Groundswell 2025: Weird, Wonderful – and a Little Bit Terrifying

When I arrived at Groundswell, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It’s billed as a regenerative agriculture event, but what I found was far stranger and more exciting: a gathering that ranged from government strategists to robot farmers, Environment Secretary Steve Reed, to a man growing no till potatoes who hadn’t yet figured out how to dig them up.

As a graduate on the MDS scheme, I came curiously, hoping to deepen and broaden my understanding of the food and farming world. This was exactly that: a rare chance to hear from the people shaping it. I left feeling challenged, inspired and with a clearer picture of the role we all play in shaping the future of food.

AI in the Field: The next steps for digital farming?

We often hear about the rise of artificial intelligence in agriculture, but Groundswell made it feel very real. Several speakers noted that the past five years have been all about data, collected from satellites, sensors and soil samples. But without a team of scientists advising, the mountain of data doesn’t always help with making the best decision.

Now, the focus is shifting. According to Ichsani Wheeler and others, AI might be the bridge between data and action. AI tools are beginning to translate data into practical decisions: what to feed, when to weed, how to adjust crop nutrition, and how to anticipate issues before they arise. The next steps? Wheeler thinks robotic help, informed by AI for tasks like harvesting, weeding and sap sampling, is on the horizon.

But perhaps most interestingly, these systems aren’t just helping individual farms – they’re building collective intelligence. Every time one farm feeds data into the network, it improves outcomes for others. In this way, AI isn’t solely a technical revolution – it’s one which actively reinforces and creates new opportunities for collaboration.

Tim Lang: Food Security as National Infrastructure

One of the standout moments of the conference came in the Big Top tent, where Professor Tim Lang delivered a powerful and unsettling talk on UK food security. Under dim lights and a background hum, in the room the tension and sincerity were palpable. Lang painted a picture of a system underprepared to shocks, ranging from extreme weather, political change and cyberattacks.

With so few canneries in the UK, we’d struggle to preserve food at scale if supply chains failed. Much of our produce is sent abroad for processing before returning to UK shelves. It’s not just inefficient, it’s fragile.

Lang offered 15 key recommendations to change that, spanning public, legal and responsibilities within the industry. From legislating for a national food policy to shifting our supply chains from ‘just-in-time’ to ‘just-in-case’, the message was clear: if we want to be prepared, we need to take food seriously, not just as a commodity, but as critical infrastructure.

There was even a moment of comic tension. During the Q&A, a man introduced himself:

“I’m what they call a prepper. I have thousands of tonnes of grain, a mill, an oil press…”
Lang asked: “Will you share?”
The silence was awkward. Possibly not.

And that, perhaps, was the point. You can’t secure a food system alone.

Resilience Needs Relationships

The idea of collaboration wasn’t just a passing theme – it was everywhere. One Welsh farmer shared how, despite record flooding and increasingly unpredictable weather events, his business was still profitable thanks to diverse methods and shared learning.

Another speaker, Rosie, recounted her trip to New Zealand to study flower farming before setting up her own business. In the time she was there, the island was hit with five cyclones. In every case, recovery hinged not just on preparation, but on community action.

Governments are recognising this too. DEFRA’s new Adopt scheme offers up to £100,000 for farmer-led innovation projects, but crucially, they must involve collaboration. Whether it’s tech trials or regenerative experiments, Groundswell made it clear that the future of farming is not a solo act.

So What Do We Do?

For me, the takeaway was unexpectedly optimistic: we can do something about this. Tim Lang’s report lays out a vision for food resilience that is clear, achievable, and deeply necessary.

The world of food and farming is changing faster than ever. From climate shocks to new technologies, the challenges and opportunities are constantly shifting.

What Groundswell showed is that there won’t be one single solution. Instead, the answers will come from collaboration – sharing ideas, learning from each other, and adapting as we go, pulled together with a clear strategy. Whether it’s on farms, in businesses, or in policy, working together will be key to building a food system that’s fit for the future.