THE 2025 edition of the Groundswell festival in Hertfordshire provided a number of opportunities for potato growers and suppliers to find out about new technology, products, machinery and resources to make their practices more sustainable and help keep their running costs down.
The event, which took place at Lannock Farm, provided a forum for farmers, growers, or anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems, including no-till, cover crops, fertilisation and new ways of monitoring and improving soil health. It also highlighted some of the renewable energy options, technology and practices that can help keep potato storage costs down.
More than 200 sessions took place on Wednesday, July 2nd and Thursday 3rd, featuring a range of speakers with expertise in soil health, farming systems, agricultural policy, and agtech. With talks and workshops taking place throughout the day on both days and hundreds of exhibitors, the festival provided a forum for growers and those involved in production of potato products to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems.
Now in its ninth year, the event also invited organisations and individuals to put forward topics and session ideas.
The talks, forums and discussions included addresses by leading international soil health experts, experienced growers, agricultural policy experts, alongisde direct-drill demonstrations and AgTech displays.
Groundswell was founded by John and Paul Cherry who have farmed for more than 35 years, converting to a no-till system in 2010. They were inspired by a visit to No-Till on the Plains Conference in Salina, Kansas. Last year’s event welcomed nearly 8,000 delegates. In recognition of the benefits good farming brings to the water cycle, Affinity Water was the headline sponsor for this year’s event.
A joint statement from the Cherry family said: “This growth reflects the snowballing of interest in regenerative agriculture, not only from farmers but also from policy makers attracted by the ‘public benefits’ of such systems such as carbon sequestration and flood/drought prevention. Then there are the foodies who come to find new and better ways to join the conversation about how and what we might grow in the future. They don’t need to be told that food tastes better when it grows in healthy soil.
“Despite these other interest groups, Groundswell remains a show ‘for farmers, by farmers’. We aim to explore ways of working with nature to grow food in a profitable way.”
