Film: Six Inches of Soil - the revolution is underground

Film show (more details below) to be hosted by Planet Shaftesbury -  will include a short panel discussion afterwards.

Offers of help on the night appreciated (email planetshaftesbury@gmail.com).

Admission is free but please reserve your places  through Ticket Tailor here. 

Donations will be invited to cover costs.

"Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains." Paul Harvey (1978) U.S. radio broadcaster.

Six Inches of Soil tells the inspiring story of young, British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food, in order to heal the soil, our health and provide for local communities.

Half the food we eat in the UK is produced by about 180,000 farmers, who manage 70 per cent of our land. Current ‘industrial' mainstream farming practices significantly contribute to soil degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change. Regenerative farming practices, (within an agroecological system) promote healthier soils, provide healthier, affordable food, restore biodiversity and sequester carbon.

The film is a story of three new farmers on the first year of their regenerative journey to heal the soil and help transform the food system - Anna Jackson, an eleventh-generation Lincolnshire arable and sheep farmer; Adrienne Gordon, a Cambridgeshire small-scale vegetable farmer; and Ben Thomas, who rears pasture fed beef cattle in Cornwall. The young farmers meet seasoned mentors and other experts who help them on their journey. The film is described as an inspiring story of British farmers standing against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food - to heal the soil, benefit our health and provide for local communities.

Claire Mackenzie, the film's producer, told the Farmers' Guardian: "We believe that people up and down the country of all ages will enjoy the film and will take something positive from it, even if they  do not have a farming background. We want to empower young, British farmers and to give them a voice and the confidence to farm in a regenerative way. The climate emergency is at the top of most people's agendas and regenerative farming can really make a difference. We want to get the public and the policymakers on side and to get farming the long term investment that it needs."

There will be a range of perspectives represented on our panel.