Farm Gate

Discussion - Is low carbon beef an out-of-date answer to the wrong question? Interviews with Jo Raven from FAIRR, Professor Imke de Boer from Wageningen University & Research, and Dr Michelle Cain from Cranfield University.

ffinlo Costain, the Editor-in-Chief of 8point9.com, is joined by Jamie Evans-Freke from Knight Frank and Gabriel Connor-Streich from Greenshank Environmental. The discussion is on nutrient neutrality - and what on earth happened in the UK Parliament this week when the government tried to scrap existing rules and force through a new, under-considered system, using an amendment to the Levelling Up a...

In part one we hear three interviews. With: David McCulloch from Tilhill on the urgent need to increase productive UK forestry for wood Niamh Carr from The James Hutton Institute on proposals for a green hydrogen powered farm And Stéphanie Mielnik from the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute about the risk to investors if they buy bonds from companies with links to illegal deforestation.

This episode of 8.9 Newsweek features interviews with Professor Sir Dieter Helm, and Sofía Condés, Head of Investor Outreach at the FAIRR Initiative.

Welcome to News Week from 8point9.com - I'm ffinlo Costain. We've got two great interviews for you, each about really important subjects. Now, you may noticed that the normal Farm Gate podcast has become a little more intermittent while we've been getting 8.9 hectares up and running - please do stay subscribed as we have some fantastic interviews and discussions planned for the coming...

This is the audio version of a webinar in which the chief executives of RSPB, Soil Association and Nature Friendly Farming Network discuss the Consensus for Food, Farming and Nature - hosted by Farm Gate, which is now part of 8point9.com Panellists: Helen Browning - Chief Executive, Soil Association Beccy Speight - Chief Executive, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Martin Lines - Ch...

An investigation by Lighthouse Reports has targeted the powerful European farming lobby group, Copa-Cogeca, which they say “is losing legitimacy even as it stymies the EU’s green agenda and hoovers up public funds.” In this programme we'll explore issues raised by the Lighthouse Reports investigation - and think about the legitimacy and the policy role of the National Farmers' Union, the l...

ffinlo Costain talks to Chris Smaje about his new book, Saying NO to a farm-free future . Smaje's response to George Monbiot's Regenesis is a well-mannered treatise that outlines coolly and specifically why the Guardian columnist's prescription for the food system is just completely wrong. Smaje, an academic, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future, is one of the few voices to publicl...

In this panel session we discuss a new report, Natural Capital: what farmers and policy makers need to know, which seeks to understand how new and emerging markets in natural capital fit into a changing landscape for farmers. The report was commissioned by the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission – it was written by Professor Fergus Lyon and Dr Amy Burnett from Middlesex University – and it wa...

At the UK prime minister’s summit this week a package of measures to support British farming was unveiled. But the summit failed to address the enormous existing and future fragility in Britain’s food system – or its impact on the natural world, public health, global supply chains or indeed the wellbeing of those actually living and working in the countryside. What should have been on the table at...

George Eustice has been the Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth since 2010. He was a Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2015 to 2020 - and served as the Secretary of State at Defra from 2020 to 2022. Mr Eustice has been the longest serving minister at Defra in the post-referendum period, providing a relatively rare point of consistency and stabili...

Outwintering your cattle herd in an agroecological farm system can reduce both costs and environmental impacts - but while ever more producers are taking this approach it's still far from common place. In this programme we discuss how to design an outwintering system that maintains productivity and ensures good cattle health and welfare. ffinlo Costain is joined by Silas Hedley-Lawrence and Cl...

While regenerative agriculture itself isn't new, popular interest and the increasingly widespread deployment of regenerative principles, is a product of a global conversation that has taken place largely within the last decade. Despite that, regenerative farming has already become mainstream, with large businesses and corporations investing in research and embedding ambitious regenerative targ...

