Carbon Calling Listening Day 2025
You know you're in for a different sort of day when you're met on the drive by a giant curlew. However, most people heading to Carbon Calling (CC) know through experience that this is not your usual farming conference.
An enriching schedule
The schedule was packed full of agroecological fodder, with talks from farmers to start and end the day. Over an extended lunchtime, we learnt about soils, trees and river flies. In the afternoon, we heard about the benefits of cheese and other nutrient rich foods. Alongside the opportunity to catch up with farming and industry colleagues, I left with lots of ideas buzzing around my brain. I have tried to make sense of some of these below.
Nutrient density
The importance of high-quality food was highlighted throughout the day, for livestock, soils, and notably for humans by Dr David Unwin (pictured), who pioneered the low-carb approach to managing Type-2 diabetes in the UK. He also has years of research and experience in using diet and lifestyle management to tackle obesity-related issues. His concern is that we're getting fewer nutrients in our diets. This is backed up by statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) which has found that more people are overfed and undernourished. Worryingly, this can even be seen in much of the food produce in the UK. It's suggested that industrial ('conventional') farming methods rely on varieties/breed selection that have changed over the last century. Much of our meat, vegetables, dairy and grains are of a lower nutritional value than they once were. One of the common denominators is soils - another argument to add to the canon when looking to gather support for systems that protect and build.
For more information, read this recent Nuffield report by Hannah Fraser: Displacing Empty Calories with Nutrient Dense Food: How can UK farmers be rewarded for practices that promote nutrient density?
Baselines
If you've been at any event I've been involved in over the last few years, you'll have already been encouraged to get a baseline for your farm. It came up again in the morning session - both farmers speaking regretted not getting a baseline when they started to make changes. But it's never too late to start. Whether you're 1, 6 or 10 years into changes in your system, it's still worth recording some key information. Soils (structure and health) and some biodiversity would be my starting point. There are a huge range of resources and apps that can help, but here are a couple to get started:
- Technical guide - permanent pastures
- The Best Plant App for Beginner Botanists: Comprehensive Edition
Are we looking ahead…enough?
This was the question raised by Jules Matthews, the headline speaker of the CC listening day, in relation to making changes on farm and wider decisions. The answer for myself (and I think often for our country’s leadership), is probably no. On a personal level, my limited ability to look far enough ahead results in some busy weeks in my diary. Scale this up to agricultural and environmental policy level and the impacts can be far more problematic. The take home message in this case was to make farming system decisions based on what you have control over and how you want your system to run in the future. Policy and support are always going to fluctuate.
Peer to peer
The benefits of seeing farming systems in action was highlighted again and again. The importance of being able to discuss both the production and economic numbers was also raised in the final panel of the day, talking about ‘getting ready for change’.
Upcoming events
We'll be keeping this in mind as we plan for the next demo farm meeting at Broome Park Farms, which will take place in October as part of our Agroecology at Scale program. You might also find our webinar on Thursday 7th August interesting, looking at opportunities and practicalities of Organic Beef Systems.
Find out more
Find out more about the conference, speakers and other activities on the Carbon Calling website.