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A Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund for future-proof farming

A Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund for future-proof farming

10 Covid crisis responses, funded by Farming The Future, that rose to meet the many challenges of the moment with short-term solutions that lead to long-term regenerative resilience.

Coronavirus exposed many cracks in the food system on which we depend. The few supermarket chains relied upon to keep food flowing onto shelves were flooded with pressure and those cranking the strained supply chain named key workers. Nations prioritised their own food supply and global imports stalled, as the UK entered its ‘growing gap’ and the fragility of our food security entered the headlines. 

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In the fields farmers grafted harder than ever, planting complex growing systems whilst responding to unprecedented demand for food and rapidly reorienting their routes to market. Meanwhile, farms felt the absence of seasonal workers due to international travel restrictions, as the national workforce was impeded by the pandemic.

With restaurants and markets closed by Covid, food needed to reach people in other places and new ways. The most vulnerable citizens, already more likely to suffer from food injustice, were left counting on the kindness of their communities, dependent on desperate food banks, or relying on the army to deliver emergency food parcels without the nutrition needed during a health crisis.

Farming The Future launched an emergency response fund for organisations on the frontline, to support short-term crisis solutions with long-term strategies for future crises, fortifying the UK’s food security and regenerative food movement. Applications were invited from groups previously funded by FTF partners - The A Team Foundation, The Roddick Foundation, Samworth Foundation or Thirty Percy Foundation - so they could be accepted in a flexible format and processed swiftly, recognising the urgency and pressure already weighing heavily on organisations.

We’re proud to share the 10 projects that received funding with you here. If you would like to know more about the work, please feel free to email Robert@ateamfoundation.org 


A support network for new ways of working

Project lead: Community Supported Agriculture Network

Partners: FarmEd, Land Workers Alliance, Organic Growers Alliance, Soil Association 

Providing urgently needed business advice to the food and farming community was a priority, with several mentorship project applications being submitted. Farming the Future therefore brought together a handful of organisations and asked them for a coordinated response to the Covid crisis. A support network was formed between the Community Supported Agriculture Network (CSA); a cooperative membership scheme that promotes fair and transparent food production, FarmED; a regenerative farming and sustainable food education centre, the Land Workers Alliance (LWA); a union of farmers, foresters and land-based workers, the Organic Growers Alliance (OGA); a peer-to-peer support network of growers, and the Soil Association; collaborating with organisations and individuals across the food and education system to promote organic food and farming since 1946.

The project provides education and advice to growers and food businesses having to rethink their business structures due to the pandemic. Using their different strengths, expertise and audiences, the organisations designed a package of support to cover diverse issues using various formats, cross-promoting and signposting to one another, to make it as accessible as possible. In this way, a stronger support network was provided for the growing community at this time of need. 

Knowledge shared through the network included tools for setting up a CSA or box scheme, stories of positive, diverse Covid responses from growers and communities to inform and inspire, expert advice from Soil Association producer and supply chain teams, and an extension of their Food for Life Programme to support cooks in schools and care homes.

By coming together to help small-scale farmers and growers navigate the immediate crisis, the network is helping to keep quality food on forks, whilst building awareness and growing engagement in the regenerative food movement. By helping more people to adopt new methods and markets, the more resilient and thriving our local food system and environment will become in the long term.


Keeping the community kitchen cooking

Project lead: The Larder (Lancashire and Region Dietary Education Resource)

The Larder is a small social enterprise with a big vision of ‘food fairness for all’, promoting healthy, sustainable food whilst tackling food poverty and food waste. A café and catering business in Preston that cooks with local, ethical ingredients, the venue hosts local activist and wellbeing groups and is home to a food academy for learners including ex-offenders, Syrian refugees and low-income families, and trains community ‘Food Champions’.

Photo from The Larder

Photo from The Larder

Swiftly transforming the community kitchen into a Covid response unit, The Larder delivers 50-150 nutritious meals a day to vulnerable members of the community who are referred by local authorities and charities. Supported by rapidly recruited volunteers and founder of the Granville Community Kitchen, Dee Woods, The Larder quickly set up and began ‘Cooking for our Community’ on 23rd March: the day that lockdown began.

Continuing to support local producers through procurement and working more closely with local charities and authorities, The Larder’s relationships have been nurtured during the crisis. As well as meals, The Larder began offering online cookery courses for the community, including a ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ programme, delivered to 36 families along with the ingredients for 10 recipes at Easter, in partnership with a local housing association.

FTF funding is contributing to The Larder’s immediate community Covid response, which will include a cookery programme for 120 families over the summer holiday, and the continued provision of nutritious meals for those in need until the end of the year. A long-term recovery strategy aims to create community food independence and empowerment, including expansion of online resources and working with local government and Syrian Resettlement programme to support people who are even more vulnerable since the crisis hit, so that they will be food secure for the future.


Who Feeds Us? Stories from a Crisis

Project lead: Farmerama

The award-winning agroecology amplifier - Farmerama, asks the question that the Covid crisis raised for many: ‘Who Feeds Us?’ A collection of stories about people who grow and process our food, how they were affected by Covid, their hard work and incredible capacity for innovation, will make up a podcast series that aims to solidify the relationships built between the food community during the pandemic, nourishing them for the future.

