Back to Your Roots: Food and Farming to Feed the World and Regenerate the Planet

Join three internationally acclaimed food pioneers for an evening of discussion, debate and music.

Vandana Shiva, Ilse Köhler-Rollefson and Andy Cato in conversation.

With decades of experience working to produce food more sustainably while responding to the ongoing consequences of climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss, Vandana Shiva, Ilse Köhler-Rollefson and Andy Cato each bring a unique perspective on how the food and farming traditions of the past can help to build a future food system that is nourishing to both people and the planet.

Advocating for seed diversity, indigenous knowledge, food sovereignty and innovative techniques, Vandana, Ilse and Andy will delve into what a regenerative food system means for them and the future of food and farming.

Hosted by Chelsea Green Publishing, advaya and Reference Point, there will be a live discussion, audience Q&A, book signing as well as music and drinks following the talk.

*Please note seats are available on a first come first serve basis.


Vandana Shiva:

Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist, a leader in the International Forum on Globalisation, and of the Slow Food Movement. Director of Navdanya and of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and a tireless crusader for farmers’, peasants’, and women’s rights, she is the author and editor of a score of influential books, among them her recent memoir Terra Viva.

Shiva is the recipient of over twenty international awards, and was the Fukuoka Grand Prize Laureate in 2012. Twitter @drvandanashiva

Ilse Kohler-Rollefson:

Ilse Köhler-Rollefson lives in Rajasthan, India where she owns a small herd of camels and has co-founded the country’s first camel dairy. She is the author of the new book Hoofprints on the Land, and her work has been recognised by the Maharaja of Jodhpur and she has received India’s highest award for women from its president as well as the Order of Merit from the President of Germany. Ilse studied veterinary medicine in Germany before working as an archaeozoologist in Jordan where she discovered her fascination with camels and herding cultures. After completing her Ph.D. on camel domestication, she studied the Raika camel culture of India which led her to found the League for Pastoral Peoples, an international advocacy organisation that is giving a voice to herders at the global level.

www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com Twitter @IlseKohler

Andy Cato:

Andy Cato, Co-founder of Wildfarmed, is an award-winning mixed arable and livestock farmer. An article about the environmental and health consequences of modern food production inspired Andy, a Grammy nominated musician, to sell his publishing rights to fund a farm in France. There he spent a decade trying to find a more restorative and sustainable way of growing food. He was awarded the 2020 Laureate Nationale for innovation in agroecology, as well as the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole - the equivalent of a knighthood for services to agriculture. Now back on British soil and farming as a tenant of the National Trust, Andy and his Wildfarmed colleagues are on a mission to help farmers move towards soil focused farming, and make real food grown in real soil available on the high street at affordable prices.