Six Inches of Soil Goes to Groundswell 2022…

The Six Inches of Soil Team

The whole Six Inches of Soil production team – Colin, Claire, Mark, George, Lucy, James, Elsa, and Kate plus our principal characters – Adrienne, Anna and Ben – met recently at Groundswell 2022. Groundswell is the UK’s largest regenerative agriculture show and conference, hosted at Lannock Manor Farm, Hertfordshire. This was the very first time that we’d all been in the same place at the same time and the excitement was palpable! The fabulous location, the clear blue sky and the feeling of togetherness with this beautiful regen tribe, all added to the anticipation of the event. 

After a brief get together, two production teams set off for a busy day’s filming. This included interviews with numerous regenerative food and farming experts including Vicki Hird, Tim Parton, Mark Tufnell, John Pawsey, Dee Woods,  Helen Browning, Henry Dimbleby and many more. 

We also  filmed reflections from our producer George Young and principals as well as ‘vox pops’ with the crowds, gathering people’s thoughts on the event and agroecological and regenerative farming in general.  We shot lots of beautiful b-roll footage of the crowds, sessions, drones, robots and the stunning Hertfordshire scenery. 

It was great to meet up with many of our Six Inches of Soil partners in person (including Groundswell) – Soil Association, Nature Friendly Farming Network, Food Farming & Countryside Commission, Sustain, OF&G Organic, Pasture for Life, FarmED, The Sustainable Soils Alliance and BASE UK. It was also fantastic to finally meet  some of the generous donors to our March film Crowdfunder.

We also managed to jump into a couple of sessions, including the “Beyond the Farmgate – Supply Chain Opportunities” panel, with Hodmedod’s Josiah Meldrum, Abby Allen from Pipers Farm and Tony Little from the Landworkers’ Alliance. This is an area that we are particularly interested in - how to connect more farmers and consumers via local, short and decentralised supply chains. Panel chair Vicki Hird coined the term LSD supply chains at the session - I wonder whether it will catch on! 

Josiah, who describes himself as a ‘bean evangelist’, spoke about the crucial role beans can play in transforming the UK’s food and farming system, including adapting to climate change. Beans should be a food crop providing inexpensive protein and grown as part of the rotation, rather than a break crop fed to animals or exported.

When thinking about supply chains, Josiah said that it’s very important to build a network of trust and then build an infrastructure around that - buying and selling should be “relational and not transactional”. These are wise words, and this concept is much like the process of making a documentary.

Tony Little argued that short and local supply chains can feed the UK, based on evidence from the Landworkers’ Alliance 2021 report, “Vocal for Local”. The LWA is calling for independent local food businesses to supply 25 percent of the market share by 2030. Technology offers huge opportunities allowing farmers to scale up and scale out, also data sharing collaborations are enabling farmers to widen their market cost-effectively. However, he warned that there’s a lack of common vision for short supply chains because there’s no agreed way of measuring how “big” the short supply chain sector is and what impacts and benefits it can deliver.

Abby said that as farmers their role isn’t to create a homogenised product and to sell it to the highest bidder, but rather to put good healthy food on the plates of the people in Pipers Farm community. Abby’s work includes working with farmers to understand how they can implement regenerative and agroecological methods and increase profitability. She also mentioned how much the farmers that she speaks to are enjoying seeing increased biodiversity on their land. This is something that we regularly hear from the farmers that we’re speaking to. This is so important because it not only helps to save dwindling plant, wildlife and insect populations but it also puts us, as humans, back in touch with the natural world.

Later, on Wednesday, we all headed to a hot Yeo Valley Old Dairy tent to listen to George Monbiot in conversation with Rosie Boycott. The tent was packed, and the audience listened as George outlined his vision for how we can regenerate the food and farming system. His most provocative point being that we end livestock farming altogether, ditch animal manures for the soil and produce all our fat and protein needs via precision fermentation.

It was interesting as filmmakers to observe the reaction of the audience, some of whom felt angry and upset at his suggestions. This wasn’t unexpected, and George was cordial and friendly as he described extensive animal farming as “low yield” and “middle class storybook gastro porn”. George does have some valid points to make about the magic of soil and our dysfunctional food system and is evidently trying to take an extreme view in the hope of bringing people with him to a certain point. We’re supporting farmers who are looking at a more rounded approach that includes animals in the system – less inputs, no till, herbal leys, mob grazing, wildlife corridors, reducing fuel use, using local supply chains, silvopasture, agroforestry etc. After the session we recorded an interview between George Monbiot and our own @farminggeorge, which makes for interesting viewing.

Day two was another packed day full of interviews and networking with this amazing inspiring community. 

We’re so grateful to all the people that were able to spare the time to talk to us, our partners, our fantastic corporate partner BAM Clothing owner Dave Gordon who thoroughly enjoyed the event, the many experts, our principals and the wider regenerative farming community who have taken us under their wing and are so generous sharing their time and knowledge.

Here's to Groundswell 2023 and a new British agroecology film – Six Inches of Soil…

Six Inches of Soil principals (left to right) George Young, Adrienne Gordon, Ben Thomas and Anna Jackson

Read on to discover our team’s Groundswell 2022 takeaway moments:

Lucy and Claire’s ‘aha’ Groundswell moment - We asked our interviewees at the end of each interview to talk about what it feels like to plunge your hands in the soil, and describe a favourite moment or place where they connect to the soil. 

It was amazing to see our speakers’ eyes visibly light up on being asked this question, a smile came to their faces as they rubbed their fingers together, as if they were actually feeling the soil. There was a childlike joy.

As humans we have developed over generations growing food with our hands in the soil. It’s amazing to be reminded of this fact and consider what it means in the 21st century when so few people in the UK have their hands in the soil anymore. What a loss to our psyche and connection with the natural world!

Colin - I asked Dee Woods, who among many other things is the food justice policy coordinator for the Landworkers’ Alliance, what we can do about the ‘broken food system’. She replied, “It isn’t broken, it is working as intended”. It’s clear that there are some people and corporations who actually really benefit from the system as it’s working at the moment. 

James - we did a lot of vox pops at Groundswell with farmers and all sorts of folk, who were just so inspired and delighted to be there. People were clearly stimulated by the camaraderie and the obvious learning that was going on. 

Elsa - Groundswell to me is the glue that binds all these incredible projects together into a transformative movement for farming.

Kate - This was my first ever Groundswell and it was fantastic to feel part of such an important movement. Personally, some days, I wonder if i’m doing enough to make any kind of difference for future generations, but this event reminded me that collectively we can absolutely make a huge difference.