Promoting those who came together to feed their communities in new ways, Farmerama will provide a platform for the underrepresented and diverse voices on the ground and at home, building bonds whilst developing awareness of the wider movement. By explaining the current state of our food system alongside responses and solutions, the dream of food sovereignty will be brought to life by mapping the paths carved during the pandemic that could lead to a resilient, new food system to serve us for many years to come. 

In order to engage many more citizens in the subject of food sustainability, equality and economics, Farmerama’s plan encompasses niche networks, celebrity influencers, local and national PR, to promote the benefits of supporting local food producers, and the importance of a regenerative food system for everyone in society. We all need to eat, therefore we all need to know: ‘Who feeds us?’


Getting products from pasture to people during a pandemic

Project lead: Pasture-Fed Livestock Association 

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The Pasture-Fed Livestock Association (PFLA) certifies and promotes 100% pasture-fed meat and dairy in the UK; recognised and renowned for its highly nutritional quality, as well as environmental and animal welfare. PFLA members include certified farmers, butcheries and dairies who work with livestock that have been pasture-fed for their whole lives.

With the catering and restaurant industry closed for business, PFLA members had to find new routes to market. A shorter supply chain for people to buy directly from producers required a new level of operation and expertise that many small businesses lacked, including marketing, sales and delivery. 

To help the pasture-fed community navigate the new supply chain, PFLA received funding to produce a package of support, including guidance for direct sales from the farm through to e-commerce, packaging and logistics. As well as being available for questions and advice, PFLA is also building relationships with larger sales platforms, advocating for its members to be represented, and supporting retail businesses in the promotion of pasture-fed produce.

The funding also enables PFLA to develop regional groups, identified by members as the best solution to supply chain issues, bringing together local farmers, butchers and retailers. This initiative is a leading example of the collaborative, local networks needed to drive resilient, thriving economies and communities, growing out of the regenerative food movement and found across the globe in emergency responses to Covid that could create long-term advances for climate, community and food justice.


Growing the community food connection during Covid

Project lead: Growing Communities

Growing Communities (GC) offers an equitable, community-led route to market for small-scale organic farmers through a local organic veg box membership scheme and farmers’ market in East London. With growing sites, training programmes, a network of like-minded retailers and a new model of wholesale supply, GC generate income for growers as well as enriching lives and caring for the planet.

At the onset of the Covid crisis, GC received a huge rise in demand from existing and new members for the healthy, immune-supporting, nutritious food it offers. Meanwhile, farmers were left with surplus, without food markets and restaurants to supply, and an urgent need for direct routes to market, such as the one provided by GC. 

Covid created a whirlwind of staff safety regulation, creating a need for extra space to pack and store food safely. A buddy scheme was born for customers unable to collect their veg boxes, and GC home deliveries. These extra costs flew in at the same time as income from the stall and other outlets disappeared, so, despite increased revenue from sales, the books didn’t balance and the business suffered a loss

GC found themselves to be considered an ‘essential service’ and their staff ‘key workers’, which validated the sustainable ethos of their business model whilst they continued supplying the community with fresh, nutritious food during the crisis. With funding to help recover the unexpected financial loss, GC’s purpose has been proven during this testing time, and can now continue to be cultivated by the growing trust and loyalty between farmers, suppliers and citizens.


A local compass for regenerative farming in public procurement

Project lead: Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group

Partners: Boomcircle, National Farmers Union, Countryside Community Research Institute, Sustainable Food Trust

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The Farmland Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), a Gloucestershire-based charity formed in the 1960s, was created by a group of forward-thinking farmers who recognised the health of the environment as a key for success in farming. FWAG provides trusted, independent advice to the farming community, on how and why to improve and benefit from the environmental value of their land within the current climate.

With food in the limelight during the Covid crisis, the long distance between people and places where food is grown has been shown up. County councils are starting to ask what they could do to safeguard the food security of their communities for the future; cue regenerative farming entering the conversation.

The Compass Project’, funded by FTF, includes a FWAG template for ‘Dynamic Procurement Systems’ that invites local authorities and regenerative food businesses into a circular model for regionalised economic recovery. This initiative encourages public institutions such as schools and hospitals to serve locally sourced, nutritious food, as well as investment into regenerative agriculture. 

The stimulus aims to increase short-term confidence of an economic recovery for food and farming industries, whilst hospitality and tourism get back on their feet. Longer-term, it stimulates the sustainable growth of a local economy, creating jobs, innovation and resilience, as well as producing human and environmental health benefits. This compass for public food procurement hopes to guide other regional authorities towards building a regenerative food industry, paving the way from Gloucestershire across the country. 


Providing Manchester people with Manchester veg 

Project leads: The Kindling Trust

Partners: Veg Box People and Manchester Veg People

The Kindling Trust projects encourage the growth of local organic veg, which, working alongside Manchester Veg People (MVP) and Veg Box People (VBP) - co-ops of local growers, buyers and workers, is supplied to people, restaurants and caterers. This family of not-for-profit social enterprises champions a fairer, sustainable, Manchester-based food model that values the land and people growing food regeneratively.

