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Farmerama

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Farmerama Radio is an award-winning podcast sharing the voices behind regenerative farming. We are committed to positive ecological futures for the earth and its people, and we believe that farmers of the world will determine this. Each month, we share the experiences of grass roots farmers instigating radical change for the future of our food, our health, and the planet. Tune in to hear how these producers are discovering a more ecological farming future and to learn how their decisions can have a positive impact on us all. This is regenerative farming in action.

Location:

United Kingdom

Description:

Farmerama Radio is an award-winning podcast sharing the voices behind regenerative farming. We are committed to positive ecological futures for the earth and its people, and we believe that farmers of the world will determine this. Each month, we share the experiences of grass roots farmers instigating radical change for the future of our food, our health, and the planet. Tune in to hear how these producers are discovering a more ecological farming future and to learn how their decisions can have a positive impact on us all. This is regenerative farming in action.

Twitter:

@farmerama__

Language:

English


Episodes

Less And Better?: Ep 8: A Compass not a Map

3/3/2024
What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In this final episode, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham reflect on everything they’ve heard over the course of the series, thinking about what they personally have learned and considering what common ground has been found amongst the values and priorities of everyone they’ve spoken to.

Duration:00:35:12

Less And Better?: Ep 7: Not A Small Act

2/25/2024
What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In this episode, co-hosts Olivia Oldham and Katie Revell look into the question: can it ever be morally right to farm animals? They speak to farmers, researchers, meat eaters and abstainers, to discuss various cultural and personal ways of relating to animals, and explore if and how it's possible to square caring for animals with eating them.

Duration:01:01:49

Less And Better?: Ep 6: Just Meat

2/18/2024
What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 6, co-hosts Olivia Oldham and Katie Revell explore questions of food justice as they relate to less and better meat. By speaking to food producers, researchers and eaters, they explore whether less and better meat risks entrenching existing injustices, or could support a transition to a fairer, more equitable food system.

Duration:00:32:48

Less And Better?: Ep 5: Healthy Eating, Healthy Producing

2/11/2024
What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 5, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham ask: does a future of 'less and better' meat also mean a healthier future? They speak to researchers, farmers and those who follow meat-free diets, to explore how what we eat interacts with the physical, mental, spiritual, and collective health of both consumers and food producers.

Duration:00:57:16

Less And Better?: Ep 4: What is Land For?

2/3/2024
What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 4, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham ask: why do we use land the way we do, and how should we use it in the future? They meet with farmers, academics and land management advisors, to delve into the history of land use in the UK, reflecting on the cultural and political factors that continue to shape it, and looking for common ground between advocates of different approaches.

Duration:00:29:13

Less And Better?: Ep 3: Alternative Proteins: More and Better?

1/28/2024
What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 3, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham explore the question: if we decide to eat less and better meat, what do we eat instead? They speak with a legumes specialist and a cellular agriculture entrepreneur, and ask whether we should see “alternative” proteins as “alternatives” at all. In doing so, they reflect on what we value in our food system once we do away with the meat/non-meat binary.

Duration:00:41:01

Less And Better?: Ep 2: The cow or the how?

1/21/2024
What do we do about meat? With this urgent question as its starting point, this series seeks to move beyond polarised debate and identify key questions and shared values to help us build a better meat future for all. In episode 2, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham meet a climate scientist, along with regenerative and organic farmers across the UK, to discuss the complex ways that animal agriculture interacts with our natural environment. From how we measure emissions of greenhouse gases, to what we feed our animals, and which management systems we use, they ask – what is the place of farmers when it comes to less and better meat? Thank you to everyone on our Patreon. Your support helps us in bringing you the stories of regenerative farming around the world, each month. We appreciate it. If you'd like to join, please visit patreon.com/farmerama where you can choose your level of support.

Duration:00:48:00

Less And Better?: Ep 1: Its Complicated

1/14/2024
It feels like one of the biggest questions of our time: what do we do about meat? Rather than choosing either extreme – business as usual, or ruling out meat altogether – some people suggest the best approach is one of ‘less and better meat’. But how much less is ‘less’? And which meat is ‘better’? How do we even begin to answer these questions? In this series, co-hosts Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham attempt to unearth what lies beneath questions of technological change and consumer choice. On an expansive, and sometimes personal, journey, they learn that – as much as the debate about meat is sometimes painted as a binary choice between right and wrong – things might not be quite so simple. They ask who – and what – benefits from different systems of production? What priorities and values do seemingly simple solutions obscure? And, perhaps most importantly, can we find some common ground, some shared principles and values, on which to build a better meat future for all? Thank you to everyone on our Patreon. Your support helps us in bringing you the stories of regenerative farming around the world, each month. We appreciate it. If you'd like to join, please visit patreon.com/farmerama where you can choose your level of support.

