The importance of better collaboration and sharing of knowledge and resources – this was THE key message from participants throughout the day.

• Collaborating and sharing has an enormous number of benefits:
  • By understanding what each other’s businesses and needs are we see opportunities in:
    • each others waste, valuing materials and respecting their worth  
    • increasing ideas for Circular Economy principles
    • Open up research and areas for new innovative technologies
    • Understanding what works and what doesn’t work for others and learning from it 
  • This will also help us understand the skill sets that are needed for future jobs and courses in universities and colleges 
    • Ensuring a sustainable economy means recognising the high value jobs in this sector – engineers, biosciences
    • We also need to reinvest in traditional skills such as food growing and land management for regenerative agriculture
  • It will also help us to inform future policy and practice 
    • ONE VOICE – the importance of having a coherent and common message for the sector when talking to policy makers
  • There are benefits in sharing skills and workforce, such as apprentices, especially the value of shared apprenticeships 
    • Financial commitment for smaller organisations is shared
    • The apprentice gets experience, expertise from across the sector 
    • We can train more people

Climate Emergency was a key theme.  All four local authorities in our region have declared a climate emergency.  Discussion ranged from whether agriculture is the problem or the solution, there is a defensiveness in farming communities who are perceived as the problem, but this reflects a division between urban and rural communities which was seen to be the root of some of the problems.  Farming, food production, land management – these are vital to the sustainability of our society and ecology.

This was a key theme – sustainability is not enough, we need to develop a circular, regenerative biobased economy

• More people are now interested in the food and farming sector because of environmental concern
• Food growing and land management is all about the Resilience of the region in the broadest sense
• Reducing the distance that food travels, reducing its carbon footprint
• Also ensuring we can feed our region if national and international supply chains are disrupted
• Regenerative agriculture and the health of the soil
• What are farms and farmers already doing, is there a need for more education
• New forms of biofertilisers and other methods to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers
• Reduce the use of plastics on farms
• Could we link up farms with innovators to implement regenerative solutions, lead the way

• Storytelling and marketing.  Connecting urban areas with rural food growing region, eg farm shops and markets in Swansea City Centre
  • Connect people to where their food comes from, people need to understand all the benefits and reasons to buy local/regional
  • Opportunity for people from urban areas to grown food and get involved, eg through community supported agriculture projects
• Be wary of not romanticising the idea of food growing etc, this is also a key economic driver for our region, big business and jobs
• Sustainability of farming has two meanings – a sustainable economy and a sustainable ecology
• Circular economy practices are essential and must be at the heart of every conversation in this sector.

• More land management events to encourage cluster based thinking 
• Improve food production practices – greener and healthier, healthier preservatives and greener packaging 
• Not to duplicate the work that other organisations are already doing.  It was noted that PLANED have a number of very relevant projects which could be better supported and rolled out more widely.  Linking back to the message about knowing what support is out there and who is doing what.

• ARCITEKBio Limited
• Bee1
• Beech Holidays
• BIC Innovation
• BioInnovation Wales
• Business Wales
• Castell Howell Foods Ltd
• Digital Farming
• EFT Consult
• Food Centre Wales
• KingShipp Sustainable Solutions
• KN Consulting
• PLANED
• Regional Learning & Skills Partnership
• Severn Wye
• Swansea Council
• Zero Waste Wales
• The Waterside 
• Fishguard Community Fridge
• Building Resilience in Catchments (BRIC’s) – project PLANED
• Pembrokeshire Sustainable Agriculture Network – PLANED 
• Gower Meadow Beef – Conservation grade locally grazed beef
• Narberth Community Fridge & council Orchard 
• Dr. Beynon’s Bug Farm 
• CIWM – Chartered Institute of Waste Managers 
• Life seeker.wales – online newspaper & portal for sharing 
• Youtree.uk
• Cow Tan (Beef) – Conservation grazed co-operative run group on gower
• Bio Innovation Wales – Distance learning courses geared around the circular economy) 
• Future Foods – Under Nutri Wales, SiG’s – developing healthy farming 
• Cae Tan C.S.A – Wales’s largest (?) CSA – soon to establish it’s second site on Gower 
• Farm Co 
• Terraffix – Gower Based land management/ land remediation  – Soil solutions 
• Severn Wye – Sustainable communities/ fuel poverty 
• Green Arising – biomass/sustainable agriculture projects enquiries@greenarisings.co.uk
• Pembroke CIC – manage green hill farm – non-food production agriculture 
• Welsh Valley Alpacas – prototyping new farming alpaca textiles (replacing polyester) 
• Leader Supported projects – PLANED