FTF funding is aiding a long-term expansion of this veg box scheme, as an emergency response to the Covid crisis. Demand for VBP’s veg boxes exploded to include those struggling to access food, as collection points closed, and MVP’s orders disappeared with the orders from restaurants and institutions. Meanwhile, The Kindling Trust had to start planting at the same time as losing the volunteer base.

Responding to the needs and challenges of lockdown, operations were reorganised to provide home delivery, social support and Covid-proof volunteer opportunities. Continuing to supply veg box members and accept some new subscribers, the expansion will enable the enterprises to support and engage others who haven’t accessed their fresh organic local veg before, with more packing space, more people to pack and more time to publicise it. 

This crisis has only strengthened the working relationships, reach and value of The Kindling Trust, MVP and VBP’s work in the community. The growth in membership and operation of the box scheme, with ongoing promotion and awareness, will retain its worth well beyond the Covid crisis across the changed landscape.


Levelling the growing field in a time of crisis

Project lead: Land Workers Alliance

Project partners: Community Supported Agriculture Network, Better Food Traders, Independent Food Aid Network, Open Food Network 

Land Workers Alliance (LWA) is a union of farmers, foresters and land-based workers that aims to improve livelihoods, food and land-use systems. Picking up on data collected during the Covid crisis showing a 113% increase in demand for veg boxes, LWA received funding to provide strategic support for veg box producers.

LWA worked with the CSA Network to identify 6-8 diverse food businesses embedded in their local communities, that can respond quickly to this and future food crises, but, despite growing demand, are reluctant to take out loans due to the recession. A mix of rural and urban farms with links to a community kitchen or food aid scheme will receive grants to help them reorientate, increase production and improve access to food.

Grants require the farms to incorporate agroecology and access to food for vulnerable people or key workers through the Independent Food Aid Network. Measures of the initiative’s success are being delivered to DEFRA - policy makers in England and Wales, whilst stories from the project are harvested for PR campaigns that encourage people to stick with local suppliers and veg boxes, and promote the benefits of regenerative farming. A short-term response to this crisis, this strategic collaboration supports community-focused solutions for the long-term transition into a sustainable and more equalised food system.


Ensuring the seeds of food sovereignty continue to be sewn

Project lead: Gaia Foundation

The Gaia Foundation’s seed sovereignty programme works with organic seed growers and distributors to enable the transition to agroecological farming across the globe. Projects involve training new growers as well as raising awareness and creating understanding of seed sovereignty, and its role in creating regenerative, transformative change.

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In the light of the Covid crisis on the precarious, unfair and unsustainable nature of our current food system, demand for organic seeds increased by up to 600%, as people tried to take food security into their own hands and land. The small businesses that produce and trade seeds found themselves overwhelmed by demand, struggling to fulfil supply whilst also cultivating next year’s crop with reduced capacity (due to self isolation / physical distancing).

FTF funding will provide the means for Gaia-supported producers to grow their operations efficiently, so they can package and distribute more seeds more easily, and ensure the cultivation of seeds for next year and many years to come. Sustainable growth will allow the seed sovereignty movement to keep up with the momentum being gained by regenerative farming following this crisis, for a more food secure future.


Market Garden Cities creating Capital Growth

Project lead: Sustain

Sustain, ‘the alliance for better food and farming’, has supported thousands of London food gardens for over a decade, working with land-owners, growers, community enterprises, councils and local government. A survey of its network during the Covid crisis confirmed an increase in the demand for fresh fruit and vegetables, and, despite physical distancing, the importance of keeping gardens open to grow more of them.

Sustain turned to its ‘Capital Growth’ network, consisting of commercial peri-urban farms, small community gardens and individual plot-style spaces on estates, to create a pilot ‘Market Garden City’. Funded by FTF, communities of skilled growers, local volunteers and distribution networks are coming together around 50 gardens. Data from the project is being harvested for a scaling-up report of the initiative.

Aiming to increase the production and distribution of fresh food in the wake of Covid, Sustain will develop the blueprint longer-term by its ‘Sustainable Food Places’ programme, and ‘Good to Grow’ national networks. As this crisis demonstrates the urgency of urban growing for feeding city dwellers, and local authorities become more engaged in community enterprise, it’s the perfect time to implement projects that reveal and realise the potential for a localised, resilient, regenerative future food system.



A New Cycle of Growth: Farming The Future 2020

A New Cycle of Growth: Farming The Future 2020

Written by Tiger Lily Raphael


Farming The Future feeds the movement towards a healthier food system by supporting an ecosystem of change-makers, who work hard on the ground with a growing community. Together, we prove that it is possible to produce plenty of nutritious food for ourselves in ways that are fair, compassionate, and harmonious to our planet.

 
Illustration by Mahla Bess

Illustration by Mahla Bess

 

The world woke up to an emergency that had been a-long-time-emerging when Covid-19 cast a light over the fragility of our food supply and shone through the cracks of a system held together by too few bolts, on which many lives depend. Lockdown forced us to look at our food security, as those with it found solace in cooking and cultivating any small plots or pots of land, and communities came together to support the already, newly and soon-to-be vulnerable.

