Cow sheds, cow pats and community links: a volunteer’s view of the conference

Janet Steel was one of the volunteer stewards at this year’s event, and she shares some inspiring reflections on her experience, making links with community groups around the north east.

What do a cow being hoisted next to the cow shed and a cow pat have in common? Well, both were part of an amazing two days at the Wales Real Food and Farming Conference held at Coleg Cambria Llysfasi, Ruthin.  It is the first time the conference has been hosted in North Wales. There is so much to summarise here, but I want to give a flavour of this event. The whole conference was stimulating and energetic and embraced the need to promote a sustainable 21^st Century food system.

Elin Roberts, Head of Llysfasi campus introduced the conference and welcomed us all, after which we heard from our guest speaker Sarah Dickins.  Sarah is an organic farmer, former BBC correspondent and a member of the independent Wales Net Zero 2035 food group.

Along with other volunteers from Ruthin Friends of the Earth, I was privileged to attend many of the talks and workshops including one on hydroponics (left) by Jozsef Vass who is a Ruthin FoE member. Later, I was buddied up with another volunteer, hill farmer Myfanwy who provides a help line to farmers via the Farming Community Network.

We talked about the importance of mental health and well-being in the farming community.  It was particularly interesting to me as I am a volunteer with Clwyd Mind who provide outreach support at allotments and through their Yellow Bus ‘DORIS’ which stops off at Farmers markets in Denbighshire to promote mental health.

Whilst leaving the agricultural hall following one talk, I witnessed the college staff hoisting a cow onto its feet and saw how the other cows in the shed all turned to watch. Myfanwy explained that the herd senses that one of them is in difficulty and they all to turn to look at her. It seemed like a great metaphor for the whole conference, where the aim is to explore sustainable food and farming bringing people together to have conversations around the environment and food justice in the 21^st Century.

You may ask where a cow pat fits in.  Well, another workshop I attended was about community composting and the central principle of sustainable food production from looking after soil and farming land. Criw Compostio gave an energetic workshop on a community composting scheme in Machynlleth in partnership with Lloyds Bus Company who let locals drop off material for composting in the bus car park.

The conference was rounded off by Tim Lang, or Professor Food as many refer to him. He is emeritus professor of food policy at City University in London, but has also been a farmer. He talked about building a civil resilience framework for food.

There are many initiatives going on in the Vale of Clwyd and our locality which are having conversations and actioning food justice and climate justice for people in partnership with food producers. Ruthin FoE will continue the journey of environmental and ecological issues through our activities in Denbighshire and the surrounding area.

Article originally published in Ruthin FoE newsletter. Picture: Jane Powell, radstuffphotosvideos.