Farm Gate

Changing the way we manage hydrology is essential if we're to restore ecological security.  This programme is the recording of a Food & Global Security Network webinar called, Restoring Water Cycles.  It features globally renowned soil microbiologist, Walter Jehne , from Regenerate Earth , and regenerative farming coach, Caroline Grindrod , from Roots of Nature .  The discussion...

Jyoti Fernandes is from the UK Landworkers' Alliance and well-known as a campaigner working for the rights of small farmers and peasant farmers. Jyoti recently wrote an open letter to the Guardian writer, George Monbiot, whose book, #Regenesis, and the articles he's written to promote it, distort public awareness of regenerative solutions to the ecological crisis.   In this programme, ffinlo...

ffinlo Costain talks to Mark Anderson , from Westridge dairy farm, South Otago, New Zealand, and to Sophie and Dai Wilson from Wiltshire in the UK.  Mark sees regenerative farming as an opportunity to decolonialise agriculture and the management changes he's made have put him back in control of his finances.  Meanwhile Sophie and Dai have created a low impact model where they outwinter t...

Increased rainfall and storm intensity are hugely important characteristics of global temperature rises and the way land is managed can have an enormous impact on our ability to reduce flood risk.  In this programme we're talking about natural flood defences and ways to manage water flows in the landscape. ffinlo Costain talks to Chris Uttley , the Stroud Valleys Natural Flood Management Offi...

This is the first in a series in which we talk to regenerative dairy producers from around the world - as part of the Regen Dairy project, set up by FAI Farms and Farmwel, in collaboration with Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Arla Foods, Woolworth South Africa and Ben & Jerry’s. In this programme, ffinlo Costain talks to Blake Alexandre , from Alexandre Family Farm , California, USA, and Bryce Cunn...

Many governments see farm expansion as the future of agriculture, but there's a grave risk that this will simply embed the challenges inherent in today's food system.  Instead we need diversity - and small farms play a critical a role. ffinlo Costain talks to Chris Smaje , author of A Small Farm Future , published by Chelsea Green .   Produced by Farmwel.

What does war in Ukraine, and the global response to conflict, tell us about global food production and food systems more broadly? ffinlo Costain is joined by Chantal Wei-Ying Clément , deputy director of IPES Food , Joona Mikkola from Soil Watch and Sue Pritchard from the UK's Food, Farming and Countryside Commission . Produced by Farmwel, with support from FAI Farms.

Most people live in cities, urban conurbations and housing estates rather than in cottages next to farms. How can we shorten supply chains into cities, bring food production to urban areas, and support volunteers and micro business opportunities for citizens, farmers and growers? ffinlo Costain is joined by Jeremy Iles from the Urban Agriculture Consortium and Rachel Hammond from Edge . Produced b...

The war in Ukraine has sparked a food price crisis with devastating impacts being felt around the world - but while Russia lit the touch paper, this crisis was predicted and could have been avoided. ffinlo Costain is joined by Professor Jennifer Clapp , Thin Lei Win and Margot Gibbs . Jennifer is an expert for Brussels-based IPES-Food and the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Susta...

A regenerative agricultural and environmental transformation depends upon a resurgence of localism - but localism is also championed by far right politicians who pronounce their own vision centred on a tough approach to immigration.  How we can safeguard food systems in a more ecologically chaotic world with accelerating human migration?  Can we find a popular but inclusive vision of nat...

In this programme, we discuss a feature film, Six Inches of Soil, which is currently in production in the UK.  The film is being crowd-funded by organisations and individuals, and its producers want to ensure that - even as we are driven towards an ecological precipice fuelled in part by an industrialised food system - we recognise that the dirt beneath our feet is what feeds us and makes our...

In this programme, we're talking about meat, fish and protein alternatives - and the competing claims about sustainability that are made by individuals and vested interests across the food sector and around the world.  IPES Food has released a new report, The Politics of Protein , and to discuss it, ffinlo Costain is joined from the USA by lead author, Phil Howard, and from Brussels by the di...

Demand for new woodland is growing for everything from timber to carbon sequestration. But forests take up space - and competition for land is increasing. How do we balance the demands of food production, nature, housing and infrastructure, with the need for new woodland and forest products?   ffinlo Costain is joined by Andrew Heald , a consultant specialising in sustainable forests and plan...

