Everything is connected! Work, health and home are all green issues — and regeneration of our soil plays a role in turning those crises into solutions that make our world a more just and equitable place.
For this conversation, we invited Finian Makepeace from agroecological farming / regenerative farming movement, Kiss The Ground who have a documentary on regenerative farming which came out on Netflix on 22 September .
Finian shared Kiss The Ground’s soil story along with Natalie Bennett, our Green Peer, and farmer Jyoti Fernandes from Land Workers Alliance who shared their knowledge on how the way we treat soil touches nearly every aspect of our lives.
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO GREEN PARTY POLICY?
Our Green New Deal will transform our relationship with the land. It will increase space for nature through the restoration of natural landscapes, habitats and species in urban, suburban and countryside environments. We want to increase the opportunities for food growing, for greening our landscape and improving our health.
Through reforestation, rewilding and regenerative farming, we will reduce carbon emissions and realise the land’s ability to absorb carbon.
The way we produce our food needs to support employment, the ecosystem and improve public health. A ten-year transition to agroecological farming will include the transfer of subsidies to farming methods and food systems that create jobs and restore ecosystem health, including the quality of our soils and rivers. It will also advance food sovereignty, including by localising food systems!
MORE ABOUT OUR GUESTS
FINIAN MAKEPEACE, CO-FOUNDER, POLICY DIRECTOR, LEAD EDUCATOR, Kiss The Ground
Finian Makepeace is the co-founder of Kiss the Ground and a renowned presenter, media creator, and thought leader in the field of regenerative agriculture and soil health. His dedication to Kiss the Ground’s mission of “inspiring participation in global regeneration, starting with soil”, has motivated him to develop training programs, workshops, and talks designed to empower people around the world to become confident advocates for this growing movement.
JYOTI FERNANDES – CAMPAIGNS AND POLICY COORDINATOR, Land Workers Alliance and La Via Campesina
Jyoti is an agrecological smallholder farmer based in Dorset, UK. She is a member of the Landworkers’ Alliance in the UK and is on the coordinating committee for the European Coordination of Via Campesina. Her current work with Landworkers’ Alliance is researching a Post-Brexit alternative agricultural subsidy regime for the UK that promotes agroecological farming, food sovereignty and localised food systems. Her work with La Via Campesina includes being a part of a facilitation committee to enable civil society to engage with the work of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and to promote Agroecology Training Networks to support grassroots farmers organisations to develop and create training networks about regenerative farming methods. She works closely with Natalie Bennett on agricultural policy.
NATALIE BENNETT – GREEN PARTY PEER
Natalie Bennett, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle is a British politician and journalist. She led the Green Party of England and Wales from September 2012 to September 2016. Bennett was given a peerage in Theresa May’s 2019 resignation honours. Natalie obtained a degree in agricultural science from the University of Sydney and has worked on farms in Australia. A trustee of the Fawcett Society, Britain’s pre-eminent women’s issues group, until 2012, she was the founder of the blog Carnival of Feminists. She’s a champion of the universal basic income, and is particularly interested in food security and farming issues.
RESOURCES RECOMMENDED BY OUR GUESTS
REPORTS: MOLLY SCOTT-CATO x NATALIE BENNETT Rich Earth Report I ETC Group: Who Will Feed Us I Soil Association: IDDRI REPORT
RESOURCES: Three Acres And A Cow I Real Food Campaign
BOOKS: KISS THE GROUND, MIRACULOUS ABUNDANCE , CALL OF THE REED WARBLER
ARTICLES: WHAT IS LAND FOR, Natalie Bennett I OF RATS AND MEN, Natalie Bennett
BECOME A SOIL ADVOCATE!
Kiss The Ground is empowering activists to become advocates for soil regeneration. Soil Advocate Training is for everyone! You don’t need to be a policy maker to make a difference. In this course, soil experts Don Smith and Finian Makepeace alongside thought leaders and experts in the regenerative movement provide students with new knowledge and perspectives while honouring the origins of this wisdom SIGN ME UP *affiliate link, 10% of each sign up support The Green Party in their work