Wilder Doddington is at the start of a hundred year project to bring more nature back to the Doddington Estate - working to restore ecosystems to benefit people and nature.  In this programme ffinlo Costain is joined by Wilder Doddington's Isobel Wright and the independent farm advisor, Liz Genever , who's working with Isobel and advising on cattle management.  The conversation ranges fr...

Environmental breakdown and global population rise have led to a strong focus on food supply chains, but the way that we produce fibre is equally important.  At least 60% of our clothes are now made using synthetic, petrochemical-based fabrics - all of which need to be replaced.  Natural animal or plant-based fibres will become resurgent on the cat walks and on the high street - so the n...

The world of glamping may seem remote from the every day toil of working with crops and livestock, but for six months of the year it can provide a hugely important source of income that can be used to underpin other aspects of farming life. ffinlo Costain is joined by Hannah Jefferson from Woodfrys Farm in Dorset and Jessica Allen-Back from Home Farm Glamping in Elstree.

This is the final programme in our Regen Dairy mini-series. Today we're visiting Germany, and ffinlo Costain talks to two regenerative dairy farmers - Anja Hradetzky, who farms at Hof Stolze Kuh in northeast Brandenburg, and Annabelle Gerard who farms at Hof Tangsehl in Lower Saxony. Regen Dairy is a partnership project of Farmwel and FAI Farms, in collaboration with Arla Foods, Barry Callebaut, B...

One of the greatest challenges for global transformation is mindset shift - and because, in terms of food systems, this transformation needs to happen in so many places at once, it can be very difficult for individuals to feel that they're actually making a difference. The Inner Development Goals framework has been developed to support and foster the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal...

ffinlo Costain speaks to Jayne Buxton , author of The Great Plant-Based Con .  Jayne has written novels and non-fiction, published articles in The Independent and The Guardian, and has been an ambassador for the Real Food Campaign and the Public Health Collaboration.   The Great Plant-Based Con, explains why eating a plants-only diet won't improve our health or save the planet - and it's...

COP27 is over. Temperatures continue to rise. There's still no consensus about the role of land use and agriculture. Did anything good emerge from Sharm El-Sheikh in terms of food systems & climate change? ffinlo Costain is joined by three experts:  Patty Fong , Program Director, Climate and Health and Well-being, Global Alliance for the Future of Food , Adele Jones , executive director,...

This is the third programme in a series in which I talk to regenerative dairy producers from around the world.   ffinlo Costain speaks to Phyllis Van Amburgh, who farms at Dharma Lea in Sharon Springs, New York, USA, about epigenetics and vertical real estate - and to Charlotte and Russell Heald , from Dunkeld Farm in the Tararua region of the north island in New Zealand, about food forests a...

ffinlo Costain talks to Sir Dieter Helm CBE.   Dieter is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. He was the Independent Chair of the UK's Natural Capital Committee, and was awarded a knighthood for services to the environment, energy and utilities policy. This discussion is a masterclass for people aiming to influence UK Governm...

Carbon tunnel vision is a nasty disease that can create a strongly distorted perspective on agricultural land use and food production.  This programme will help to remedy the condition, by showing that land use decisions are complex.   ffinlo Costain is joined by Adele Jones , the deputy chief executive of the Sustainable Food Trust , and by Ashleigh Bright , a food systems and sustainab...

This is an edited recording of the Regen Dairy round-the-world tour, which took place on 5th October 2022.  We were thrilled to host this opportunity to circumnavigate the globe with four very different regen dairy farmers, all of whom are quite exceptional in their own way.  Our panellists were Blake Alexandre is a fourth generation dairy farmer from Alexandre Family Farm near Crescent...

Small abattoirs are essential infrastructure, but they're in serious decline - seen by the UK Government as a 'nice to have' that serves the middle classes, rather than a 'must have' to deliver climate, biodiversity and soil security - and to support rural economies and farming communities. Another nail was recently hammered into the small abattoir coffin, as Mettrick's abattoir in Glossop closed...