There's nothing in your basket
Back to ProgrammeA debate looking at the ways in which modern farming can help us connect with the land and heal the earth, featuring authors Sarah Langford and Philip Lymbery, and Emma Loder-Symonds, director of Nonington Farms.
When barrister and author Sarah Langford left her city life behind she found herself unexpectedly back in the world of farming. It was not how she remembered. Instead, she saw farmers dealing with very different problems to those faced by her grandfather, considered a hero for having fed a starving nation after war. Now farmers faced accusations of ecological mismanagement by a hostile urban media whilst battling extreme weather and political upheaval. Yet as Langford learned how to farm and grew closer to the land, she discovered a new generation on a path of regenerative change.
In Rooted, Langford weaves her own story around those who taught her what it means to be a farmer. She shines a light on the human side of modern farming, and shows how land connects us all, not only in terms of global sustainability but in our relationships with our physical and mental health, our communities and our planet.
Taking its title from a chilling warning made by the United Nations that the world’s soils could be lost within a lifetime, Sixty Harvests Left uncovers how the food industry is threatening the planet. From the United Kingdom to Italy, from Brazil to the Gambia to the USA, Philip Lymbery, the internationally acclaimed author of Farmageddon, goes behind the scenes of industrial farming and confronts ‘Big Agriculture’, where mega-farms, chemicals and animal cages are sweeping the countryside and jeopardising the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the nature that we treasure.
In his investigations, however, he also finds hope in the pioneers who are battling to bring landscapes back to life, who are rethinking farming methods, rediscovering traditional techniques and developing technologies to feed an ever-expanding global population.
Emma Loder-Symonds and her husband, James, are the force behind the award-winning Nonington Farms. Based around a regenerative farming system that seeks to harness connection between people and the land, Nonington Farms have won plaudits across the country for their support of the environment and the local community.
