Tim's closing address to the annual conference of FARMA - the Farmers' Retail and Markets Association.
A call to action, for farmers and people to unite to create food and farming enterprises that enhance life, and an alternative to corporate supermarket consumerism.

Colin Tudge on how government is finally realising the imperative to grow food at home, facing up to uncertainty in global markets, the end of cheap inputs, and an unpredictable future climate...

Colin Tudge laments how, in the 40 years he has known British agriculture, he has seen it systematically dismantled and condemned by government ministers to the same fate as coal mining... an act of destruction only rivalled by the dissolution of the monasteries...

Currently, only about 1% of the workforce actually works on the land. That needs to be more like 20% if we are to implement the kind of diverse, mixed, polycultural farming systems which we urgently need... it is this shift in population and demographics that will form the basis of the Agrarian Renaissance...

Colin Tudge explains why farming that is based on neoliberal economics and industrialisation is disastrous, as it seeks to maximise yield, cut costs and add value...