This year’s Arable Scotland is all about farming in a new era. It’s about how the future is already here and the challenges that brings, from climate and weather chaos to biodiversity loss and the impact of global events on key supply chains. To unpick what some of this means, as an appetiser for Arable Scotland, we have special guests from Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development board (AHDB), alongside our very own Hutton agroecologist Ali Karley to discuss the challenges.

Host:
Elaine Maslin, Media Officer (Aberdeen) at the Hutton

Guests:
David Webster, chief executive of LEAF. David joined LEAF from the UK Grocery Division of Associated British Foods where he was Director of Sustainability and External Affairs. He cut his teeth with Jordans (Cereals), working closely with founders Bill and David Jordan on their breakfast cereal brand and a commitment to wildlife friendly farming.

Adrian James, knowledge exchange manager for cereals and oilseeds in Scotland for the AHDB. sAdrian comes from a mixed farm background in Herefordshire before moving into farm management in Sussex and Kent. He moved to Scotland in 2017 and took up his current role with AHDB in 2022, and he is deputy chair of the Arable Scotland committee.

Dr Alison Karley, an agroecologist here at the Hutton with more than 25 years’ experience in plant production and ecology. Ali leads the integrated cropping systems group at the Hutton and her work contributes towards crop diversification and integrated pest and disease management (IPM) research at the institute. Ali is chair of the Arable Scotland committee.

For more information about what you’ve heard in this podcast, including how to attend Arable Scotland, visit:

Arable Scotland
LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming)
AHDB

Thank you for listening, we hope you enjoyed this glimpse into some of the discussion you can get involved in at this year’s Arable Scotland.

Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our world.

We look forward to bringing you more insight the world across food, energy and environmental security in future episodes of the Hutton Highlights podcast.

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