Farmerama

SOIL: Common Ground is a three-part podcast series produced by Somerset House exploring what soil can teach us about being human, through the lens of art. Our Future is tied to the future of our soil. Our decisions as to how we care for and use it matter. Soil teaches us that cycles are ongoing, and even in decline every day offers us opportunities for new beginnings. In this final episode Shenece Oretha explores the regenerative qualities of soil and composting as a model for personal redemption. We hear from Palestinian grower Mohammed Saleh whose life story offers a personal story of hope, looking at how permaculture and art can help to heal the destructive impacts of war. Somerset Studios artist Harun Morrision’s singing compost invites us to see decay in a new light and Fin Jordâo lays out how composting can be a radical action for rethinking our relationships with each other and the planet. Does the future hold a closer, more natural relationship with the soil by rethinking our relationship to bur

SOIL: Common Ground is a three-part podcast series produced by Somerset House exploring what soil can teach us about being human, through the lens of art. Our entire existence is dependent on our relationship with soil. As awareness builds of the enormity of the ecological crisis that we are facing, a growing number of artists are engaging with soil as a material in their work. This three part series responds to the Somerset House exhibition ‘Soil: The World at Our Feet’, unearthing soil's role in our future through the work of artists and thinkers working with it. Soil is the basis of many creation stories around the world. It is our beginning, and it is what we will return to. In Episode 1 of Common Ground we look at soil as the matter from which life emerges. Exploring growth, beginnings and the ways soil as a material offers unique opportunities for exploration. We hear from artist Asad Raza who makes ‘neo-soil’ from scratch and covers the floor of galleries with it. Artist Eve Tagny’s work examine

SOIL: Common Ground is a three-part podcast series produced by Somerset House exploring what soil can teach us about being human, through the lens of art. Much of the history of human making springs from the soil. Cuneiform, the earliest form of writing, was engraved into clay; paint pigments come from minerals in the soil; and much of our material history is held in ceramics. But soil is not neutral; it is deeply entangled with politics of ownership embedded in the land. In this episode Shenece Oretha probes the ways the soil and clay are inspiring artists today, looking at the stories soil can tell about our past and our potential future. Ceramicist and writer Jennifer Lucy Allan reflects on the ways clay connects us to the earliest forms of making. Artists Annalee Davis and Lauren Gault look at the ways soil bears witness to our histories, from the trauma of the plantation to the deep time of paleontology. We create art from soil, but through our extraction and interaction, it is also changed. How can

This month we start at Folx Farm in Sussex with new entrant farmers Chrissy, Rae and Dunia. Next, we hear the importance of establishing the Mycelium Composting Network for Old Tree Soil. Then, we catch up with food activist and herbalist Jo Kamal about attending La Via Campesina’s international conference last year, as part of the Landworkers’ Alliance. To finish, we ask Marco Carbonara about his experience learning to grow olives in Italy.

This month we start in Hawaii hearing about the importance of native plants to Hawaian culture, then we head to Portugal to learn more about the value of C4 grasses in mediterranean silvopasture systems, we dive into the Basic Income for farmers campaign in the UK, and we end with an excerpt from a podcast series about what it takes to run a Farm Hack.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In this final episode, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham reflect on everything they’ve heard over the course of the series, thinking about what they personally have learned and considering what common ground has been found amongst the values and priorities of everyone they’ve spoken to.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In this episode, co-hosts Olivia Oldham and Katie Revell look into the question: can it ever be morally right to farm animals? They speak to farmers, researchers, meat eaters and abstainers, to discuss various cultural and personal ways of relating to animals, and explore if and how it's possible to square caring for animals with eating them.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 6, co-hosts Olivia Oldham and Katie Revell explore questions of food justice as they relate to less and better meat. By speaking to food producers, researchers and eaters, they explore whether less and better meat risks entrenching existing injustices, or could support a transition to a fairer, more equitable food system.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 5, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham ask: does a future of 'less and better' meat also mean a healthier future? They speak to researchers, farmers and those who follow meat-free diets, to explore how what we eat interacts with the physical, mental, spiritual, and collective health of both consumers and food producers.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 4, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham ask: why do we use land the way we do, and how should we use it in the future? They meet with farmers, academics and land management advisors, to delve into the history of land use in the UK, reflecting on the cultural and political factors that continue to shape it, and looking for common ground between advocates of different approaches.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 3, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham explore the question: if we decide to eat less and better meat, what do we eat instead? They speak with a legumes specialist and a cellular agriculture entrepreneur, and ask whether we should see “alternative” proteins as “alternatives” at all. In doing so, they reflect on what we value in our food system once we do away with the meat/non-meat binary.

