Farming For Change

In this episode, James and Ben are joined by Ed Kerr and Craig Lappin-Smith - a banker and restaurateur respectively, and joint co-founders of Herd - a project to promote regenerative farming through fractional ownership of farmland. Up for discussion - why food should be front and centre of nature recovery, why rewilding may not be all it's cracked up to be and why James isn't cut out for goat-herding...

In this episode, James and Ben are joined by Will Shotton from Tibico Fermentary to talk about all things gut health, ultra-processed food and the impact of modern day farming on our microbiomes.

Ben and James are joined by Antony Yousefian, partner at The First Thirty, a company that's aim is to regenerate 30m hectares by 2030. We cover a lot of ground in this one - vertical farming, quantifying the ecological footprint, biodiversity net gain and the role of AI in agriculture. Links mentioned: https://www.tft.vc/ - The First Thirty websitehttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60f02799e90e0764d2837899/Dasgupta_Response__web_July.pdf - The Economics of Biodiversity: The...

In this episode, Ben and James chat to Marion Regan, fourth generation 'guvnor' of Hugh Lowe Farms in Kent, about robots, Wimbledon, lacewings and how they continue to grow soft fruit sustainably in an increasingly unpredictable social, economic and environmental climate.

In this episode, instead of chatting to another farmer James meets with Ben's long-suffering wife, Helen, and Ben wasn't there so they could say what they want! It's easy to forget that behind most stressed-out farmers there is a calm and collected husband or wife supporting them while they work long hours, hatch crazy plans and, in James and Ben's case, talk about soil. A Lot.

Ben visits James who's feeling down in the dumps about farming after the heatwave. They discuss why food production has become so high risk and the impact climate change is having on our ability to grow viable crops. But, ever the optimist - Ben believes that 'desperation leads to innovation' and profitability is not necessarily mutually exclusive from the environment. They also cover something that's often overlooked in farming - mental health.

On this episode James and Ben are joined by Tim May, estate manager at Kingsclere Estates in Hampshire, to discuss cows, circular economies, enterprise stacking and guerilla gardening. Meanwhile, Ben reveals his plans for 'quackerponics'...

In light of COP26, this episode focuses on the role of agroecology in mitigating climate change. Ben and James are joined by Ollie Gillard from Gage Graphics to discuss how art can play a role in spreading the word of regenerative farming, and why this is more important now than ever.

James and Ben are joined by Ed Brown, an Agronomist and Head of Agroecology at H L Hutchinson Ltd, to discuss the barriers and attitudes that stand in the way of moving to a better way of farming. And we'll reveal what boats and flerds are...