 
Illustration by Mahla Bess

Illustration by Mahla Bess

 

Our 2020 grant pool sets out to nurture the connective and collective health of a regenerative food movement, by facilitating and funding collaboration. Projects will strengthen links between all lengths of the supply chain; from farmers, distributors, and retailers, to community gardeners, campaigners and economists, to investors, philanthropists and politicians. Reinforcing relationships from the ground up nourishes the soil from which a new cycle of growth can begin. 

 
Illustration by Mahla Bess

Illustration by Mahla Bess

 

The fund provides a platform from which the movement of organisations and individuals can be assessed; the areas and components needed for growth and symbiosis. Focus areas include policy and deregulation, food justice, education, land and economics - making up the landscape of the food ecosystem.

The 2020 collaborative process began with an online convening of the community, to assess the environment, and explore how we might be able to collaboratively create the components needed in the current landscape. The event began with introductions from Rob Reed of The A Team Foundation and Sam Roddick of The Roddick Foundation, followed by keynote speakers who inspired both hope and urgency: Professor and hill farmer - Tim Lang from the Centre of Food Policy, and scholar, environmental activist and author - Vandana Shiva.

Professor Lang described the convening as an opportunity to reach beyond the usual perimeters, commanding us to “be realistic, demand the impossible”. We’re seeing food banks, which were supposed to be an emergency response, buckling under growing demand as 8 million people could face food poverty in the UK. 50% of us own only £400, as inequality frays our social fabric, and, despite our overall wealth, we slip down the EIU Global Food Security and Sustainability Index.

Britain’s import tradition has caused issues of equality, sustainability and health for growers, eaters, animals, and the elements. Our food supply has shown itself to be vulnerable and a national strategy is needed; yet, whilst defence receives a budget of £39.5 billion, food and environment gets £1.9 billion. But we have an opportunity for change, as we create new policies, from a pandemic perspective, looking towards a post-carbon future. 


Vandana Shiva explained a measure of yield per acre that counts crop diversity, true cost accounting, and feeds twice the population of India. Yet globalised agri-business, which receives subsidies - from our money - to produce biofuel and animal food with resource-intensive methods. Exploitation and pollution by industrialised food production causes disease, social inequality and ecological destruction. The cost of cheap food is high. Yet when food is grown organically, by people on a small scale, more food can be produced in more sustainable ways. 

Lockdown shut down 1.1 billion peoples’ livelihoods; farmers became refugees as 1 billion joined the hungry. 150 million people could starve in the next 3 months. Yes, people are being more compassionate, but that won’t last unless the system is fixed. The crises are both consequences of and responses to war, and can be combated with non-violent agriculture, locally and globally, by all justice movements uniting. By redesigning the food system around people and our planet, rather than money, we can redefine economics and restore health. 


So, how can we help us help ourselves? The convening’s breakout sessions toyed with ideas and suggested ways to brainstorm. Like in any ecosystem, we depend on each other, and to find answers, we have to ask the questions..

Planting the seeds of knowledge and understanding…

Could we map the enormous and complex relationships, policies and projects, to find the paths and gaps between them?... What do ‘sustainable’, ‘regenerative’ and ‘resilient’ actually mean?... How do we learn about farming?... What is the supply chain and how are we a part of it?... How does the land lie? Who owns it?... How do financial decisions affect the food system and our lives, and how could they change them?... Why does only 7-8% of the £1.25 trillion spent on food in the UK reach farmers?... 

Diversifying soil with nutrients…

Who’s growing food and who’s receiving it?... Why are young, disabled and BAME people twice as likely to be hungry?... Could a crisis response fix the broken links in the supply chain, so millions aren’t left hungry whilst billions of tonnes of food is wasted?... How can we make healthy, nutritious and sustainably grown food, available and affordable?... Could finance, land and food policies diversify enough to support a diverse economy and ecology?...

Building relationships in and above the soil...

How do we balance food, finance and nature?... How do we work together on a common ground?... How do growers, land owners, local authorities, economists, scientists and NGOs collaborate on regenerative innovation, investment and best practice?... How do communities cultivate resilient local food systems with social, economic and environmental benefits?... How can we narrow the gaps between fields, markets, and people?... 

Time and space to grow... 

If we used more than 168,000 of 6 million hectares of farmable land, gardens and green spaces, to grow food, could we feed ourselves?... How do we make access to land fair?... Will the pandemic prevent opportunities for community gardening?... How can farmers get support through the transition period to sustainability?… How can financiers cultivate expectations from investors of longer-term benefits?... Will we invest in our future?...

Measuring rainfall...

Could financial incentives replace subsidies, and encourage responsible, long-term investment?... Can we find new measures of ‘growth’, and use them to develop our countries in healthier, more equitable ways?... How do we measure sustainability, resilience and the social, environmental and economic value of land and food?... Why isn’t soil health counted in the way that air and water is?... What labels would help us make healthier choices?...

Reaching towards the light...

How do we capture the lockdown spirit of citizenship, learning and community, and demand for space, seeds, and soil?... How do we bridge conversations about health, ecology, social justice and economics, to draw clear lines between food and inequality?... How do we reveal the many drops that make up the ocean, ignite emotions, spark imaginations, and celebrate food with everyone?... What part will food play in the story of the Climate and Ecological Crisis, and the race to zero carbon?... How do we create, rather than follow the same rules?...