What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 2, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham meet a climate scientist, along with regenerative and organic farmers across the UK, to discuss the complex ways that animal agriculture interacts with our natural environment. From how we measure emissions of greenhouse gases, to what we feed our animals, and which management systems we use, they ask – what is the place of farmers when it comes to less and better meat? Thank you to everyone on our Patreon. Your support helps us in bringing you the stories of regenerative farming around the world, each month. We appreciate it. If you'd like to join, please visit patreon.com/farmerama where you can choose your level of support.

It feels like one of the biggest questions of our time: what do we do about meat? Rather than choosing either extreme – business as usual, or ruling out meat altogether – some people suggest the best approach is one of ‘less and better meat’. But how much less is ‘less’? And which meat is ‘better’? How do we even begin to answer these questions? In this series, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham attempt to unearth what lies beneath questions of technological change and consumer choice. On an expansive, and sometimes personal, journey, they learn that – as much as the debate about meat is sometimes painted as a binary choice between right and wrong – things might not be quite so simple. They ask who – and what – benefits from different systems of production? What priorities and values do seemingly simple solutions obscure? And, perhaps most importantly, can we find some common ground, some shared principles and values, on which to build a better meat future for all? Thank you to everyone on our Patreon

This month we bring you a conversation Abby convened at Groundswell Festival back in June, focused on Landscape Scale Regeneration. We hear from three people involved in different ways in an initiative in Waterford, Ireland. This discussion expands upon the Commonland initiative in Southern Spain we featured back in Episode 68, highlighting the power of a common vision and the benefits of working across a whole region.

Is it possible or productive to organise around a common language in order to reimagine how we produce grain and bread? In the third and final part of Good Bread, Kim and Ruth reflect on some of their experiences working on the project and consider what the future of good bread might look like. This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

Consistency is at the heart of industrial bread production, from the field to the mill to the oven. But what is it costing us? This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. Thanks to Shipton Mill for their openness and generosity in allowing the Body Lab to explore these ideas. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. In part 1, she explores the question - what is good bread? She speaks to Kim and Ruth about what makes good bread for them, and unpacks what the Body Lab is about, and why they started the project. We hear from farmer Fred Price and baker Rosie Benson from Gothelney Farm (@gothelneyfarmer) and Field Bakery (@fieldbakery) about their understanding of good grain, and speak with Chris Hollister from Shipton Mill (@shiptonmill), about the different tests that take place when wheat arrives at an industrial grain mill, and some of the justifications for this process. With each of them, Lucy discusses why reimagining this testing system could be pos

This month we learn how some people importing Brazil nuts to the UK is supporting the indigenous people of the amazon. We visit a restaurant who are making use of spare growing space in their community and learn about agro-ecological approaches to managing vineyards across Australia.

This month we begin in Ibiza where we learn about a project matching new and diversifying farmers with abandoned farmland to grow more organic produce on the island. We hear from a food growing project in London that teaches to produce food and care for the land and has a foundation in traditional African philosophy. And we dive deep into the world of, potatoes, looking at them in a fascinating new light.

In this months episode we head to Scotland to hear about a Beltane celebration for young people in rural areas. We speak to the organiser of the London-based Black Farmers Market, and we check in with another farmer benefiting from the Pasture for Life mentoring program. This episode of Farmerama was made by Abby Rose Jo Barratt Katie Revell and Dora Taylor. A big thanks to the rest of the Farmerama team Olivia Oldham, Fran Bailey, Annie Landless and Eliza Jenkins . Our theme music is by Owen Barratt.