Future farmscapes: regenerative agriculture, cosmopolitics, speculation and co-design

This practice-led research investigates the political possibilities of more-than-human futures opened by the recent trend of regenerative agriculture in the UK. It will work with three regenerative farms in Hampshire to co-create farming speculations using co-design and speculative methodologies. Taking an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon Science and Technology Studies (STS) and design, the case studies will be examined using ethnography and participatory workshops that make use of inventive and speculative methods.

The outcome will be a series of future farming scenarios told through creative artefacts, which will be used as probes in a wider stakeholder event. By co-designing alternate visions of agro-ecological futures that can be explored with wider policy actors, the research aims to support and enhance more equitable transitions to sustainable food systems, multispecies flourishing and environmental care.

Regenerative agriculture is a sustainable farming approach that is gaining increasing popularity. A holistic approach that mixes different agroecological practices (e.g. cover cropping, minimal tillage) and principles, it aims to go beyond 'doing no harm' to actively improving soil and other natural systems through farming. This shift in the focus from yield to revitalisation of ecosystems, suggests regenerative agriculture could offer meaningful change in our relationship with the nonhuman world.

Recent transdisciplinary scholarship in the more-than-human has highlighted the need for such radical transformation to achieve more liveable futures. New ways of caring and living with nonhumans have been seen to be a key part of regenerative farming, suggesting it is a fertile site to find equitable alternatives to the productivist model of our dominant food system.

However, this transformative potential faces obstacles from entrenched norms and contested expectations within policy, industry, third sector organisations and publics. As UK farming endures the repercussions of the climate crisis and Brexit, now is a timely opportunity to critically explore what alternative politics, or more appropriately, following philosopher Isabelle Stengers (2010), cosmopolitics - a politics broadened to include more-than-human (MTH) interests and agency - could beget.

This research sits within interdisciplinary interest in speculative storytelling as an active political tool, drawing on: inventive speculation in social research; participatory speculative design which engages publics with futures; and new experiments in design working with more-than-human ethics. Building on my policy design experience, I will explore how design can facilitate co-speculation with involved MTH communities to disrupt traditional political spaces.

Although speculative projects on farming exist, there is a gap in using this methodology beyond an emerging technology focus, explicitly involves MTH concerns or makes use of 'inventive methods' -ways in which to generate sociality and engagement (Marres et al 2018. As such, my research asks:

1.What are the (cosmo)political possibilities and futures of UK regenerative farming practices and the implications for stakeholders and policy actors?

2.How can interdisciplinary design and STS 'inventive' methods support participatory speculation concerning more-than-human communities and their agro-futures? 3. How can this research inform current policy making around agro-ecological futures in the UK?