We’re asking, how can we restore an ecosystem through growing food that is fairly, harmoniously, and compassionately, grown, accessed, and enjoyed. Because without food, there is no life, and food is what makes life worth living. Food and farming is the future.

Be part of the answer. If you think we could support each other’s work, please get in touch with Rob Reed - robert@ateamfoundation.org


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THE PROJECTS FROM year 1 of FARMING THE FUTURE






Farming the Future 2019 – The Funded Projects

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Farming the Future 2019 – The Funded Projects

A TEAM FOUNDATION FARMING THE FUTURE

2019 has proven to be the year where a burgeoning groundswell of interest in food and farming is converting to real tangible change.

In the world of policy, terms like ‘agroecology’, ‘regenerative farming’, ‘soil health’, and ‘local food’ are being heard through the halls of Government. Through journalism and social media, a polarised debate around meat ensues along with alarming news on climate change. Groups of farmers up and down the country convene to answer the challenge of how to produce healthy food in line with the environment and with the current economic system. All of this energy is fuelling a buzz, a new zeitgeist.

The A Team Foundation has worked in the area of food and farming for the past ten years. Naturally, we are excited to see the movement blossom. Making full use of this momentum, along with our friends The Roddick Foundation, we launched Farming the Future.

Farming the Future is a project that supports the transition to a regenerative food system through collaborative philanthropy and redirecting institutional agricultural finance.

A workshop was arranged in the spring of 2019, participants from the regenerative food and farming sector could meet and share each other’s work. The outcome of this day was for us to receive collaborative grant proposals, where there were partnerships of three or more organisations.

In October, successful applicants were selected and given the grants. Here, we are able to share with you the ten projects that we are proudly working with.

If you would like to know more about the work, please feel free to email Robert@ateamfoundation.org

 


AGROECOLOGICAL MENTORING NETWORK - SUPPORTING THE NEXT GENERATION OF FARMERS

PROJECT LEADER: THE LANDWORKERS’ ALLIANCE
Partners: COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE NETWORK UK & ECOLOGICAL LAND COOPERATIVE

 

The Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) is a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers. Their mission is to improve the livelihoods of their members and create a better food and land-use system for everyone. Their vision of the future is one where people can work with dignity to earn a decent living and everyone can access local, healthy and affordable food, fuel and fibre. This is achieved through a food and land-use system based on agroecology, food sovereignty and sustainable forestry that furthers social and environmental justice.

The LWA are collaborating with the Community Supported Agriculture Network UK (who addresses increasing concerns about the lack of transparency, sustainability and resilience of our food system through reconnecting the community to food production) and the Ecological Land Cooperative (who provide affordable opportunities for ecological land-based businesses in England and Wales) to establish a formal mentoring network.

It is stated that we are on the edge of a very serious crisis in farming with regards to succession, and how the next generation of farmers can get into the field. Farming is tough, and new entrant farmers face multiple challenges including, but not limited to, access to land, access to capital, access to resources, access to markets and access to training, mentoring and support. Organisations are working hard on multiple fronts to support the next generation of farmers and the Land Workers Alliance believe it is essential that one way we do this is by creating a community and a movement of well-connected farmers and land-based workers across the UK through developing training, exchange and mentoring programs.

The grant is to create an Agroecological Mentoring Network for new entrant farmers and farmers who have been operating for less than 5 years. Currently in the UK there are hardly any programmes to support and train new entrant and starter farmers to get into the field of small-scale farming and land-based work, and of the handful that exist none focus on agroecological farming practices. Across the UK, the average age of a farmer is now over 60 and less than 5% of the farming labour force is under 35 years old, so it is urgent we support more people to get into regenerative, agroecological farming as part of building the food and farming systems’ resilience in the face of climate chaos.


AN EVALUATION OF THE VALUE CREATED BY GROWING COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

PROJECT LEADER: GROWING COMMUNITIES
Partners: SOIL ASSOCIATION & NEW ECONOMICS FOUNDATION

                 

GC is a community-led organisation that has operated in Hackney, North London, for the last 20 years, providing an alternative to the current damaging food system. They harness the collective buying power of their local community and direct it towards those farmers who are producing food in a sustainable way. This allows small-scale farmers and producers, whom they believe are the basis of a sustainable agriculture system, to thrive. GC champion ecological locally based farmers, whose food they bring to consumers through a veg box scheme and a weekly farmers’ market. They have helped to set up 11 other enterprises who operate according to the GC model and principles, who are now collectively known as the Better food Traders.

Using the economic and supply chain expertise of the New Economics Foundation and the Soil Association, the collaboration will monetise the economic, environmental and social value of GC’s work so that they and the wider movement are better able to articulate to consumers and policymakers the worth of locally produced food sold in local supply chains. In addition, by creating a valuation toolkit that GC will roll out to their Better Food Traders network they will enable distributors operating along similar lines to GC to do the same. The output of the collective efforts will be a report that analyses the findings of the research, and a valuation toolkit to help similar organisations to monetise their impact.

