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 discuss food and farming policy, and how the new post-Brexit farm payments will affect agricultural land use in England.   Vicki Hird is also head of sustainable farming at Sustain. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Farm Gate

Vicki Hird & Rebugging The Planet

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 Main from the Royal Agricultural University, and by Rachel Horler, a cattle farmer from Maundrils Farm in Somerset, UK. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Are farm animals emotional?

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, where he produces lamb and beef with certification from the American Grassfed Association and the Allan Savory Land to Market programme.  Sophy lives in Wiltshire and provides community engagement and communications advice for the UK solar industry. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Stacking sheep & solar energy

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 from IPES Food. Jennifer Clapp, from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, is part of the UN's High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition. Molly Anderson is a specialist in hunger, food systems, and multi-actor collaborations for sustainability from Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Do we need an IPCC for food?

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 responsibility for the John Lewis Partnership, and worked as deputy private secretary to The Prince of Wales. Ed Gillespie is a facilitator for the Forward Institute and co-founder of the sustainability agency, Futerra.  He is also a co-presenter of Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts and a director of Greenpeace UK. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

From greed to green

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 FAI's Director of Regenerative Agriculture, Clare Hill, and their assistant farm manager, Silas Hedley-Lawrence. We also introduce new regen ag training, available online at FAI.Academy - and give you a Farm Gate discount code. https://twitter.com/FAIfarms https://twitter.com/McDonaldsUK https://twitter.com/ciwf https://twitter.com/ffinlocostain https://twitter.com/luscious_lamb https://www.instagram.com/fai_regen/ https://fai.academy/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Award-winning adaptive multi-paddock grazing

This podcast is about the power and importance of communities.  To address the climate emergency, there is an urgent need to cede power to ordinary people so that they can design and deliver the changes necessary in their neighbourhoods.  Poverty remains a significant barrier for all governments in achieving net zero.  Community-led projects, for example centred on food, can all deliver carbon reductions, while also rewarding people with a lower cost of living, and the experience and confidence to work together for even greater change. ffinlo Costain speaks to James Goodman, Director of Partnerships and Learning for the Local Trust, Bryony Boyle from Selby Big Local, and Chris Blake the catalyst behind Project Skyline in the Brecon Beacons. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Food builds community

Land Unlocked features high-level speakers and explores the challenges of delivering real action at this year’s COP26 conference.  In this programme, we discuss water, land and carbon.  As precipitation patterns change - how can we ensure consistent year-round water availability for crops and livestock - and how can we manage land better to reduce the risk of flooding for downstream communities? ffinlo Costain is joined by Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the UK Environment Agency, and Stuart Roberts, the deputy president of the National Farmers' Union.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Carbon & water

Land Unlocked is a podcast collaboration between Farm Gate and the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. This occasional series will feature a range of high-level speakers exploring the challenges of delivering real action at this year’s COP26 conference and other major global events taking place in 2021. Programmes will be broadcast on the Farm Gate channel.  In this programme, ffinlo Costain discusses land use, economics, optimism and story-telling, with Christiana Figueres and Professor Tim Jackson. Christiana Figueres is an internationally recognised leader on global climate change. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010 to 2016. Today she is the co-founder of Global Optimism, & co-host of the podcast 'Outrage & Optimism'. Her new book is called, 'The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis', which she co-authored with Tim Rivett-Carnac. Professor Tim Jackson is an ecological economist and writer. Since 2016 he has been Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, at the University of Surrey. Between 2004 and 2011 Tim was Economics Commissioner for the UK Sustainable Development Commission where his work culminated in a ground-breaking book Prosperity without Growth.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Optimism & story-telling

In this programme we delve into the origins of regenerative agriculture, and what it means to be 'indigenous with the earth'.  What is this knowledge?  Where does it come from?  Can anyone claim ownership over regenerative principles?  ffinlo Costain talks to Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, President of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance.  Originally from Guatemala, Regi lives in Minnesota, USA, where he trains farmers in the production of regenerative poultry.  Regi's book, In the Shadow of the Green Man, weaves together stories from his upbringing in revolution-torn Guatemala, with his vision for regenerative farming. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Indigenous with the earth

In this programme we visit Sierra Leone.  We discuss how this West African country managed to stop Chinese, Russian, Korean and European vessels plundering their fish stocks, how stakeholders built a sustainable fisheries programme, and the challenges for international organisations such as the World Bank.  We also address the controversy over Sierra Leone's new Chinese-funded harbour project. ffinlo Costain talks to Salieu Sankoh, the co-ordinator of the World Bank-funded West African Regional Fisheries Programme in Sierra Leone, and to Phil Gawne, an advisor to the Program, and a former fisheries minister for Isle of Man Government. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Saving Sierra Leone's fish

The Marine Stewardship Council is an international NGO working to protect oceans and safeguard seafood supplies for the future.  The Netflix film Seaspiracy concluded that sustainable seafood doesn't exist - but the MSC disagrees.  It certifies 16% of the world's wild caught fish for its blue MSC ecolabel, and aims to certify 30% by 2030.  ffinlo Costain speaks to George Clark, the MSC's programme director for the UK and Ireland.  They discuss what sustainable seafood is, how it's certified, how managed fisheries can restore fish stocks, and why the MSC refused to take part in Seaspiracy. https://twitter.com/MSCecolabel https://twitter.com/ffinlocostain https://twitter.com/gh_clark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5CXN7soQg --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

How to certify sustainable seafood

The Isle of Man is home to one of the most successful sustainable shell fish fisheries in the British Isles.  Developed over a period of 30 years, their Marine Nature Reserve now accounts for 52% of Manx coastal waters, and their Ramsey Bay scallops are the biggest in Britain.  ffinlo Costain talks to Phil Gawne, former Fisheries Minister of the Isle of Man Government, and to Peter Duncan, IOMG's Senior Marine Environment Officer. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

How to build a sustainable fishery

Since 2013 more seafood has been produced globally in aquaculture systems than from wild caught fisheries.  The farming of fish at scale has come with costs as well as benefits, and as a relatively young industry, aquaculture has followed a steep learning curve. ffinlo Costain speaks to Tony Wall, the founder of the Fish Vet Group (now PHARMAQ), who helped to put fish sentience on the map.  ffinlo asks where aquaculture came from, how it developed, and how the industry can overcome its current challenges? Inspired by Seaspiracy, this programme is part of a mini-series in which we're talking about the future of ocean food. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

Aquaculture - An insider's view

In the wake of Seaspiracy, we're running a series of programmes about the future of wild and farmed seafood.   The vast majority of wild caught fish are now harvested by industrial-scale trawlers using vast and often indiscriminate nets and bottom trawling.  At the same time aquaculture, which has scaled so rapidly, has come under fire for high levels of waste and pollution and for poor welfare.   So, what's next for ocean food? ffinlo Costain is joined by Ruth Layton who, as a former director of FAI Farms, has spent 25 years studying agricultural and aquacultural systems, and by Ashleigh Bright, an expert in the science of sustainability in global food systems. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/farmgate/message

What next for ocean food?

Practical solutions for climate and food security. A podcast collaboration from Farmwel and FAI Farms.

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