Feeding Britain from the ground up - Groundswell 2022
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2022
- Speakers: Patrick Holden, Dr Jim Scown, Glen Burrows & Polly Davies
Building on the SFT's Feeding Britain report, this session will explore what needs to happen to enable farmers to transition to regenerative farming in the UK. From how we measure sustainability and true cost accounting; local food infrastructure; improved skills and knowledge; and citizen action to drive system change.
Panellists will discuss the idea that if we, as citizens, want to be healthy and sustainable, we should eat the foods that our landscapes can produce when farmed in harmony with nature. We invite active audience participation so we can start to build consensus around what steps need to be taken, to enable the transition to sustainable and regenerative farming across the UK. - Věda a technologie
I believe if one eats more nutritionally dense foods, like meats, one needs fewer calories than the government approved recommendations. Thank you for doing this important study. I hope it will influence government policies.
I loved the talk, and I loved the concept of bringing in people on the ground discussing policy issues - creates some unique perspectives on our situation with the environment.
Great proposal, panel comments and discussios. I'd like more thought given to population preferences in moving towards more plant based diets for ethical reasons - I'm not against livestock farming/meat, but accounting for ethics (beyond animal welfare) would be good.
Long-term move (beyond fashions) is that we recognise more and more animal sentience - a number of people might want to reduce their meat consumption. Its just one of the many factors discussed, but it was not given enough time here.
If you want to see a restoration of biodiversity with plants, insects l, birds and small mammals in the U.K. then regeneratively managed livestock are essential. Wildlife thrive on regeneratively grazed land and disappear on intensively manger crop land.
Regenerative farming also incorporates very high welfare practice and animal sentience in all sorts of ways (it may not be mentioned much here but at Groundswell 2022 there were over 120 talks and demonstrations). For instance regenerative farmers know that giving cattle a biodiverse pasture with trees will enable cattle to self medicate by browsing certain plants they know will help their guts at certain times. In these systems the animals don’t get sick. One farmer I know has not NEEDED a vet on her farm for seven years! Her welfare is so high and the animals are so healthy there’s no need for medicine.
If the welfare isn’t high then it can’t be regenerative, because it doesn’t work if the animals need routine medication
“Soil is the penultimate “ issue. Precisely. Save our soils and thereby reduce carbon in the atmosphere and water runoff.
Yes, eat locally, or grow something yourself.
“Reports” and meta-analysis of Regen Ag, in these fast changing times can be outdated in 12 months. In a true regen ag ranch, wild deer that eat the new wildly diverse forage are becoming bigger, healthier. Wild turkeys are returning in large numbers. This idea that regen ranching of sheep and cattle is some gourmet niche market that can only feed the few, only the richest of the first world is backwards. Y’all should follow Greg Judy’s CZcams channel.
Also, the new farmers that are making money seem to concentrate on a just a few income sources: just cattle and sheep, just veg, just fruit. Even homesteaders have come to realize that specialization gives them more money and time with their family.
Interesting, yet my farming father resisted pressure towards specialisation, as a child he produced food into 11 different markets, these reduced as the paperwork to sell increased. Having said this one crop alone, in one year wiped his mortgage.
Greg Judy was the headline speaker at Groundswell in 2022 (when this was recorded) He not only gave two talks on grazing he demonstrated his grazing techniques with a mob of cattle that graze the farm on which Groundswell is held.
Everyone who attended that year knows about Greg Judy.
This is only one talk out of 120 talks given over the 2 day festival. Yes, there’s between 7 and 12 talks or demonstrations happening simultaneously through the day.