Post date 5 Jul 2025 (original LinkedIn date)
Original LinkedIn version· 800 words
The Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival 2025, held at Lannock Farm in Hertfordshire, was a lively gathering of farmers, scientists, policymakers, and enthusiasts, all buzzing with ideas to reshape our food systems through regenerative practice. Think of it as Glastonbury with a farming twist, full of energy, optimism, and a shared passion for working with nature. Fresh from attending the Global Tipping Points seminar earlier that week, I found Groundswell both a contrast and a complement, sparking conversations that promise real collaboration to tackle biodiversity loss, poor nutrition, and environmental challenges together. Paired with insights from a major Nature study, a TABLE workshop, and a KPMG report, the festival underscored the urgent need for bold, systemic changes to secure a sustainable food future.
A community united by purpose
Groundswell 2025 drew thousands to swap ideas on soil health, regenerative farming, and rural life. From famous musicians to a prince mingling in the crowd, the mix of voices, farmers, academics, politicians, was inspiring. Here, just like the no-nonsense chats I’ve had with farmers in rural Devon, discussions were refreshingly open, tackling thorny issues like policy reform and ecological restoration with a constructive spirit. It left me hopeful for a food system that truly nourishes both people and the planet.
Addressing health and ecological challenges
The festival shone a light on some tough realities: 30% of UK children are obese, only 9% eat their five-a-day, and just 4% of adults get enough fibre. These stats point to a deeper cultural crisis tied to how we grow our food. Regenerative agriculture, with its focus on nutrient-rich crops and biodiversity, was pitched as a practical way forward, offering an alternative to the outdated practices of industrial farming.
A 2025 Nature study (Keck et al.) drives this point home, drawing on 2,133 studies across 97,783 sites to show that human activities, especially industrial agricultural land use, cut species numbers by 20% on average across land, freshwater, and sea. With habitat change and pollution as major drivers, the study calls for regenerative approaches that rebuild ecosystems, also in aquaculture, where such efforts are still in their relative infancy.
Rethinking policy and economics
Echoing the KPMG report (Reimagining Global Food System Resilience, June 2025), Groundswell attendees urged for long-term (10-15 year) policy frameworks to give our food system breathing room to recover across multiple governments/parliaments. The conversation is shifting from chasing yields to prioritising profitability and nutrition, with low-input farming and payments for ecosystem services (like Biodiversity Net Gain and carbon deals) gaining ground. Still, we need clearer markets for soil and water health, plus affordable data tools to make informed choices.
Lessons from the TABLE workshop
The TABLE report (Tomorrow on the Table, March 2025), based on an October 2024 Oxford workshop, explored three paths for food system change:
Market-led vision: this sees markets driving progress through local, scalable solutions that boost resilience and fairness. Some attendees were wary, pointing to power imbalances, but suggested stronger democratic checks and inclusion of smaller voices to make it work.
State-led vision: advocates push for a system where food is a right, not a commodity, backed by ideas like a basic income for farmers or a national food service. Attendees leaned toward a state-facilitated model with regulatory nudges rather than heavy control, though some felt it needed a sharper environmental focus.
Bottom-up vision: voices call for community-driven systems built on trust and fairness. Attendees loved its ethos but wondered how it could scale without support from markets and government, especially for global issues like food insecurity.
The workshop showed a growing appetite for blending these approaches, state, market, and grassroots, into a hybrid model. Groundswell felt like a real-world stage for testing this mix of ideas.
A way forward
Together, Groundswell 2025, the TABLE workshop, and the KPMG report paint a clear picture: our food systems need bold transformation to restore ecosystems and ensure fairness. The Nature study’s stark findings push us to move beyond small tweaks to systems that actively revive biodiversity. To get there, we need:
Steady policies: long-term frameworks to support investment in regenerative farming and aquaculture.
Smart financing: scaling up ecosystem payments and insetting, backed by solid monitoring.
Teamwork: blending market innovation, state guidance, and community action for balanced results.
Better data: making baselining tools widely accessible to guide decisions.
Groundswell’s lively debates and TABLE’s visioning sessions show that changing our food systems is a team effort, redefining growth as the health of our planet and communities. The path ahead involves more workshops, broader stakeholder input, and research to map out practical steps toward a nature-positive food future. It’s a big task, but the energy at Groundswell suggests that, in true farmer fashion, we’re ready to roll up our sleeves. Bring on my farmer’s tan!