Nature & Net Zero & Food Security?

Message from the Soil Association reads:

Our Nature and Net-Zero and Food Security: exploring the agroecological solution conference is a week today on 28 April and we are excited to share the programme with you and invite you to attend virtually.

The Soil Association has organised this event to initiate a national policy discussion on transitioning farms away from conventional, chemical-led methods to an agroecological future, to which organic farms are already showing the way.

We have a fantastic line-up of expert speakers and panellists, including the Environment Secretary George Eustice who will deliver the keynote speech, our CEO Helen Browning and Lord Deben, Chair of the government's Climate Change Committee, as well as a host of leading voices from the sector.

The programme is aimed at an audience who want to learn more about the policies that will be needed to underpin a change in farming practices in the UK today. You can drop in to watch just one of the sessions, or attend for the whole day, there's no commitment to attend the full conference. You can browse the conference programme here and register for online attendance here.

New research will be presented on the economic and farm level impacts of a transformation in farming and we will also hear some political perspectives on how the triple challenge of the title might be addressed. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Kind regards,

Joanna Lewis

Policy & Strategy Director

Soil Association

Why this conference, and why now?

We are holding this conference in the aftermath of the climate CoP26 and in the run-up to the Kunming biodiversity CoP15, and in the midst of acute uncertainty in global farming and food supply. The conference will explore how the issues of rebuilding nature, achieving net-zero emissions and ensuring food security can be reconciled, and the role of agroecological approaches to farming and land management in approaching this challenge. Now that there is a legal target to reverse biodiversity loss in the Environment Act, and pressure on farmers to achieve Net-Zero, what does this imply for farming, and what policy framework and support will be needed to enable farmers and land managers to make that transformation?