Summary:

Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil, increasing biodiversity above and below ground, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting carbon sequestration, and increasing resilience to climate change.

Regenerative viticulture is farming vineyards based on the understanding that the health and fertility of soil is the foundation for life above and below ground and that it is the most important component of healthy terroir.

We are delighted to be joined by Justin Howard-Sneyd MW, a trustee of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation who will give us an introduction to this fascintating method of farming and explain why and how it is changing the world of agriculture.

Justin will discuss:

• What is Regenerative Viticulture, and what beliefs underly it?
• How does it differ from ‘sustainable’, organic and biodynamic viticulture?
• How do you implement it?
• How can you tell if you are doing a good job?
• Is it important to get certified?

About the Speaker:

Justin was brought up in a farming community in Yorkshire, and his first paid job, aged 9 (at 30p an hour) was helping to round up lambs to have their tails docked. After spending 3 years as an itinerant winemaker in the early 1990s, he became a wine buyer in 1997 for Safeway, Sainsburys and heading the wine team at Waitrose, before taking a role with Tony Laithwaite as the Global Wine Director for Direct Wines.

Since 2013 Justin has worked as an independent consultant for a wide range of clients, and has been making and distributing his own wine, Domaine of the Bee, from four hectares of very old vines in the Roussillon region of France.

Justin started working with the Dartington Trust in 2020, to bring wine education to their program of short courses and degree and postgrad programs and is busy learning about regenerative farming from the experts at Schumacher College. He became a Trustee of the Foundation in late 2021.