FEEDING OURSELVES GATHERING 2026

Report from Day 1 – Thursday 26th March 2026

Feeding Ourselves 2026 was a four-day gathering held from the 26th to the 29th of March in Cloughjordan. It brought together local food producers, community food organisers, researchers, advisors, and advocates from across the agri-food, land use, and local development sectors. As an annual gathering and growing Community of Practice, Feeding Ourselves creates space to connect practice, policy, research, and organising in support of food sovereignty, agroecology, and stronger local food economies.

Day 1 focused on two linked priorities for Ireland: the development of Land Observatories and the strengthening of advisory systems for Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs). This opening day set the frame for the wider gathering by locating local food and land use within current Irish and European policy shifts, and by exploring how practice, research, advisory development and public policy can be better connected.

Context and Purpose

The timing of this conversation was significant. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation is reshaping the policy landscape, committing Member States to restoring ecosystems and biodiversity while also supporting viable farming and resilient rural communities. In Ireland, as work proceeds on the National Restoration Plan, there is a growing need for better information, stronger dialogue and more coordinated approaches to land use.

At the same time, concerns about food security are increasing while Ireland continues to lose vegetable producers growing for local consumption. This sharpened the focus on the need to better recognise and support local food producers, reduce dependence on long and fragile supply chains, and strengthen local food systems that can provide fresh, nutritious food while retaining value within local communities.

A strong thread throughout the programme was the contribution of the Horizon Europe projects EU4Advice and CORENet to the development of SFSC advisory systems in Ireland and across Europe. The presentations and workshop discussions made clear that SFSC advisory is emerging as a distinct field requiring recognition, coordination, training and policy support.

Opening context: Land use, agri-food policy and AKIS

The day opened with welcome and framing from Davie Philip, Cultivate / EU4Advice, and Oliver Moore, Cultivate / CODECS. The opening panel chaired by Ruth Hegarty, Food Policy Ireland, included Fintan Kelly, Environmental Pillar; Leo McGrane, CAP Network Ireland / ERINN Innovation; Thomas O’Connor, Manna Organic Farm / Talamh Beo; and Sarah Prosser, Bioregioning South East Ireland.

Fintan Kelly, Environmental Pillar focused on the implications of the Nature Restoration Law and the Land Use Review for Ireland. His presentation outlined the main restoration target areas under the Regulation, including protected habitats and species, marine and urban ecosystems, river connectivity, pollinators, agro-ecosystems and forests. Fintan highlighted the timeline for Ireland’s emerging National Restoration Plan, including public consultation and Cabinet stages through 2026. He also showed examples of habitat re-establishment targets and mapped case studies such as Killarney National Park and the Glendalough / Clara Vale / Glenealy Woods / Devil’s Glen cluster, illustrating how restoration planning can be linked to land ownership and public land adjacency. The presentation connected the Nature Restoration agenda to the broader Land Use Review, signalling that restoration will require coordinated land-use planning, clearer spatial information and more joined-up public policy.

A key contribution came from Leo McGrane, who presented the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) as an increasingly important formal framework within the 2023–2027 Common Agricultural Policy. He emphasised that AKIS is no longer simply a loose concept, but a required strategic element of national CAP plans, with Member States expected to strengthen knowledge flows, integrate advisors and establish coordination structures. Leo also highlighted that SFSCs are already relevant within this framework, including through the National Horticulture Strategy and National Organic Strategy, and argued that multi-actor events such as Feeding Ourselves are themselves examples of AKIS in action.

Sarah Prosser introduced bioregioning, demonstrated through examples from the South East,  as an approach to listening and responding to farmers, land stewards, local food producers, consumers and others in flexible and agile ways that not only support individuals but also collective, diverse networks of change. She shared a vision of landscape hubs as rooted libraries filled with local evidence, knowledge, relationships and trust. Bioregioning can support interventions that work as system-leverage points, and also collect different evidence and data types. In this way bioregional and other landscape hubs become conduits for ground-truthing to national policy. The Land Observatory proposed by the European Commission, the Irish government Land Use Review, and the Nature Restoration Plan could all benefit by connecting with such hubs to enable holistic and context-relevant decision-making and inter-related funding flows.  

This framing was important because it located local food and advisory systems within a wider institutional and policy landscape. It reinforced the idea that SFSCs are not peripheral to agricultural innovation, but part of a broader shift in how knowledge, collaboration and support function in the agri-food sector.

