THIS summer, two very British festivals took place. Both saw crowds of people in Wellingtons and denim cut-offs gathering in fields to the camp, drinking beer, and dance a summer's evening away. Those attending Somerset's Glastonbury Festival had come for the music. Those at Groundswell in Hertfordshire, however, were there to share ideas about something being described as 'the new rock and roll': regenerative farming.
In 2017, brothers John and Paul Cherry hosted the first Groundswell festival in a shed on their farm when 450 farmers came together to discuss techniques such as direct drilling and cover cropping. Six years on, that number has swelled to 5,000.
Regenerative farming seems to have captured the imagination of both government and big business-George Eustice, Secretary of State for Defra, chose Groundswell to launch the Government's new Sustainable Farming Incentive, and the fast-food chain McDonald's is trialling regenerative-grazing methods. However, with no agreed definition or regulation, what does regenerative agriculture actually mean?
The answer must be seen in the context of the past 70 years when chemicals and machinery achieved the job of feeding the world. Now, enough food is produced globally to feed up to six billion more people than currently exist, although it doesn't always get to those it should. The unintended consequences of this have caused catastrophic damage to our wildlife and soils, contributed to global warming, fuelled an obesity crisis, and created a food system that means 40% of all food produced is either lost or wasted.
この記事は Country Life UK の August 17, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Country Life UK の August 17, 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
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Best of British
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Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
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After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
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