GC anticipate that they will be able to use the research to drive up consumer demand for local food, both from individuals and government. Additionally, the report will provide great impetus for those replicating GC’s model other cities across the UK. It will also enable them to better engage with local and national authorities and provide convincing real-life evidence of the benefits to public life of organic local supply chains, which may ultimately culminate in policy change.


ENGLAND’S FIELDS (FARMING & INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL LOCAL DELIVERY SUPPORT)

PROJECT LEADER: FARMLAND WILDLIFE ADVISORY GROUP SOUTH WEST
Partners: PASTURE FOR LIFE, SUSTAIN & REAL FARMING TRUST

Englands FIELDS FWAGSW A TEAM FARMING THE FUTURE

Farmland Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) was first established as a charity in the 1960s by a group of forward-thinking farmers who saw that that the environment was an important part of a successful farming business. FWAG provides trusted, independent environmental advice to the farming community, building a reputation for its ethical ethos and high standards of service. The organisation helps farmers understand the environmental value of their land and make the most of the agri-environment options available.

Their partners are Pasture for Life (who successfully champion the virtues of grass-based farming and meat production), Sustain (advocates for food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals) and the Real Farming Trust (a charity concerned with food sovereignty and sustainable farming (in particular, the practice of agroecology).

The aim of the project is to roll out their integrated local delivery framework. The process creates the opportunity for all communities (with support from an environmental adviser) to take local action for climate change by being inspired to reconnect to agroecological farming and enabling the benefits of re- localisation. To do this, specially trained advisers will enable communities to understand how to unpick the complexity of governance of their local area and apply it at human scale.

The objective is to provide an analysis that demonstrates to Treasury and all Government departments the cost benefits of integrating a localised framework and regenerative agriculture.  The aim is for Government to finally see the benefit of reducing the number of public bodies funded to deliver multiple single issues objectives (which create added complexity and confusion to farmers and communities).  Instead it will promote the cost benefit for the Government to invest in training and accrediting advisers that are available to every farmer and community to take local action. In turn, enabling co-delivery, release social capital, improve the environment and with additional socio-economic benefits. 


HARMONISED FRAMEWORK FOR MEASURING AND VALUING ON-FARM SUSTAINABILITY         

PROJECT LEADER: SUSTAINABLE FOOD TRUST & THEIR Wide NETWORK OF COLLABORATORS


The Sustainable Food Trust is a registered charity that was founded by Patrick Holden in response to the worsening human and environmental crises that are associated with the vast majority of today’s food and farming systems. Their mission is to accelerate the transition to food and farming systems which nourish the health of the planet and its people.

There is growing evidence that the agriculture and food industry is one of the most significant contributors to the transgression of ‘planetary boundaries’, especially in the areas of greenhouse gas emissions, resources use, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and water pollution. To avoid irreversible climate change and continued natural capital degradation, we are now at a point where a global transition to more sustainable production systems is urgently needed. However, this transition is being preventing by a number of barriers to change, two of the most significant being:  the failure to account for the hidden costs of food production systems and the lack of a unified means way of measuring food system sustainability. 

As a direct consequence of these barriers, producers are locked into a cycle of dependency on growing commodity crops/products which have a negative impact on the environment and public health, and consumers have no real way of making more informed buying choices.

Such a framework as this, analogous to the existence of the international profit and loss accounting standards, has the potential to provide a common communication platform for every food producer in the world, as well as informing governments about the impact of their farming policies and providing consumers with accurate information about the relative sustainability of the products they buy.


MAKING VOICES HEARD: ENSURING THAT ‘FARMING THE FUTURE’ CONCERNS ARE EMBEDDED IN IMMINENT POLICY, LEGISLATION AND FUTURE FARM FUNDING

PROJECT LEADER: SUSTAIN
PARTNERS: LWA, PANUK, SUSTAINABLE SOILS ALLIANCEFARMING WORKING PARTY OF THE SUSTAIN ALLIANCE


Sustain - The alliance for better food and farming - advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture, and promote equity. They represent around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.

The grant ensures that the voices and expertise of agroecological farming and sustainable land use are brought to the fore at key moments to be properly reflected in public policy and legislation. As well as ensuring that the voices of the wider movement gain opportunities to shape the funding systems, policy and governance structures. 

The Sustain alliance has already consulted and lobbied widely on key priorities for sustainable food and farming policy in relation to the Agriculture Bill, ELMS and the National Food Strategy, and are collecting evidence on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (not yet established).

Sustain’s collaboration will continue to be vocal about priorities for high environmental, farming, animal welfare and food standards, and expose the threats from low standards facilitated by ill-considered trade deals. Climate emergency and nature restoration, agroecology, animal welfare, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers, are specifically are to be properly reflected in each of the key pieces of legislation, policies, government funding and processes, reflecting the priorities championed by our movement.


PESTICIDES: CATALYSING CIVIL SOCIETY TO REDUCE FARMING CHEMICALS

PROJECT LEADER: RSPB
PARTNERS: PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK UK, SOIL ASSOCIATION & FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

A TEAM FARMING THE FUTURE RSPB

The RSPB’s mission statement is ‘Passionate about nature, dedicated to saving it’. They’re now the largest nature conservation charity in the country, consistently delivering successful conservation, forging powerful new partnerships with other organisations, and inspiring others to stand up and give nature the home it deserves.

