Inspiration from the Field: Stories from Groundswell

Groundswell for those of you not familiar is a two day farming festival/conference that features hundreds of speakers from farming, food, politics and environment backgrounds, as well as a now legendary DJ set from Groove Armada’s Andy Cato (of course, because farmers know how to party).

Having attended for the past few years, the thing I didn’t expect to find there when I first went was real, raw deep rooted inspiration from so many voices from different sides of the field looking to come together for a common goal. Below I’m sharing my key takeouts from this year, and hopefully you’ll find some gold there too.

Regen is HOT right now.

The festival is growing, and with that so are the diversity of voices in the field. From fashion to whisky to coffee, businesses across the board (and not just the small ones) are looking to farmers & growers to help connect the dots on the future of their supply chains, and seeing how they can support them in turn to ensure the raw materials needed for products are protected for future generations. There was a huge shift not only in more people, but more well known brands in attendance as well as speaking alongside their growers. Oh, and a secret Prince William keynote on the first day.

Regenerative isn’t a practice, it’s a mindset

Often referred to as the Godfather of regenerative agriculture, Gabe Brown gave a number of talks over the festival, starting with a powerful keynote on regenerative principals. I love this idea that regen is a mindset - a practice keeps us in guidelines, a mindset allows us to see beyond what we already know, and push forwards, guided by our values. We have to, more than ever push forwards in whatever sector we’re in, and if we share the same mindset, the same common goal we’ll get there faster, together.

People will pay for quality over utility - but not always health

Henry Dimbleby’s panel with George Eustice and Justin King explored the roles of government & supermarkets in farming. Justin, ex-CEO of Sainsbury’s talked extensively of intimately knowing the consumer, and being able to provide them with what they want before they even know they want it. This line above is a great insight into (broadly) what we value; from British flags on boxes of eggs to single origin chocolate, we want to know what we’re buying is quality, but health as the core message doesn’t land unless someone is already focussed in that direction.

To regain our taste we must remove sweeteners & sugar

Dr David Unwin spoke about using regenerative food as a prescription for health, flipping the idea of the pharmacy with the farm. I think so often we forget that glucose/sweeteners cloud our tastebuds as well as being the root cause for a lot of health conditions. In order for us to be able to taste and get really in-tune with what’s going on inside, removing sugar is one of the most important steps. When we do remove it, we begin to enjoy other foods more too - for instance the sweetness of a ripe strawberry becomes heightened; a magical thing.

The thorn is the mother of the oak

Shared as a quote ahead of a session, I had to include this. Traditionally an oak sapling will be surrounded by hawthorn and blackthorn to protect it from grazing animals whilst it’s young. In turn we must protect new ideas and and allow them to establish in order to flourish - sometimes protecting them with something we would never expect.

I’ve been to the future, we won.

Perhaps my favourite session was with Rob Hopkins. A quite frankly indescribable session, Rob took us to 2030 to explore what we wanted our future to look like, and then how we can get there. Put simply, if enough of us long for the same things, then we can create them. And to create them, we need to fall in love with our future first, and move away from fear.