A handful of soil has more living organisms than people on planet Earth. Soil is the stomach of the earth - consuming, digesting, cycling nutrients and organisms. But what exactly is it, why do we need it and what can be done to look after it?

Toby Diggens (Digg & Co), Jan Stannard (Heal Rewild) and John Deakin (National Trust head of trees)

Our soil has been severely degraded so what can we do to improve it in the future? What role can farming play in regenerating the soil and ensuring the notion we only have 60 harvests left is disproved? What is regenerative farming and how realistic is it to deliver on a macro scale? Are chemicals and industrialised farming the only way to produce the volume of food?

Derek Gow (Author of Bringing back the Beaver), Tom Calver (Westcombe Dairy), Jill Butler (Forest of Selwood) and Ben Raskin (Soil Association)

Where once design styles were international movements, why are we now looking around us for design inspiration and what are the benefits? A new generation are motivated by environmental concerns and dwindling skills are looking to their local environment for inspiration. From surplus timber, to rammed earth, from weaving willow to earthenware bricks.

Samantha Bunyan (Cecence), Paul De Zwart (Another Country) and Bill Amberg (Bill Amberg Studio)

This talk will map the collapse of soil health and the damage to our own health to the rise of pop music. This isn’t a causal relationship but in this lively and engaging talk Mark will start with rock and roll and take us through glam, punk, disco, New Romantics, indie, hip-hop, brit pop, a bit more indie, new rave, and back to hip hop. On the way indulging in his favourite bands whilst simultaneously outlining how everything went wrong and how we can put it right.

Mark Shayler (APE)

Our obsession with tidiness is depriving nature of the very thing it needs: habitat. Pesticides have been marketed and sold on an industrial scale. What is the relationship between ploughing and what is no dig farming? We can all make a difference by focusing on the small spaces we have while home composting, growing our own veg and minimising digging can play a vital role in our bid to get to net zero.

Melissa Jolly, Lulu Urquhart (Urquhart and Hunt) and Adam Hunt (Urquhart and Hunt)

We’ve never farmed more land with fewer people but farmers remain the poor relations of UK industry as supermarkets squeeze margins with cheap foreign imports which damage the environment and undermine local economies. What will the new Environmental Land Management subsidies mean for local producers and what role does urban farming have to play in joining up the dots and ensuring high-quality local produce for local people?

Anna Jones (BBC Countryfile and author of Divide). Tim Martin (Farm Wilder) and Jo Oborn (FWAG)

Almost everything we eat relies on the soil in some way, shape or form. We eat a lot, but do we eat well and how can improving our soil by extension improve our health? What role does soil quality play in taste, nutrient value and longevity of produce? What are the benefits of looking after the soil and just why should we buy local?

Mark Shayler (APE) and Stewart Dodd (River Cottage)

Nature writing has experienced a renaissance since the start of the Covid pandemic as people have reconnected with reading and the natural world. They say information is power and it seems as our knowledge of our destructive relationship with nature grows, so does our determination to chart it, explore it and narrate it. But nature writing isn’t just about reporting doom and gloom. Far from it. Some of the most empowering and optimistic books of our time have been based on nature. Isabella Tree’s “Wilding; the return of nature to a British Farm”, James Rebanks “English Pastoral” and Benedict MacDonald’s “Rebirding” are just three from a long list of seminal books published in the last few years. This talk will draw together a panel of expert writers, readers and nature lovers to explore what books have most inspired them and what they think will inspire you.

Panelists; Keggie Carew (author of BEASTLY), Jonathan Thomson (Underhill Wood Nature Reserve), and Amber Harrison (Folde Dorset)