Reducing Plastic Use on Farm Webinar

Join two innovative farmers and two policy experts to hear about farmers’ practical experiences from trialling reduced plastic in their farming systems, set against the policy and wider global context of plastic in farming.

Stuart Oates is an organic farmer in Cornwall, and founder of the Fossil Free Farm Project. He will talk about what he has learned trialling sisal twine instead of plastic for tying hay bales in his IF field lab. He will touch on the practicality of using sisal, costs, impacts on forage handling and storage, plans for the future and his work on fossil free farming in general, and why it is important. A key outcome of this work is to support shared learning and build a community of practice focused on reducing plastic use in agriculture.Find out more about the sisal field lab: Sisal for baling

Rosie Begg, blackcurrant grower in Norfolk, will talk about her experiences trialling plastic free mulches and living mulches in blackcurrants as part of two IF field labs she has been involved with. Find out more about the field labs here: Living mulches in bush and cane fruit

Joe Yates, Co-director of the Agriculture, Nutrition & Health Academy, will address the wider global context of plastic in farming, drawing on his research on plastics in food systems.

Finally Maddy Potter-Wood, Farming and Land Use Policy Officer at the Soil Association, will explain the UK policy situation.

Agenda / Points of discussion

13.00: Introduction

13.05: Learnings from the sisal for baling field lab, and fossil free farming project - Stuart Oates

13.20: Plastics in the food system, human and environmental health issues - Joe Yates

13.30: Trialling alternatives to plastic mulch in soft fruit growing - Rosie Begg

13.40: UK policy on plastic - Maddy Potter Wood

13.50: Discussion and Q&A

14.15: End of webinar

We encourage attendees to bring their questions to the panel through the Q&A, where there will be plenty of time for discussion.

Speakers and panellists:

• Stuart Oates is a 7th-generation organic mixed farmer and environmental TV and radio producer, based on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall. Stuart is the founder of the Fossil Free Farm Project. He is part of the sisal for hay baling and on-farm fermented seaweed field labs.
• Rosie Begg is a second generation blackcurrant grower based in Norfolk, Rosie is one of 35 British blackcurrants growers across the UK and a member of The Blackcurrant Foundation. Her family have been growing blackcurrants for 30 years and supplies Ribena.
• Joe Yates has been with the London School of hygiene & Tropical Medicine since 2013, working across research, programme management and communications.
  Since 2016 he has co-led the Agriculture, Nutrition & Health (ANHPolicy platform, a global network of 13,000+ researchers, practitioners and policymakers in 140+ countries.
• Maddy Potter-Wood is Farming and Land Use Policy Officer at the Soil Association, working on policy and advocacy for climate resilience, horticulture and Environmental Land Management Schemes. With a Social Anthropology degree, she brings experience across research, communications and digital campaigning - translating food, farming and environmental issues into opportunities for public and policy engagement.

We’re grateful for Dentons for sponsoring the sisal field lab.