Farmerama

Nikos Vrantsis reports from Greece for Farmerama where he had the unexpected luck to meet Sylvia Kay, among a visionary crowd of growers, food communities and experts gathered for 2017’s European Rural Sustainability Gathering. Sylvia is a researcher and member of the environmental and agrarian justice team of the Transnational Institute (TNI). Her team is monitoring policies around key natural resources like land, forests, food, trying to empower growers and put local communities in the heart of decision-making when it comes to how their resources are governed. A main obstacle, to achieve this, is the global phenomenon of land grabbing. Nikos Vrantsis a greek journalist reporting on urban regeneration & living cities initiatives as well as on land land grabbing and land speculation issues. He is currently writing a series of stories on the phenomenal, textbook land grabbing case taking place in Warsaw.

This month, we hear from herb growers and suppliers about the opportunities for growing herbs in the UK. We have the first of a series of reports from Jubilee Farm in Northern Ireland, offering a Christian perspective on agriculture and the environment. We take a visit to Humble by Nature, a tenant farm in the Welsh Wye Valley run by TV presenter Kate Humble we hear from an artisan pasta producer in Italy.

the 2018 Oxford Real Farming Conference last month featured a panel on growing and selling herbs in the UK. It addressed a real need for suppliers of good quality Uk-grown herbs. In this Short, Abby Rosie spoke to Alice Bettany from the Sacred Seeds Herbal project, who was a participant in the panel. She runs a herb box-scheme based on a CSA model which is currently the only herbal box scheme in the UK. Alice talks to us about her work and her mission to bring back herbal medicine to the people. This short begins with a beautiful description of her own garden, topped to the brim with Medicinal herbs. Other panellists from the ORFC2018 panel on herbs can be heard in episode 31 of Farmerama. Image from Alice's instrgram @sacred_seeds

Regular contributor Joel Rodker is creating a market garden from scratch and recording a diary for Farmerama as he goes. Here is his latest report from week 7, recorded in December 2017.

This month we bring you stories from the 9th Annual Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC). We embrace agri-culture with new poetry from the front-lines of farming. We get an introduction to human ecology and hear about innovations in urban food systems from a group in Glasgow. Out in the field, we celebrate the wonders of a little-known crop: Sanfoin. And we get the low-down on animals browsing for their favourite fodder.

We visit one of the lesser-known wine-making regions – Wales – to get one perspective on biodynamic farming. Then we’re off to the hills of Catalonia to hear from a small-scale chicken farmer. And, finally, we take a dose of medicine just outside Seattle – in the form of herbs, human connections, and the land itself.

WeFarm is a free peer-to-peer service that enables farmers to share information via SMS, without the internet and without having to leave their farm. Farmers can ask questions on farming and receive crowd-sourced answers from other farmers around the world in minutes. In 2014, WeFarm was named one of the overall winners Google Impact Challenge. Amy Cooper spoke to Wefarm CEO Kenny Ewan for Farmerama at London Food Tech Week, 2017 Learn more about WeFarm https://wefarm.org/ See Amy’s TedX talk for Secret Seed Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=7nUPqnsp8T4

Rural Sociologist Maria Partalidou discusses Urban Farms in Greece. Maria spoke to Farmerama about the changing relationship between Urban and Rural communities in Greece in episode 28.

We hear from two projects which are using film to share stories from the front-line of farming. We meet a sociologist who’s been studying the relationship between urban and rural communities in Greece. And we indulge in more fungi-love as we learn how it's possible to manage weeds simply by working with the microbial balance in the soil.

This month, we dip into the wonderful world of agroforestry: both the help on hand to support farmers planting/managing trees and the stories of two farmers who have been pleasantly surprised at the benefits trees bring to their farm. Abby has been in California and she reports from an event celebrating women’s leadership in farming. Finally we have the first in a series of dispatches from a young farmer who's setting up a new farm – from the ground up.

David Montgomery talks to Abi Glencross for Farmerama about his new book "Growing a Revolution"

Lots of fungi this month, both in the soils and for eating. We explore the parallels between the principles for healthy land and our own bodies. A young farmer introduces us to an experimental ‘pizza-shaped’ chicken enclosure and we hear how UK vineyards are working with the changing climates.

Shorts: Adam Kaye on Polenta by Farmerama

This month we we hear from across the pond how close connections between farmers and cooks are giving birth to new dishes and revenue streams. We get to the bottom of carbon cycles and learn what it really takes to build humus. Bees buzz happily as they are allowed to express their characteristics in alternative beekeeping methods and finally you’re invited to get involved in a citizen science project that celebrates allotments and home-grown veg. Thanks to E5 Bakehouse for supporting this show, we love their commitment to working with farmers to grow heritage grains locally, mill them on-site and produce the best loaf of bread.

Welcome to our two year anniversary edition of Farmerama supported by E5 Bakehouse, an East London bakery pushing the boundaries of baking to make the best bread. This month we get the low-down on 6 simple principles for soil health. We hear from small, smelly friends working away under the ground to support farmers, we hear the highs and lows of potato growers in The Netherlands and journey with a travelling cheesemaker on their research into native dairy breeds.

In Episode 24 we spoke to Dr Sarah Beynon from Dr Beynon's Bug Farm in South Wales about how dung beatles are supporting Farmers and the huge economic benefits they can bring. In this Short she goes on to explain some of the other ways in which invertebrates are beneficial to a fully functioning farm.

The tenth National Organic Combinable Crops (NOCC) event was alive with farmers, traders, researchers, millers, processors and bakers exchanging ideas of how to work together to support ecological farming methods and grow and make healthy food. This is a special episode commissioned by Organic Farmers and Growers, one of the UK’s largest organic certification bodies, who organised NOCC. We hear discussions of new varieties: growing, milling and baking wheat populations and then organic and non-organic farmers experiment with relay cropping, compost teas and companion planting.

Find out a little more about the Sea Buckthorn grown by David Eagle which we featured in Episode 23.

This month we visit a project in Malawi started by local farmers to regenerate soils and bring food security back to local people. Then we are back in the garden of England talking to an Essex farmer about his experiments growing Sea Buckthorn and how he and his son are dealing with the ever encroaching sea chipping away at their farmland. We talk no-till and have the first of several reports from our visit to the Soil Hack gathering.

This month we weave in and out of a conversation we had with Dame Fiona Reynolds, former Director-General of the National Trust. As Fiona shares about beauty, land, rewilding and much more, we hear from Welsh upland sheep farmer Rees Roberts and spiritual ecologist & artist Nessie Reid with what they think about these issues and ideas. Beauty may seem a little airy-fairy and disconnected from the realities of running a farming business. But please do hear us out to the end…this is about bringing power back to the people. Fiona’s recent book The Fight for Beauty is a call to arms for all of us to pay more attention to matters of the earth and oceans. We caught up with Fiona and she told us how she sees farming fits into the future of a Britain built on beauty.