Land Observatories and SFSC Advisory Systems

The two main afternoon themes were introduced in plenary by Áine Macken-Walsh, Teagasc, CORENet, and Daniel Long a dairy farmer in Tipperary who has been active in progressing the Land Observatory conversation in Ireland.

Áine Macken-Walsh highlighted that SFSCs are shaped by a distinctive mix of entrepreneurship, empowerment, participation, solidarity, gender and diversity, and therefore require forms of advisory support that differ from conventional technical extension. Drawing on research on the characteristics of actors establishing and leading SFSCs, she showed that these are often pioneering, values-driven spaces shaped by non-traditional actors, contested identities and strong motivations around sustainability and agency. In that context, the advisor was framed not simply as a provider of information, but as a broker: someone who spans boundaries, builds relationships, coordinates networks, enables exchange and supports capacity-building. Her slides also emphasised the importance of creating spaces for knowledge exchange and outlined a broader competency profile for innovation advisors, including disposition and attitude, content knowledge, methodological competence, organisational ability, and reflection and learning. Together, this pointed to the need for advisory models that can navigate, facilitate and connect across conventional and non-conventional systems, particularly in nascent or expanding areas such as Short Food Supply Chains.

Daniel Long introduced the case for a Land Observatory for Ireland as a tool for improving transparency, evidence, and coordination in land use. He framed the Land Observatory as a response to a growing European crisis of land consolidation and weak generational renewal, arguing that Ireland’s family farm system is under increasing pressure from rising concentration, aging farmers, large-scale operations and new land pressures including long-term leases for solar and biomethane. He proposed the Land Observatory as a multi-stakeholder tool to support policy advocacy; and to provide training, resources and stakeholder engagement. The objectives he outlined included preventing excessive land consolidation, protecting hedgerows, supporting family farm models, and building transparent, accountable and inclusive decision-making. He also positioned the Land Observatory as a practical mechanism for generating evidence, shaping policy recommendations and supporting sustainable agriculture, biodiversity conservation, rural livelihoods and landscape protection in Ireland. 

Stories from the Field

Caitriona Scully, Mid West Bio District introduced the emerging Mid West Bio District as a place-based initiative working to connect producers, communities, institutions and support actors around a more coherent regional food and farming system. The BioDistrict model offered a useful example of how territorial coordination can help strengthen local supply chains, organic production, advisory support and public awareness by working at a regional scale rather than only farm by farm.

Evonne Boland, Open Food Network Ireland spoke about Food Hubs and Online Farmers Markets, highlighting how digital infrastructure and cooperative market platforms can help local producers reach consumers more directly. This work showed how practical systems for aggregation, sales and distribution can support Short Food Supply Chains while also increasing visibility and accessibility for local food.

Iva Pocock introduced the Tipperary Online Farmers Market, an initiative using the Open Food Network and coordinated by Cloughjordan Community Farm. It offered a practical example of how local food infrastructure can support producer collaboration, shared routes to market and direct sales. In 2025, the market received support from the Department of Agriculture’s SFSC Fund for a strategic expansion into Nenagh. Iva also highlighted that initiatives like this do not run themselves: they depend on sustained support for coordinators and managers who can organise logistics and build participation over time.

The Stories from the Field session grounded the morning’s strategic discussion in practical examples of local food, territorial coordination and rural innovation already underway in Ireland. These short contributions were important because they showed that many of the elements needed for stronger local food economies and more coordinated land-use futures already exist, even if they are often fragmented or only partially supported.

Pippa Hackett introduced Project BASELINE, a project focused on biodiversity, low-input farming and the relationship between agricultural practice and ecological resilience. She described the initiative as having the potential to establish a new baseline for Irish agriculture. The project will test the evidence that soil-focused regenerative approaches can improve environmental health and farm profitability, while also exploring the factors that could encourage wider uptake.This session showed that many of the building blocks for stronger local food economies already exist in practice, but they remain fragmented, weakly connected and often under-supported. It reinforced the need not only to recognise these emerging initiatives, but to invest in the coordination, infrastructure and advisory support needed to help them grow.

Workshop 1: EU4Advice & CORENet
Advisory Services for Short Food Supply Chains

This session focused on the vital role of advisors in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) and the need for effective advisory services. The workshop drew on insights and learning from two Horizon Europe projects: CORENet, which is coordinated in Ireland by Teagasc, and EU4Advice, coordinated here by Cultivate.

