angus Buchanan-Smith https://www.the-free-company.com/

Salma & Khalil Attan ttps://www.bushwoodbees.co.uk/ // https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVrsm10F2zp_KO26MBCGRUw

Ursula Myrie https://www.adira.org.uk/

Farmerama.co

Producer: Suzie McCarthy

Executive Producers: Jo Barratt, Katie Revell, Abby Rose

Additional Interviews: Lovejit Dhaliwal

Community Collaborators: Cathy St Germans, Zain Dada, Col Gordon

Artwork: Hannah Grace www.hgraceoc.com/

Music: Michael O'Neil

PR & Comms: Fran Bailey, Kate Lam, Elma Glasgow, Nancy Brownlow

Who Feeds Us? is possible thanks to the Farming the Future COVID Response Fund. We’re very grateful to The A Team Foundation, the Roddick Foundation, Thirty Percy and the Samworth Foundation for providing the funds to make this project happen.

This month, we hear how some artisan cheesemongers are starting to embrace regenerative farming. We give you a sneak peek at of one of the producers featured in our new series, Who Feeds Us?. We learn about a new course investigating the complex links between food and development, and finally we hear from a long-time farmer who has some clever tips on how to be resourceful with machinery.

This month’s episode is supported by Treedom - a platform that makes it easy to support a farmer in Africa or South America to plant a tree. When you buy a tree with Treedom you’re financing farmers to plant trees as part of small agroforestry systems, and providing the local know-how and support to ensure those trees have the best start in life and truly benefit the farmers, their communities and the soil. Once you buy a tree you can also follow its journey online. Since they started in 2010, Treedom have planted over a million trees. Let’s green the planet.

Website: go.treedom.net/rh5f

Instagram: www.instagram.com/treedom_trees/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/treedomtrees/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC4LB9MIGsvGknvcSzA9Affg

This month we explore an innovative model for ecological restoration in the uplands that’s a combination of rewilding and regenerative farming techniques. We head to Kenya to hear about tree planting with farmers there and why the future is bright. And we end up in Los Angeles speaking to a gardener who is reckoning with the words we use and proposing a new approach to the language of regeneration.

This month’s episode is supported by Treedom - a platform that makes it easy to support a farmer in Africa or South America to plant a tree. When you buy a tree with Treedom you’re financing farmers to plant trees as part of small agroforestry systems, and providing the local know-how and support to ensure those trees have the best start in life and truly benefit the farmers, their communities and the soil. Once you buy a tree you can also follow its journey online. Since they started in 2010, Treedom have planted over a million trees. Let’s green the planet.

Website: go.treedom.net/rh5f

Instagram: www.instagram.com/treedom_trees/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/treedomtrees/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC4LB9MIGsvGknvcSzA9Affg

Roger Dixon-Spain farms with his wife, Gilly, on Lismore, a 10-mile long island in the Inner Hebrides, just off the west coast of Scotland. Roger spent most of his life as a conventional farmer in Cambridgeshire, before a series of chance events led him to Lismore – and to a radically different approach to farming. Here, Roger traces that journey, introduces us to the concept of “holistic land management”, and explains how he and Gilly are building a viable business on marginal land – as well as preparing the ground for the next generation of farmers.

Find out more about Roger, Gilly and their work at www.lismoregrassfedbeefandlamb.co.uk. Roger recently gave a webinar titled “Starting my Life’s Work at 70” – available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcpZ1net3f0&feature=youtu.be

This month, two new farmers share their experience of getting land through the Ecological Land Cooperative, and tell us why having a stake in the land is so crucial. Then, we hear from a farmer on a small Scottish island about moving from conventional agriculture to a more holistic way of farming, and making a living from marginal land. We learn how a simple system of nurturing chopped down trees back to life is restoring soils and supporting rural communities in Uganda. And, finally, a naturalist shares his research into insect migrations – and tells us why they’re so important to agriculture.

This month’s episode is supported by Treedom - a platform that makes it easy to support a farmer in Africa or South America to plant a tree. When you buy a tree with Treedom you’re financing farmers to plant trees as part of small agroforestry systems, and providing the local know-how and support to ensure those trees have the best start in life and truly benefit the farmers, their communities and the soil. Once you buy a tree you can also follow its journey online. Since they started in 2010, Treedom have planted over a million trees. Let’s green the planet.

Website: http://go.treedom.net/rh5f

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treedom_trees/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treedomtrees/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4LB9MIGsvGknvcSzA9Affg

This month we bring you an inspirational farmer who’s helping to build a more resilient local textile economy through Fibreshed UK. We hear about a project reintroducing a one-time staple crop – chestnuts – into the Southern United States. We learn how The Edible Classroom is bringing regenerative agriculture into schools, cafeterias and community kitchens, and we finish in Wales with a poem that speaks to the heart of rewilding.

Featuring:

Gala Bailey Barker

Ranan Sokoloff

Angela McKee Brown

Sam Robinson

Poetry by Megan Elenid Lewis

In this special episode, we visit the Bowhouse, a food hub in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The East Neuk is a coastal region dotted with picturesque fishing villages and blessed with fertile volcanic soils. But – as is the case in much of the UK – very little of the food produced here is destined for direct local consumption. The Bowhouse is changing that by creating opportunities for local producers to reach customers, grow their businesses, and collaborate. We hear from founder Toby Anstruther, Market and Events Manager Rosie Jack, and some of the many producers who’ve found a home at the Bowhouse.

At the end of the episode, we’ll get an update from Rosie Jack on how the Bowhouse has been affected by the pandemic, and how it’s adapted to ensure customers can still access local food – and that producers still have a route to market.

A *bonus* episode following on from our 6 part series, 'Cereal': uncovering the hidden truths behind our bread and the people who are building a new grains movement.

This episode dives deeper into the work of High Rise Bakers: community bakers creating delicious nutritious bread in a shared kitchen on the ground floor of a high rise flat in The Gorbals area of Glasgow. High Rise Bakers were featured in episode 5 of 'Cereal' where we heard that bread is not just money, bread is nourishment, deliciousness, companionship, connectedness, pride, politics.

If you enjoy this episode then definitely listen to the full Cereal series which was released on Farmerama from mid-Nov to the end of Dec 2019.

'Cereal' shows that the radical changes that bread has undergone are revealing of much wider truths about our relationships with food, to farmers, with the land, the environment, and with each other. If you eat food, you have a stake in this story.

Please listen, share, review and subscribe, and support the farmers and food producers instigating change. All episodes can be found on Soundcloud and all podcasting platforms. And if you’d like to support Farmerama, visit patreon.com/farmerama.

This bonus episode of Cereal is produced and edited by Katie Revell, with support from Abby Rose and Jo Barratt. Our theme music is by Owen Barratt.

Photo Credit: High Rise Bakers, Glasgow