In this programme, ffinlo Costain talks to Rob Percival , author of The Meat Paradox.   We are not wild animals and yet we still kill other sentient creatures and eat them in their billions. Rob charts our relationship with meat, from the scavenging of carcasses on an ancient savannah to the industrialised systems that produce much of the meat we consume today. He finds that emotional co...

In this programme, ffinlo Costain talks to Josiah Meldrum , co-founder of the successful on-line retailer, Hodmedods . Josiah works with British farms to source top quality beans, pulses and grains - particularly less well-known foods, like the fava bean, grown in Britain since the Iron Age, but now largely forgotten.   We talk about why Josiah thinks of Hodmedods as an agroecological re...

In this programme we focus on the UK and East Africa and discuss how the carbon market can channel finance from carbon sequestration and storage to help fund broader land regeneration. ffinlo Costain speaks to Thomas Gent, the founder of Gentle Farming who works with the Agreena carbon payment platform, and Joona Mikkola , a regenerative agriculture specialist based in Uganda who founded Soil Watc...

Carbon farming is on the rise - but how does the carbon market work, and how does carbon sequestration and storage help to finance the delivery of other ecosystem services. ffinlo Costain is joined from Scotland by Charlie Davis , a Natural Capital Advisor specialising in the management of natural assets for Savills , the farms, estates and agricultural land agents.  Produced by Farmwel.

Despite the absence of food systems, soil and agriculture from the top negotiating table at COP26, these subjects did, at last, emerge as key themes at side events inside the COP conference village. The Glasgow Food & Climate Declaration - initiated by Nourish Scotlan d and IPES Food - was a key factor in pushing this focus on food systems up the policy agenda. ffinlo Costain discusses the pur...

Was COP26 in Glasgow a success? In this programme we do a stock take. What was achieved at COP26 – in terms of global warming and agricultural land use? What was missing? What was fundamentally misunderstood at the top table? And what do we need to do next, to ensure that an agroecological transition is lifted firmly onto the negotiating table at COP27 and beyond? ffi...

ffinlo Costain talks to Vicki Hird - a farming expert and author who's been at the heart of environmental, food and agricultural policy discussions for over 30 years.  Her new book, Rebugging The Planet , is set to be the must-buy stocking filler for Christmas this year.  We discuss the new book, which shows us that bugs are beautiful, charismatic and economically valuable.  We also...

Do farm animals experience emotions, or are the behaviours people perceive as emotions purely an instinctive response?  Do cows, for example, feel happy or depressed?  And should a farm animal's ability to react instinctively, or to respond emotionally, affect the way that we care for and handle livestock? ffinlo Costain , the chief executive of Farmwel , is joined by Professor David Mai...

The best solutions for land use deliver multiple outcomes - especially in places where land is relatively scarce and expensive. What if we could combine the farming of electricity from the sun with land management that regenerates the soil and produces high quality nutrition?   ffinlo Costain talks to Trent Hendricks and Sophy Fearnley-Whittingstall.   Trent is from Cabriejo Ranch in Missouri, USA...

This year's UN Food Systems Summit is being seen by many as an opportunity to define the future of food. The summit may also be the launch pad for a new science & policy interface - what's being described as an 'IPCC for Food'.  But do we really need an IPCC for Food? Shouldn't we simply better fund and better utilise the mechanisms we already have? ffinlo Costain is joined by food systems experts...

In this programme, ffinlo Costain discusses corporate sustainability and green wash, with Benet Northcote and Ed Gillespie. Is it possible for large companies to become genuinely sustainable - or will greed always triumph over green? Benet is a senior adviser at Seahorse Environmental and the deputy chair of the UK's Conservative Environment Network. Prior to that he was the director of corporate...

FAI Farms and McDonald's UK & Ireland have won Compassion in World Farming 's prestigious Sustainable Food and Farming Award for their work on regenerative beef.  This is a four year project, centred on Adaptive Multi-paddock Grazing.  The results have been outstanding - so what are they - how have they been achieved - and what has FAI learned along the way? ffinlo Costain talks to F...