The session was opened by Davie Philip, Cultivate / EU4Advice, who outlined the mission of EU4Advice, the role of the Irish Living Lab, and the way it is embedded within the Feeding Ourselves Community of Practice, providing not only stakeholders and participants, but also the longer-term social infrastructure needed to sustain learning, experimentation and collaboration beyond project funding.

The opening framing also introduced the current development of the Local Food Canvas as a practical tool to support informal SFSC advisors and Local Food Facilitators, helping them map local food systems, surface opportunities and strengthen collaboration. Davie also highlighted the shared EU4Advice–CORENet campaign, showing that the two projects are cooperating to strengthen a European network of SFSC advisors through joint working groups, policy engagement, training development, shared communications and peer learning. Davie highlighted the need to embed SFSC advisory practice within the national AKIS.

Áine Macken-Walsh then deepened the discussion by focusing on the specific advisory needs of SFSCs. Her presentation showed that these systems require support that extends beyond narrow technical advice to include knowledge brokering, relationship-building, network coordination, facilitation, translation and capacity-building. This gave strong conceptual grounding to the workshop and supported the argument that local food systems need a broader, more relational advisory ecology.

Eva Jennings, Teagasc / CORENet, then placed the Irish discussion in a wider European context. Her presentation showed that SFSC advisory takes multiple forms across Europe and is shaped by different regional, institutional and cultural conditions. Examples from Belgium, the Netherlands, Sardinia and Hungary demonstrated how specialised advisors, market coordinators and informal facilitators can support producers across production, processing, branding, governance, sales and logistics. Eva highlighted that policy support for SFSCs remains fragmented across cooperation, innovation, rural development and wider revitalisation agendas.

Joe Kelleher, Teagasc, grounded the conversation in the Irish context. His contribution pointed to existing organic producer support networks, including the Western Organic Producers Group, and evoked the tradition of meitheal as a model of solidarity, mutual support and cooperative effort. He also drew attention to the significance of the Mid West Bio District as a territorial support structure. From an organic advisory perspective, he noted that it is increasingly necessary to look beyond the farm gate and help producers navigate a wider ecosystem of supports, markets and relationships. In this sense, the BioDistrict model was presented as helpful because it can support the whole chain — farmers, supply, information, funding and learning from examples elsewhere.

The workshop discussion on barriers and enablers highlighted a set of recurring challenges and opportunities for strengthening SFSC advisory systems in Ireland. Participants identified significant barriers including fragmented information and weak knowledge flows, policy and quality assurance burdens, lack of time and capacity, weak infrastructure, technological gaps, retail pressures, and the high cost of local sustainable food. They also named less tangible but equally important barriers, such as stigma, the expectation of having immediate answers, and the weak recognition of local food as a public good.

In contrast, the discussion pointed to a different kind of support ecology as the basis for progress. Key enabling factors included stronger public policy and procurement support, more flexible funding, better recognition and support for local producers, stronger coordination and aggregation among producers, network-building, practical knowledge-sharing, greater public awareness, skilled facilitation, and the trust that develops through sustained relationships. Taken together, these insights suggested that strengthening SFSC advisory systems will depend not only on technical fixes, but on building a more connected, supportive and publicly valued local food ecosystem.

Overall, the workshop confirmed that SFSC advisory is a distinct field, not simply an extension of conventional agricultural advisory work. It also reinforced the importance of hybrid support roles such as Local Food Facilitators, brokers and coordinators, and pointed clearly toward the need to embed SFSC advisory more explicitly within and alongside the national AKIS.

Workshop 2:
Land Use Coordination and Land Observatories

The second breakout focused on the need for more informed, coordinated and transparent approaches to land use in Ireland, and on the emerging case for a Land Observatory. The group included participants working in social farming, bioregional development, mapping, environmental advocacy, seed saving, community farming, land justice and rural development, reflecting the broad relevance of land use across many sectors.

Daniel Long explained that momentum for this work had grown from earlier Feeding Ourselves conversations, including follow-up sessions and the establishment of a working group. A key driver was the absence of clear, trusted and publicly accessible data on land ownership, land use and land-use change. Participants broadly agreed that better shared information is needed not as an end in itself, but to support fairer, more informed and more accountable decision-making.

The workshop explored how a Land Observatory might help gather and share data on land ownership, sales, leasing, land-use change, ecosystem condition, restoration pressures, public land and access for new entrants. A major theme was the changing structure of farming and landholding in Ireland, including rising land prices, concentration of ownership, long-term leasing, institutional investment and the difficulty of accessing land for new entrants.