Duration:00:33:27

87: Landscape Scale Regeneration – Connecting Ecology, Community & Culture - Groundswell 2023

11/26/2023
This month we bring you a conversation Abby convened at Groundswell Festival back in June, focused on Landscape Scale Regeneration. We hear from three people involved in different ways in an initiative in Waterford, Ireland. This discussion expands upon the Commonland initiative in Southern Spain we featured back in Episode 68, highlighting the power of a common vision and the benefits of working across a whole region.

Duration:00:56:19

Good Bread: Part 3: A common language

10/22/2023
Is it possible or productive to organise around a common language in order to reimagine how we produce grain and bread? In the third and final part of Good Bread, Kim and Ruth reflect on some of their experiences working on the project and consider what the future of good bread might look like. This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

Duration:00:39:22

Good Bread: Part 2: The price of consistency

10/15/2023
Consistency is at the heart of industrial bread production, from the field to the mill to the oven. But what is it costing us? This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. Thanks to Shipton Mill for their openness and generosity in allowing the Body Lab to explore these ideas. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

Duration:00:39:13

Good Bread: Part 1: What is good bread?

10/8/2023
This series is in response to the Body Lab, a participatory arts and research project by baker Kimberly Bell (​​@smallfoodbakery) and artist Ruth Levene (@leveneruth) which explores the industrial processes of grain testing. Over three episodes, Lucy Dearlove explores what the body lab is, what the work around it has entailed so far, and what the outcomes might be. In part 1, she explores the question - what is good bread? She speaks to Kim and Ruth about what makes good bread for them, and unpacks what the Body Lab is about, and why they started the project. We hear from farmer Fred Price and baker Rosie Benson from Gothelney Farm (@gothelneyfarmer) and Field Bakery (@fieldbakery) about their understanding of good grain, and speak with Chris Hollister from Shipton Mill (@shiptonmill), about the different tests that take place when wheat arrives at an industrial grain mill, and some of the justifications for this process. With each of them, Lucy discusses why reimagining this testing system could be positive for bakers, farmers and Millers. Also hear some of the responses to our Breadline - where we asked our audience what makes good bread to you - which will be woven throughout the series. The Body Lab is funded by Farming the Future. This series was produced by Lucy Dearlove and is published on Farmerama and Lecker.

Duration:00:29:37

86: Brazil nuts, spare bed and Ecovinyards

9/24/2023
This month we learn how some people importing Brazil nuts to the UK is supporting the indigenous people of the amazon. We visit a restaurant who are making use of spare growing space in their community and learn about agro-ecological approaches to managing vineyards across Australia.

Duration:00:37:10

85: New use for abandoned Farmland, London growing community and Potato art

8/27/2023
This month we begin in Ibiza where we learn about a project matching new and diversifying farmers with abandoned farmland to grow more organic produce on the island. We hear from a food growing project in London that teaches to produce food and care for the land and has a foundation in traditional African philosophy. And we dive deep into the world of, potatoes, looking at them in a fascinating new light.

Duration:00:34:46

84: Beltane celebrations, Black farmers market and mentoring

7/30/2023
In this months episode we head to Scotland to hear about a Beltane celebration for young people in rural areas. We speak to the organiser of the London-based Black Farmers Market, and we check in with another farmer benefiting from the Pasture for Life mentoring program. This episode of Farmerama was made by Abby Rose Jo Barratt Katie Revell and Dora Taylor. A big thanks to the rest of the Farmerama team Olivia Oldham, Fran Bailey, Annie Landless and Eliza Jenkins . Our theme music is by Owen Barratt.

Duration:00:34:12

83: a Jewish grassroots collective, mentoring and native wild plants

6/25/2023
This month we meet two people who are building a community group to celebrate an earth-based connection between their religion and the land. We learn about the success of a mentoring programme for farmers. And we end with a request from a Botanist. We're very grateful to those of you that support us and allow us to bring you these stories every month. Even the smallest contribution makes a big difference to us. So if you'd like to become a supporter, you can visit patreon.com/farmerama.