The project is a feasibility scheme run in collaboration with PAN UK, Soil Association, and Friends of the Earth, which sets out to learn how a new programme of work could unite a civil society movement around chemicals. An essential phase of work that has the potential to kickstart a wide variety of civil society actors to target a national reduction in pesticide use and related harms in the UK.

Pesticides play a huge role in today’s farming but have significant negative impact through their direct (and indirect) effects on nature and people, and as a symbol of highly intensive agriculture which is fundamentally unsustainable. Cutting the use of chemical inputs requires a significant change in mind-set to find ways to farm with nature instead of against it. Farming with fewer chemicals leads to a more resilient form of food production that maintains essential ecosystem services.

The RSPB notes that there is a need to set a genuine strategic process which asks what civil society can do to change the UK’s approach to pesticides and, in tandem, push for a major reduction in pesticide use. This collaboration will also identify who would be best placed to tackle this action through the development of a shared ‘Theory of Change’.


 PROTECTING UK PESTICIDE STANDARDS FROM POST-BREXIT TRADE DEALS

PROJECT LEADER: PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK UK
PARTNERS: SUSTAIN & SUSSEX UNIVERSITY

 

Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK) are the only UK charity focused solely on tackling the problems caused by pesticides and promoting safe and sustainable alternatives in agriculture, urban areas, homes and gardens. They work tirelessly to apply pressure to governments, regulators, policy makers, industry and retailers to reduce the impacts of harmful pesticides to both human health and the environment.

PAN UK are partnering with the lobbying ability of Sustain and the academic expertise of Sussex University to protect UK pesticide standards post-Brexit. The UK government is touting trade deals with countries outside of the EU as a key opportunity arising from Brexit.  The EU has by far the strongest pesticide regime in the world in terms of protecting human health and the environment. This restricts not only the range of pesticides permitted to be used in UK agriculture, but also the residues that are permissible on food imports. Therefore, trade deals with non-European countries come with huge potential for undermining UK food quality and pesticide standards. As well as this being a major problem for public health, it also risks driving a ‘race to the bottom’ as UK farmers are forced to increase their pesticide use in order to compete with the influx of cheap chemical-laden food from non-EU countries.

The overall purpose of this project is to expose the dangers posed by post-Brexit trade deals to UK pesticide standards. This is achieved through the use of media stories and persuading and scrutinising Government. In addition, this project will generate proposed language for future UK trade agreements which, if adopted, would uphold existing UK pesticide standards.


SAVING COUNTY FARMS

PROJECT LEADER: CAMPAIGN FOR THE PROTECTION OF RURAL ENGLAND
PARTNERS: NEW ECONOMICS Foundation & SHARED ASSETS 


For over 90 years, Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) work locally and nationally to stand up for the countryside: to protect it from the threats it faces, and to shape its future for the better. In that time, they’ve helped win protection as National Parks for some of our most remarkable landscapes, from the Lake District to the South Downs. They’ve helped to influence and apply planning laws that have, against the odds, preserved the special beauty and character of the English countryside. Their vision is of the future is a beautiful and thriving countryside that’s valued and enjoyed by everyone.

Currently, a significant area of farmland - around 90,000 hectares of land in England – remains in public ownership as County Farm estates, but the role and opportunity they offer have been largely overlooked. County Farms are a valuable public asset owned by local authorities, enabling entry into the farming industry to young or first-time farmers through affordable, below-market rates.

However, they are a public asset under threat. Austerity has put immense pressure on local authorities, leading to a rapid sell-off of public land, as part of local authorities’ asset portfolios to fill budgetary gaps. The extent of County Farms has halved in 40 years. If they remain undervalued and poorly understood by politicians, officials, as well as the general public, their sell-off is likely to continue.

The project explores new models and approaches to how publicly owned farmland (County Farms) can be managed under public ownership, to set out their potential to deliver a range of public benefits and to develop a new vision for them. Using the economic analysis by the New Economics Foundation and sector knowledge of Shared Assets, CPRE will advocate this vision with key decision makers and the wider sector to build consensus and commitment to secure the future of County Farms for the common good.

The coming years will see significant changes to the way we farm, and the way we manage land more generally. County Farms have real potential to pioneer new forms of farming and land management that can help national and local government to address the multiple challenges society faces: not least the climate crisis, dietary and mental health and well-being, but also falling biodiversity and the disconnection from nature and food production.


SAVE OUR SEED: CULTIVATING RESILIENCE IN OUR FARMING SYSTEM – EUROPEAN EXCHANGES FOR INSPIRATION, COLLABORATION AND EMERGENCE

PROJECT LEADER: GAIA FOUNDATION
PARTNERS: LANDWORKERS’ ALLIANCE & UKGRAIN LAB 

A TEAM FOUNDATION FARMING THE FUTURE

The Gaia Foundation have over 30 years’ experience accompanying partners, communities and movements in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. Together they work to revive bio-cultural diversity, to regenerate healthy ecosystems and to strengthen community self-governance for climate change resilience. Gaia established the UK and Ireland Seed Sovereignty Network in 2017 to support a biodiverse and ecologically sustainable seed system; “because a food revolution starts with seed”.