There was also a lively discussion around the term family farm – whether it remains useful, what values it carries, and whether it may obscure important questions of inherited wealth, concentration and exclusion. Alternatives such as socio-ecologically embedded farming were suggested as potentially more useful ways to describe the kinds of land use and farm systems that should be supported.

Participants discussed whether a Land Observatory should be primarily a transparency and data tool, or whether it should also have stronger implications for policy and land governance. International examples such as SAFER in France, land capability mapping in Scotland and recent transparency and land use work in the UK were referenced as useful points of comparison. There was broad support for beginning practically — for example through pilot areas or catchments — and for treating the work as a process of learning by doing.

The discussion on blockers and enablers of Land Observatories highlighted a number of recurring themes. Participants identified major barriers including the lack of clear, accessible and trusted data on land ownership, land sales, leasing and land-use change, along with conflicting interpretations of the information that does exist. They also pointed to deeper structural barriers, including the dominance of private property rights, tax arrangements and market dynamics that can contribute to land concentration, and wider institutional pressures that make land harder to access and govern in the public interest. Another challenge was the absence of a strong shared narrative that could help communicate why this work matters and build broader public understanding and support.

Final Reflections

The closing plenary opened with reports from both workshops. Reflections were offered by Ruth Hegarty, Food Policy Ireland, and Joe Kelleher, Teagasc, drawing together key themes from both workshops and the wider day.

Final Reflections – Ruth Hegarty & Joe Kellehar 

Both reflections highlighted strong links between the two strands. Each pointed to fragmented information and support systems, the need for stronger policy engagement, the value of trust and cooperation, the importance of practical examples already underway, and the need for more coherent public frameworks.

Joe Kelleher reflected from an organic advisory perspective that advisors increasingly need to look beyond the farm gate and know where to go for answers across a wider support landscape. He highlighted the value of territorial initiatives such as the Mid West BioDistrict, which can help connect farmers, supply chains, information, funding and learning, and support a more joined-up approach across the whole food system.

Ruth Hegarty reflected on the wider policy context, noting that although there are rollbacks and real threats, the Nature Restoration Regulation still offers an important opening that will shape future change. She pointed to the importance of resilience, low-input approaches and broader civic food resilience, and emphasised the value of the Feeding Ourselves Community of Practice as it continues to widen and deepen these conversations.

A number of cross-cutting insights emerged from the day. Both land use coordination and local food systems need greater visibility — whether of land ownership and land-use change, or of the roles, needs and contributions of local food producers and SFSC advisors. Fragmentation remains a major challenge across information, institutions, policy supports and public understanding. Both conversations also highlighted the importance of hybrid roles – facilitators, brokers, organisers and coordinators who can connect practice, policy and community.

From the perspective of EU4Advice and CORENet, Day 1 was especially significant. It provided a clearer articulation of the advisory needs of SFSCs in Ireland, stronger evidence that SFSC advisory is a distinct and necessary field, and further recognition of the importance of Local Food Facilitators and other informal or hybrid advisory roles. It also confirmed the value of the Feeding Ourselves Community of Practice as a national space for stakeholder engagement, co-design, piloting and peer learning, while strengthening the case for connecting this work more clearly into the national AKIS. In that sense, the day helped show how grassroots local food initiatives, advisory innovation, research and policy dialogue can come together as part of a more diverse and responsive knowledge system for Ireland’s agri-food future.

Conclusion

Day 1 of Feeding Ourselves 2026 created a timely and valuable space for connecting land use coordination, local food systems and advisory development in Ireland. The two workshop strands – Land Observatories and SFSC Advisory Systems – addressed different but deeply connected dimensions of territorial resilience. One focused on the need for better transparency, shared evidence and coordination in land use decision-making; the other on the need for stronger and more diverse advisory systems, better support for local food producers, and clearer pathways for embedding SFSC advisory practice within the national AKIS.

Together, these conversations showed that Ireland’s transition challenges are not only technical. They are also relational, institutional and political. Better data alone will not deliver fairer land use, and local food initiatives alone will not create resilient territorial economies. What is needed is a stronger public and collaborative framework that can recognise, connect and support the people, practices and infrastructures already working towards more just and regenerative futures.

Day 1 confirmed that many of the ingredients for change already exist. The task now is to connect, resource and embed them well enough for stronger local food economies and more coordinated land use to take shape.