Engaging with Thought Leaders on the Future of Food and Farming

Last weekend, Musician, DJ and regenerative farmer Andy Cato, Dragons Den businesswoman and environmental campaigner Deborah Meaden and I joined television presenter and farm owner Kate Humble at Oxford Literary Festival to discuss ‘Why we need more Compassion in our Food and Farming’.

Kate’s Introduction

The world population is growing, and with an increase in urbanization, there’s never been a greater pressure on our agricultural systems to produce enough to feed us all.  However, the shocking truth is that the World Health Organization reported that in 2021, 821 million people went hungry. 

So, is there really a place for compassion in farming, and where should it be directed to animals, to landscapes, or to people trying to feed themselves and their families?

The impact of Factory Farming

It fell to me to begin by explaining to the audience that now really was time to put kindness at the centre of society, explaining that factory farming is the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet, a major driver of biodiversity loss and a key contributor to climate change. 

It’s the reason that the United Nations warns if we carry on as we are, then we have just sixty harvests left in the world’s soils. No soil, no food. Game over.

Now is the time to embrace the beautiful, life-affirming, compassionate solutions that we have to hand to regenerate our farming systems, to restore farmed animals to their rightful place as part of mixed rotational farming systems where they can live their best life, delivering the very best food.  

The reality is that factory farming wastes food. It doesn’t produce it. It wastes enough food to feed 2 billion people on the planet every year. That’s an awful lot of waste.

Regenerative Farming

It was Andy who continued, detailing how we do have the solution in the form of properly applied regenerative farming. By that, he doesn’t mean just switching from ploughing to no till or reducing inputs a little. It’s about above and below ground diversity, restoring those symbiotic relationships that are the basis of thriving ecosystems.  

“All things are interconnected,” Andy told us, which is really at the heart of regenerative farming as a solution to the general decline in climate, countryside and soil.  

A lot of what Andy does at Wildfarmed is trying to address the difficulty of how you value natural systems, because 50% of the UK population say they are bothered about the environment and the impact of food production on it, but only 8% feel able to pay more for it.  

The reality is that they shouldn’t have to pay more for it. If farmers are paid not just for how many tonnes they produce, but for the quality of the ecosystems in which it was grown, then things would be so much better. 

“I’ve yet to meet a farmer that doesn’t want to grow quality food in nature rich landscapes” he concluded.

Pressure on Business 

Deborah argued that there should be no difference between compassion across people, animals, or planet. We shouldn’t have an inequality of quality of food. We should not have to eat meat that has plastic in it. As consumers, we must never forget the power we have to speak out to businesses.  There is nothing right either about the fact we can go to a supermarket and buy an entire chicken for under a fiver. So there has to be a point of resistance and we can all play our part of that point of resistance and change.

We need a different way, a way which brings back biodiversity, captures carbon and creates compassion.  And we need the coherent policies, subsidies, corporate support and stakeholder support to bring the life back to our world.

Heartfelt thanks to Kate, Deborah and Andy for participating in such an insightful discussion, and very successful event. It was very much appreciated. All grateful thanks also, to Sally Dunsmore and her team at the Oxford Literary Festival for so kindly hosting us.

I urge you to watch the full discussion which is available using this link

4^th April 2025