A ground-breaking new documentary shining a spotlight on soil health and regenerative farming will be screened in Wales in April.

Lampeter University will be the first university in Wales to screen the British independent feature documentary Six Inches of Soil.

The film, which follows three new farmers on the first year of their regenerative journey, is an inspiring story of British farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food – to heal the soil, benefit our health, and provide for local communities.

Parents for Future Ceredigion are facilitating the screening on Friday, April 19.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion, chaired by Patrick Holden who is the founder and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, whose mission is to work internationally to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food and farming systems.

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A panel will include local farmers, growers and landowners who employ regenerative practices or have moved across to regenerative practices.

Tickets can be booked at eventbrite.co.uk (search for Six Inches of Soil, Lampeter).

Tickets are £3.50 to cover the cost of the venue and the purchase of the feature film. It is a non-profit screening. However the organisers welcome as many farmers as possible for whom there is free admission. Under 18s are also free.

The aims of the film are to sound the alarm on a broken system, but to also give hope that there is a way to fix it; to inspire farmers to adopt agroecological and regenerative farming practices; and to encourage consumers, food corporations and policymakers to support their efforts.

Half the food we eat in the UK is produced by about 180,000 farmers, who manage 70% of our land. Current “industrial” mainstream farming practices contribute to soil degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Regenerative farming practices, (within an agroecological system) promote healthier soils, provide healthier, affordable food, restore biodiversity and sequester carbon.

Six Inches of Soil is a story of three new farmers on the first year of their regenerative journey to heal the soil and help transform the food system - Anna Jackson, a Lincolnshire 11th generation arable and sheep farmer; Adrienne Gordon, a Cambridgeshire small-scale vegetable farmer; and Ben Thomas, who rears pasture fed beef cattle in Cornwall.

As the trio of young farmers strive to adopt regenerative practices and create viable businesses, they meet seasoned mentors - John Pawsey in Suffolk, Nic Renison in Cumbria and Marina O’Connell in Devon - who help them on their journey.

During the film, they are joined by other experts - Henry Dimbleby, Ian Wilkinson, Mike Berners-Lee, Vicki Hird, Dee Woods, Tim Lang, Hannah Jones, Satish Kumar, Nicole Masters, Tom Pearson - providing wisdom and solutions from a growing movement of people who are dedicated to changing the trajectory for food, farming and the planet.

Further resources about the issues raised can be found at sixinchesofsoil.org

The 96 minute film, with its original music score and beautiful animation, was completed at the end of 2023, and was launched at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in January. It was also shown at COP 28 in December 2023 through EIT Food Systems.