About the project
Regenerate is a service to facilitate shared spaces for imagining alternative narratives about the future of farming within the Mediterranean bioregion.
It has been developed in a real context through a co-design approach with REVOLVE, a communication agency collaborating with stakeholders in the regenerative farming landscape, such as farmers, policymakers, research institutions, industry representatives and environmental organisations.
“As regenerative farmers we advocate for a new socio-economic system. We design, prototype and apply the transition that will feed the planet while we regenerate the soil.”
– Ricard, holistic regenerative farmer (Girona, Spain)
The problem
The agricultural sector is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis. Measures have been in place to support a sustainable farming transition for years – for instance, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has progressively raised its focus on supporting sustainable practices. However, policies have often proved ineffective, as they frequently overlook farmers’ constraints in adopting more sustainable practices.
This project engaged with conventional and regenerative farmers to understand their daily struggles and what prevents them from being more sustainable. The research shows that farmers’ narrative about the future is remarkably characterised by a deep sense of hopelessness, hindering their ability to envision a preferable future, thus preventing them from investing in sustainable farming practices today.
“The big ones will be bigger, and the small ones will farm until they retire and then sell off or lease their land to the big ones.”
– Bob, fruit conventional farmer (Lleida, Spain)
The service
This service aims to support farmers striving to transform agriculture but who struggle to imagine a preferable future to work towards. The service hosts Creative Futures Visioning workshops and working groups where farmers will imagine alternative preferable futures with other regenerative agriculture changemakers such as policymakers, research institutions, industry representatives and environmental organisations. The workshop outputs will posteriorly be transformed into fictional stories that can be used to advocate for the futures depicted and inspire further change within the local communities, who can keep exploring the workshop results in working groups.
The methodology, guides and tools to facilitate these spaces are are available for use under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. They are adaptable to the specific context, with relevant examples in the farming sector and considering its use in a futures thinking non-expert context.
“We cannot provide the solution, but we can encourage farmers to question their practices and the fact that it wouldn’t be so crazy to think of new ways of farming, opening up and collaborating so that they are prepared when the paradigm changes.”
– Patricia Carbonell, Head of REVOLVE Mediterráneo
Learn more about the project
Regenerate 