Duration:00:32:19

Shorts: Jumping Fences

6/11/2023
This is a short episode about the Jumping Fences report. Jumping Fences is about understanding the barriers that prevent Black people and people of colour from accessing land for agroecological farming in Britain – and addressing those barriers. The report is a collaboration between the Landworkers’ Alliance, Land in Our Names and the Ecological Land Cooperative. It builds on a previous project, Rootz into Food Growing, which was focused on London. Jumping Fences was launched in the Justice Hub at the 2023 Oxford Real Farming Conference. Following the launch, Katie spoke to Jumping Fences’ lead researcher, Naomi Terry, as well as two of the people interviewed for the report – pig farmer Flavian Obiero, and cut flower farmer Cel Robertson. Links: Read the report here: https://landinournames.community/projects/jumping-fences Listen back to the launch event and discussion here: https://orfc.org.uk/session/jumping-fences-report-land-justice-food-justice-and-racial-justice-in-british-farming/ Tags: Naomi Terry: Instagram @naomitez Flavian Obiero: Instagram @thekenyanpigfarmer / Twitter @kenyanpigfarmer Cel Robertson: Instagram @forevergreenflowerco Landworkers’ Alliance: @landworkersalliance Ecological Land Coop: @eco_land_coop Land in Our Names: @landinournames Oxford Real Farming Conference: @oxfordrealfarmingconference

Duration:00:17:45

82: Sail powered supply networks, Hydrology and a regenerative finance model

5/28/2023
This month we start by hearing about the possibilities of supply networks fuelled by sailing ships. We are encouraged to think again about water in the landscapes we are part of, and we hear how one woman in Mexico is working on connecting people in the financial world and those who work with the land with the aim of re-orienting our economy so it serves life. We're very grateful to those of you that support us and allow us to bring you these stories every month. Even the smallest contribution makes a big difference to us. So if you'd like to become a supporter, please visit. https://www.patreon.com/farmerama This episode of Farmerama was made by me, Jo Barratt, Abby Rose, and Dora Taylor. A big thanks to the rest of the Farmerama team Katie Revell, Olivia Oldham, Fran Bailey, Annie Landless, Eliza Jenkins and Lucy Fisher. Our theme music is by Owen Barratt

Duration:00:26:31

81: The Seaweed Commons, Soy-free Pigs and Regenerative Viticulture

4/30/2023
This month Severine von Tscharner Fleming tells us all about the work she's been doing as part of the Seaweed Commons, an international learning and advocacy network for conservation minded seaweed farmers, wild harvesters, marine biologists and researchers. We also have the third and final installment of our series on animal feed made in collaboration with Wicked Leeks. This episode, Wicked Leeks editor Nina Pullman speaks with Amy Chapple - daughter of Mark Chapple who you’ll remember from last week’s episode - about her soy-free pigs. Wicked Leeks are exploring this topic in a documentary entitled ‘What’s the Problem with Animal Feed?’ which meets some of the farmers trying to reverse agriculture’s soy addiction. If you are interested in more stories on sustainable food and ethical business, you can sign up online to receive the weekly edition of the Wicked Leeks magazine. Finally, we hear from Sérgio Nicolau in Portugal about his transition from conventional to organic, and then regenerative winemaking. He shares with us how he uses a combination of sap analysis, brix readings and hole digging to understand what is working on his vineyard. This episode of Farmerama was made by Jo Barratt and Abby Rose. Additional recordings by Nina Pullman, editor at Wicked Leeks. A big thanks to the rest of the Farmerama team Dora Taylor, Olivia Oldham, Katie Revell, Fran Bailey, Annie Landless, Eliza Jenkins and Lucy Fisher. Our theme music is by Owen Barratt. Thank you to everyone on our Patreon. Your support helps us in bringing you the stories of regenerative farming around the world, each month. We appreciate it. If you'd like to join, please visit patreon.com/farmerama where you can choose your level of support.

Duration:00:33:27

Shorts: Vandana Shiva

4/16/2023
This special episode features a conversation recorded with Vandana Shiva at the 2023 Oxford Real Farming Conference. Following the publication of her memoir, Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements – which coincided with her 70th birthday – the writer and activist was at ORFC to reflect on her life and to take part in a discussion on the future of GM in the UK. We asked her about her four decades of work as an advocate for farmers’ rights, indigenous knowledge, food and seed sovereignty, diversity, and localisation, her thoughts on gene editing, and her sources of motivation. Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements is published by Chelsea Green. Find out more at: https://chelseagreen.co.uk/book/terra-viva/ Watch Jyoti Fernandes in conversation with Vandana Shiva at ORFC – “In the Name of the Farmer: Vandana Shiva recalls a lifetime of campaigning for small-scale farmers” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTZxmXdxAjI Watch the ORFC discussion “GM’s False Promises: could the UK be next?” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi848m6BN8 Thank you to everyone on our Patreon. Your support helps us in bringing you the stories of regenerative farming around the world, each month. www.patreon.com/farmerama

Duration:00:18:34