This project coordinates a series of European exchanges to support the re-emergence of seed and grain sovereignty in the UK and Ireland. European counterparts have developed inspiring and resilient seed movements, communities of practice, and exchange networks, and Gaia would like the opportunity to exchange and learn from some of the leading examples of food and seed sovereignty in practice.

While the seed sovereignty movement in many parts of Europe is vibrant and thriving, here in the UK and Ireland it was, until recently, all but lost. Since 1900, we have lost 75% of our plant genetic diversity (source: FAO) and in the UK 80% of organic vegetable seed is imported from continental Europe and beyond. It has been the work of the Seed Sovereignty UK & Ireland Programme and its key partners over the past two years, to strengthen the network of seed savers, empower growers to save seed, and train a new generation of local open-pollinated seed producers.

Seed sovereignty and the propagation of open-pollinated, locally sourced seed is vital not only for food diversity and a fair seed system, but also for future food security - as weather conditions become increasingly unpredictable and extreme, the need for genetically rich seed grown, produced and maintained in the UK has never been more important - in diversity lies resilience.


WORKING GROUP ON INTEGRATION OF AGROECOLOGY INTO THE WORK STREAMS OF AGRICULTURE AND LAND-USE PLANNING MINISTRIES IN ENGLAND, WALES AND SCOTLAND

PROJECT LEADER: LANDWORKERS ALLIANCE
PARTNERS: ECOLOGICAL LAND CO-OPERATIVE, COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE NETWORK, GROWING COMMUNITIES, CAMPAIGN FOR THE PROTECTION OF RURAL ENGLAND, REAL FARMING TRUST & SUSTAIN

The Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) carries the voices of active land workers forward to advocate for agroecology and local food.  Through the collaboration they’ll increase the capacity of engaging with the wider network of public interest groups to research, frame, and deliver, a well-researched collective message to Government.

In regards to working with agricultural ministries, The LWA has a unique position because they are a union of farmers and foresters and are therefore, recognised as stakeholders and statutory consultees. They already work on providing evidence and case studies to increase the uptake of concrete proposals to scale out agroecology and have had measurable success. This project ensures a constant presence and develops a capacity to deep-dive and affect real change. The aim of the project is to provide compelling evidence for agriculture and planning ministries in order to deliver schemes that scale up agroecological farming across the UK.

The LWA notes that potential wins could be a new entrant’s scheme and a small farms productivity scheme. Additional possibilities are a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme in the future, or one which focuses on integrating communities into farms. It is also reasonable to assist DEFRA to adopt horticulture, green belt and urban agriculture Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) over the next 3 years. With more pressure they should be able to get additional agroecological objectives into the ELMS and, with hope, some social outcomes. Climate objectives are also a political priority , the LWA urges Government to adopt a Climate Action Plan as part of the climate emergency.


 

READ MORE:

FARMING THE FUTURE - A COLLABORATIVE AND FUNDED VISION

 



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Farming The Future : A Collaborative and Funded Vision

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Farming The Future : A Collaborative and Funded Vision

 

We stand upon the precipice of great change for food and farming in the UK. It is time to act anew and work together to replace our outdated industrial food system for one built on equity, harmony and compassion, while renewing our relationship with the land and those that feed us. The only way this will happen is if we work together, in unison, as a movement.

Founded by The A Team Foundation and the Roddick Foundation, with support by Be The Earth Foundation, the fund supports a culture of collaboration between key organisations and individuals working to create a better food system within the UK. With the system’s thinking expertise of The Point People, invitations were sent to 40 NGOs and individuals to workshop systemic change.

We want to understand the Movement’s current needs and dreams and foster co-creative solutions from those involved. We see this as a vital step to bring into manifestation a system which is fully inclusive of all life and is built from the ground up. 

In April, we arranged the workshop so that participants from the regenerative food and farming sector’s ecosystem could meet and share each other’s work. The outcome of this day was for the organisations to submit a grant proposal to the fund with a caveat that it is in collaboration with three or more organisations.

The workshop was a hive, rich with impassioned visionaries and intellectual fertility. The task for the day was to harvest prominent narratives from the group’s collective consciousness in order to mirror it back and say “hey this is what’s needed”. With so many stories already existing, combined with specific needs and wants, this was no mean feat.

We were very fortunate to have Vandana Shiva as our guest of honour. Vandana gave a sterling and rousing presentation of her vision for the future of food and farming, which you can watch below.

Vandana Shiva speaking in London on the challenges of the globalised food system and the need for an enlightened and compassioned agrarian renaissance.

The prominent narratives of the day look at how the Movement is to be more cohesive and thereafter amplified. To achieve this there are several areas that we need to target and barriers to overcome. The greatest narrative was around the need and power of storytelling. The fund has sidelined a budget for PR and creative work to push the work of the grant recipients further.

Additionally, Building the Movement (grassroots and public mobilisation) was spoken about in depth along with Policy, Distribution and Alternative Routes to Market, Consciousness and Connection, New Entrants, Leveraging Finance, and Land Reform.

The proposals are to be received in June - watch this space.

Farming the Future Workshop - Photo Diary

(click to enlarge)




 

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