This year’s festival was another brilliant two days of conversations, ideas, and connections across the regenerative farming and natural capital community (and great to watch an England win on the big screen!). EFG did not have a stand this year but Digby Sowerby (EFG Managing Director) and Tom Vacher (NCA Commercial Officer) attended to meet with EFG members, sponsors, partners and many more across the two days.
The breadth of people on one farm continues to make Groundswell one of the most valuable events in the calendar. We had productive meetings with farmers, landowners, land agents, investors, policy teams, and sustainability leads from across the supply chain, spanning soil carbon, biodiversity, nutrient markets, and green finance.
The government presence at Groundswell was notable and like many in the sector, we’re conscious that the change in government has introduced some delay into the policy pipeline, particularly around farm support and collaboration funding, but the direction of travel remains positive and we left feeling broadly encouraged by the conversations we had with the Defra team.
EFG has been fighting hard to promote an outcomes-based approach to environmental land management and it was great to hear a growing appetite for this through many of our conversations. We want to rewarding farmers for measurable, verified results rather than simply for following prescribed practices. It was encouraging to find the sentiment moving firmly in this direction across farmers, buyers, and policymakers alike.
Perhaps most gratifying was the continued strong interest in EFG’s farmer cooperative model as a structure for delivering nature recovery at scale. We had a number of conversations with farmer clusters and landscape initiatives that point to real potential for collaboration across England in the months ahead.
We’re already looking forward to next year. If you were at Groundswell and didn’t get a chance to speak to us, do get in touch.