Groundswell Festival Highlights

The Groundswell Regenerative Agricultural Festival provides a forum for farmers, growers, or anyone interested in food production and the environment.

It provides an opportunity to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems.  The festival took place on the 2nd and 3rd of July 2025 and Lucy Williamson and Jayne Lunnon share their experiences.

Day 1

I attended the Regen Ag festival for one day at the beginning of July.  Big hitter names including Gabe Brown, Andy Cato, Tim Parton, Henry Dimbleby and Patrick Holden were speaking alongside MANY other guests who are involved with this space, including our own Dr Lucy Williamson.  Celebrities spotted also included HRH The Prince of Wales, and Charlie from Clarkson’s Farm!  The agenda was packed, so difficult choices of which sessions to attend had to be made.  There was a mixture of presentations, panel discussions and practical in-field safaris which facilitated educating, discussing, and swapping of good ideas with engaged attendees.    The sessions I attended included:

A Land Use Framework:  Powering the Change in Farming and Nature?  A Panel discussion chaired by Sue Pritchard, Hilary McGrady, Andy Cato, Tom Bradshaw & Dustin Benton.  The questions considered ‘can farming play a big role in delivering nature and climate targets with or without taking land out of production?  The answers were broadly yes, but with caveats of financial support needed from private investors and institutions;  and general mindset change to be adopted amongst all stakeholders in the food chain, including landowners, tenant farmers and how they all  interface with the changes being driven by DEFRA.

Regenerative Allies:  Beetles, Cattle & Trees.  Andy Gray & Kelly Jowett. Exploring the hidden but vital roles of these 3 elements on a farm which help contribute to biodiversity, animal health and resilient farming practices.  How nature helps repair and heal itself and promote regeneration was explored by experts. 

Reshaping supply chains for a regenerative farming future.  A discussion with Julia Kirby Smith, Josiah Meldrum, Hannah Gibbs, Katie Palmer & Patrick Holden who explored real-world examples of how a Welsh Government procurement contract supported local farmers to supply their local communities, with the example used of supplying carrots to primary schoolchildren, who are all eligible for free school meals in Wales.  The Welsh Government policy stipulates that ingredients should be sourced from Wales as far as possible.  School children from a neighbouring council area visited the farm on an educational trip, learned about veg growing and picked and tasted their own carrots from the fields.  So inspired were they, that they lobbied their school to receive the same carrots on their return, and the procurement contract was extended to the their area!

Regenerative Stacking.  Stuart Oates chaired the discussion with his brother David Oates and Hannah Jones, their consultant, exploring their stacking regenerative practices in Cornwall to create multifunctional landscapes and maximise the health of the land.  (Stacking, for those who do not know, is a multi-use of a space e.g. grow wheat (1), sow cover crop (2), cows graze on land (3), etc).  One novel idea they had was not only do they have solar panels on their rooves, but they have a vertical display in one field so as not to waste the field to panel cover!  I’m planning to follow up with a visit to their farm, Rosuick Farm, to see their innovation for myself!

Beyond Yield:  Building Profitable Regen Systems.  Gabe Brown, Stuart Johnson & John Gregson. The farming community has been incentivised since WW2 to produce maximum yield, which has put pressure on nature and is now showing the cracks.  This session looked at shifting the mindset from yield to building resilience into farmland through working WITH nature, not against it.  Using regenerative systems, the quality of plants improves, which impacts the quality of the land, which brings back birds / insects / fish, which improves animal health etc, so yielding higher profitability to farmers.  It also brings accountability into farming, and how it can positively contribute to carbon capture and put nature’s nitrogen into the fields, not chemical nitrogen.

Ozempic vs Organic  Russ Carrington introduced Dr David Unwin (a GP from the Wirral) and Dr Lucy Williamson.

Dr David presented his case that Ozempic as a tool for weight loss in a pandemic of obesity (due to being “overfed and undernourished”) does not achieve all aspired medical and health outcomes, and that a healthy, balanced diet has more sustainable benefits to health and lifestyle.  The much-hyped GLP-1 drugs (an extract similar to GLP-1 called Semaglutide is sourced from the venom of the Gila Monster, a lizard native to SW USA), were given to patients (with the venom extracted!) and their weight monitored over time: once patients stop using the drug, they generally experience weight gain.  In addition, he referenced the BMJ who state that there have been 82 deaths from using the drug. He then showed how he had helped patients move out of obesity using a low carb diet, which had far better outcomes and was sustainable for their health, lifestyle and budget.

Lucy introduced the ‘Living Landscape’ as a concept of our Health and proceeded to explain to her audience about the Ecosystem services of microbes and their effect on all aspects of our health, not just our weight. She reviewed dietary intake concerns, particularly of adolescent girls advocating that nutrient dense foods are essential for human health, with particular emphasis on Omega-3 fatty acid, the presence of which increases in availability in animal foods, the closer they are farmed to regenerative practices.  Lucy reviewed papers and research which have been published on the subject, and finished with the emerging evidence of the fact that carbohydrates, not fats are linked with increased risk of heart disease: whole and fermented dairy foods reduce the risk of this and other chronic conditions of our time like Type 2 Diabetes. 

Such an interesting day amongst so many passionate people wanting to work with nature and human health to promote a healthier planet, healthier crops and animals, and healthier people through producing more healthy and nutritious foods.

Well done Lucy for such an interesting and thought-provoking presentation (and Thank You for generously editing it 😉)!    

Jayne Lunnon (with editorial assistance for her own presentation from Lucy Williamson).