Farmerama

In the second episode of our 2026 summer series, Farmerama hears from Sheila Das, Head of Gardens and Parks at the National Trust. She reflects on regenerative agriculture’s influence on gardening, argues for less combative language (rejecting terms like “maintenance” and “ornamental”), and more focus on soil, roots, process, and seeing weeds as signals in living systems.

Josiah Meldrum of Hodmedod introduces their forthcoming cookbook Whole Food (DK), framed as both recipes and a “recipe” for food-system change by “eating the rotation,” reviving stigmatized dishes like gruel and pottage, and valuing diverse UK arable crops and bi-cropping. You can pre-order Whole Food here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/hodmedods

Anand Ethirajalu of Conscious Planet outlines Cauvery Calling’s agroforestry-led plan (2.42 billion trees; 140 million planted), organic nurseries, and Save Soil’s farmer training (50,000 trained; one-third transitioned), emphasising farm accounting and net profit.

Finally, baker and historian Chloe-Rose Crabtree of SOURCED Journeys discusses “Sugar season,” linking sugar’s technical uses to histories of slavery and ongoing exploitation, questioning ethical sourcing, exploring unrefined sugars like piloncillo/panela. Read or pitch to SOURCED here: https://www.sourcedjourneys.com/blog

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If you would like to support Farmerama to keep on sharing the stories of the regenerative farming community, there are lots of different ways you can help:
Sign up for our monthly newsletter here. facebook.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?…5e20dde279
Become a community supporter on Patreon here. www.patreon.com/farmerama
Show the world how much you love Farmerama by wearing one of our Farmerama caps – available here. farmerama-radio-ltd.square.site/
If you are a business who is aligned with our vision for crafting a positive ecological future rooted in the people on the land and seas, you can become a commercial supporter of the show. Read more about our mission and what we do here. drive.google.com/file/d/1yupfV514…view?usp=sharing

In the first episode of our 2026 summer series, Farmerama hears from Sam Sivapragasam and Summayah Zannath, part of the core collective at Land in Our Names, about the progress of their Land Project for Black and people of colour.

Plus Julia Kirby-Smith, executive director of Better Food Traders shares how this membership network is supporting independent sustainable food retailers.

Thanks to the Six Inches of Soil podcast, we’re sharing Sheila Dillon talking about her long-time work in the food and farming broadcasting world and Abby Rose’s reflections on Cereal Revisited.

And finally we’ve got a couple of voice notes to share from our Cereal Revisited Digital Soundmap.

Find out more about the Land Project and donate to LION. https://landinournames.community/projects/land-project

Find out more about becoming a Better Food Trader.
https://betterfoodtraders.org/join-us/
Find Baking a Better Tomorrow here.
https://www.sustainweb.org/news/feb26-new-magazine-baking-a-better-tomorrow-grain-changers/

You can listen to the full episode of Six Inches of Soil here.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/unite-bringing-together-podcasters-ideas-in-the-field/id1773830638?i=1000774217772

Listen to all the voicenotes on the Cereal Revisited Digital Soundmap here: https://farmerama.co/cereal-revisited/

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If you would like to support Farmerama to keep on sharing the stories of the regenerative farming community, there are lots of different ways you can help:
Sign up for our monthly newsletter here. https://facebook.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8278bad33b1ec2d4fc1203af0&id=5e20dde279
Become a community supporter on Patreon here. https://www.patreon.com/farmerama
Show the world how much you love Farmerama by wearing one of our Farmerama caps – available here. https://farmerama-radio-ltd.square.site/
If you are a business who is aligned with our vision for crafting a positive ecological future rooted in the people on the land and seas, you can become a commercial supporter of the show. Read more about our mission and what we do here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yupfV514a-cjVDbWrBM6_8HQiL22ppb6/view?usp=sharing

Hello, and welcome to Farmerama.

Today, we’re sharing an episode from our friends in Australia. SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is a 6-part documentary podcast that follows the farmers, scientists, Indigenous custodians and communities who are turning degraded dirt back into living soil. We’re sharing episode one, which traces our relationship with soil over millennia, to understand how humanity impacts the living, breathing universe of soil hidden beneath our feet, and the role that we play in their ecosystems.
The series is told by Freya Mulvey, a lawyer and environmental enthusiast, so it’s a slightly different and wider ranging perspective on soil than we usually cover on Farmerama - we think you’ll really enjoy it. If you do, go ahead and listen to the rest of the six-part series, and stay up to date with the amazing work that Jess and Freya are doing by following them on socials, adding your voice to their impact survey, or checking out the resources on their website - links below.

As for Farmerama, we recently celebrated our 10th birthday! Thanks to all of you who’ve tuned in over this time - it’s a real privilege that we get to share the voices, knowledge and practical learnings of people on the land and seas and as ever we are so grateful for all of you out there doing the work on the ground to build a more ecological farming future for us all. For those of you in the UK, we will be at Groundswell on the 1st and 2nd of July, and will be hosting evening drinks on July 1st, where we will hear from some Cereal Revisited contributors as well as more celebrating a decade of storytelling with Farmerama listeners. Keep your eyes out for us in the Groundswell Programme!

