Weekend Truth Festival, Real Farming Talk and the Fight for Food Freedom

Paul and I kicked things off with a proper catch-up from the farm, from tractor repairs and homemade ice cream to local cherries, farmers’ markets and the never-ending circus of regulation. Then Nicola and Kelly joined us to give the full lowdown on this year’s Weekend Truth Festival in Wrexham — four days of talks, music, camping, children’s activities and a big focus on community, solutions and getting people together. We talked through the line-up, the Youth Sanctuary, the music, the stalls, and why events like this matter when so many people are looking for alternatives, practical skills and stronger local networks.From there, Paul and I got into the meat of the bigger farming conversation: AI and how it’s being used, regenerative farming, electroculture, composting, local food systems and what it really takes to keep a farm going. We also dug into the hard realities farmers are facing right now — subsidies, bureaucracy, cash flow, staffing, disappearing abattoirs, public demand, chemical dependency, succession, planning, water access and the very real mental health toll across the industry. It was one of those episodes that moved from festival chat to a much wider conversation about food, farming, resilience and where we go from here.Weekend Truth Festival: https://www.weekendtruthfestival.co.uk/Food Finders Hub: https://foodfindershub.com/The Bowler Hat Farmer: https://thebowlerhatfarmer.com/Farmers Support UK: https://farmerssupportuk.com/Mark Devlin: https://djmarkdevlin.com/The People’s Lawyer (David Adelman): https://thepeopleslawyeruk.com/Prof Dolores Cahill: https://profdolorescahill.com/about-dolores-cahill-phd/Gary Fraughen: https://garyfraughen.co.uk/Good Gardeners International: https://ggi.org.uk/The Realme of England: https://www.therealmeofengland.com/AB Health Hub: https://www.abhealthhub.com/Vitamin Patches UK: https://www.vitaminpatches.uk/Willoughby Genius: https://www.willoughbygenius.com/Carbon Cowboys – Roots So Deep: https://carboncowboys.org/about/all-our-films/roots-so-deep