Jake Freestone, (BASE-UK member) has emailed some information which might be of interest to you.   

LEAF has recently received funding from the Ashden Trust for an exciting new project to develop and support a new part of our work - the Beacons of Excellence.   

The funding is specifically for developing the initiative with a focus on Regenerative Agriculture and Agroecology as the first of a series of Beacons of Excellence.   

The cut of the Beacons of Excellence provides a deep dive into particular issues and will highlight the benefits of and recognise success in a particular focus area in the delivery of more sustainable farming.  Essentially, a spotlight on a focus area rather than a whole farm enterprise or farmer, whilst still considering the larger system and landscape.   

An important aspect of the Beacons of Excellence platform is recognising success regardless of LEAF membership. We would therefore love to hear from you if you would like to join us on this journey, exploring and championing Regenerative Agriculture and Agroecology, as a Beacon of Excellence. We are still in the early stages of this project and will involve some experimentation on both sides, but you will be working closely with LEAF for an initial period of around a year.     

To start with, we will be getting all Beacons around a virtual table with Caroline Drummond to initially discuss the concept and framework of the programme.  Due to the diversity of farms involved, this will also be a conversation around the importance of ‘context’ in regenerative agriculture. 8am-9am on 22nd September   

An in-person meeting is also scheduled for late October in Hampshire to further discuss the practices and outcomes of regenerative agriculture, see this in practice, consider how this will be explored in the Beacons platform and how to maximise farmer and supply chain engagement with the programme.   

Please do get in touch with India Grant-Wood (india.grant-wood@leafuk.org) if you would like to be involved or for more information.