And stay tuned as we release our Summer season of episodes starting next month

Enjoy episode one of SOIL: Rewilding the Underground.

SOIL links:
Follow the journey @soilpodcast on instagram
Head to the website to listen to further episodes at https://www.thesoilpodcast.com/podcast and respond to the impact survey as well as find further resources!

Cereal Revisited is a new podcast, report and digital soundmap documenting the extraordinary actions listeners took in response to Cereal – our six-part series uncovering the polarised world of bread.

The project explores how grassroots storytelling can become an engine of change and celebrates all those working to reimagine a more diverse and hopeful bread future – from the ground up. Find out more https://farmerama.co/cereal-revisited/

In Cereal Revisited, host Katie Revell explores the ripple effects of the original series and asks how the new grains movement has evolved in the years since. We hear from original contributors about how their thinking and priorities have shifted, alongside new voices – people who were inspired to redefine their work and lives after listening.

We return to Cereal to ask what has changed, and what still feels stuck? What kinds of structures, relationships, and resources are needed to take this work further? And how can grassroots storytelling help more of us to recognise our own role within the system that sustains us?

If Cereal has resonated with you in any way, or sparked a shift in how you think or work with grain, we’d love to add you to our soundmap. Send us a voice note via the Farmerama WhatsApp +447466301300, telling us who you are, how you came across the series, and how it inspired any change or action – big or small.

We are the bread system. If you eat bread – or any grains – you are part of it.

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This series was first released in Nov/Dec 2019. We are re-releasing it now 6 years later as we are digging back in to document the collective impact of the series and to celebrate the work of those continuing to build the new grains movement. As part of this project we are collecting voice notes from anyone who listened, inviting you to share a bit of how Cereal impacted you and whether the series sparked any change or action, big or small - maybe it made you think differently about something, or maybe you completely changed career - we want to hear both and all stories! The voice notes will form part of a new Farmerama episode and digital soundmap. We are collecting these stories now, so if you would like to send your story our way, then you can send us an audio message on:
WhatsApp +447466301300, or via our instagram messages.
Please let us know who you are, where you are based and then whatever part of your story you would like to share.
We are excited to hear from you!
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So how can we all get involved, and what can we do to usher in the new grains movement to build joy, nutrition and resilience in all of our communities?

In this final episode, we explore what a more efficient, nutritious, regenerative and joyful bread system might look like. We hear some of the ways people are coming together and building networks to strengthen the movement in the UK and further afield.

It’s clear that in this beautifully complex, entangled system, even just a conversation can spark much wider change. This is a story of hope and a blueprint that has the potential to cause reverberations far beyond bread. It turns out that bread is political – and you, too, can take a stand for the world you want to live in.

This might be our final episode of Cereal, but it isn’t the end – it’s just the beginning! Join the new grains movement. Talk to your local bakers, seek out local millers, thank your farmers, be open-minded, be curious.

A huge thank you to everyone who’s contributed to Cereal. As well as the voices you hear in this episode, many more conversations have helped to shape the series.

Thanks to Andrew Whitley (Scotland the Bread), Kim Bell (Small Food Bakery and UK Grain Lab), Mark Lea (Greenacres Farm), Fred Price (Gothelney Farmer), Steven Jacobs (Organic Farmers & Growers), Ben MacKinnon (E5 Bakehouse), Anne Parry (Felin Ganol), Rupert Dunn (Torth y Tir), Josiah Meldrum (Hodmedods), Tomaso Ferrando (University of Antwerp) and Fintan Keenan. Thanks also to the Lost Revellers and everyone who came to the Nottingham Cereal launch harvest party and lent their voices to make the Flour Ambassador's Pledge.

This series was made possible thanks to the generosity of the Roddick Foundation. Please listen, share, review and subscribe, and support the farmers instigating change. All six episodes can be found on Soundcloud and all podcasting platforms. And if you’d like to support Farmerama, visit patreon.com/farmerama.

Cereal is produced and edited by Katie Revell, with support from Abby Rose and Jo Barratt. Suzie MacCarthy and Hanna Söderlund also worked on the series. Our theme music is by Owen Barratt.

Voices:
Andrew Whitley, co-founder of the Real Bread Campaign, and Scotland the Bread
Kimberley Bell, founder Small Food Bakery, Nottingham
Steven Jacobs, Business Development Manager, Organic Farmers and Growers
Ben MacKinnon, founder E5 Bakehouse, London
Anne Parry, Felin Ganol Watermill, Wales, and Welsh Grain Forum
Rupert Dunn, Torth y Tir Community-Supported Peasant Bakery, Wales
Josiah Meldrum, co-founder Hodmedods
Mark Lea, Greenacres Farm, Shropshire
Fred Price, Gothelney Farm, Somerset
Tomaso Ferrando, Bread as a Commons
Fintan Keenan, farmer, miller and engineer, Denmark/Ireland