Cereal’s next instalment

Farmerama Radio started as a wild idea in 2015. It was born of a realisation that much of the essential work to build a better future for us all was not being represented in the media. Pioneering farmers were experimenting with soil, improving animal welfare, building biodiversity, saving seed and more, but their efforts, which were shifting the health of our collective earth for the better, were going largely uncelebrated.

As a fledgling podcast, we began to release monthly episodes and quickly came to see that farmers really are the caretakers of the land. Over the last decade it has felt vitally important to keep sharing their stories, not only with other farmers, but to a wider community interested in creating a regenerative food system. 

Under a duvet in a cowshed 

In 2016, we were one of the few farming podcasts out there. The show was recorded in spare moments in between our fulltime jobs, sometimes under a duvet in a cowshed or out in an orchard whilst on the road. In order to encourage knowledge exchange between those working on the land, we felt the voices of the farmers had to take centre stage, mainly so that other farmers would listen! It was also because their stories are so often simplified and polished by mainstream media until their true experiences on the ground are lost. As we dug further into this work we also began to understand that indigenous knowledge is the foundation of real farming. Hearing from farmers in the global south, and the voices of underrepresented farmers everywhere, was an important evolution for our mission. 

In late 2019, we took the podcast to the next level, releasing our first investigative series. Produced on a shoestring budget, Cereal comprised six episodes that attempted to cover the polarised world of bread, from seed to loaf. Podcast producer Katie Revell travelled the UK to find out how the needs of industrial production had come to dictate how seeds are bred, grain is grown, flour is milled, and how the results are baked and eaten. We wanted to highlight the true cost of the commodity ‘bread’ system, whilst meeting the growing community of farmers, bakers, millers and activists coming together to build a new roadmap for Real Bread. 

Regional grain movement

We have gone on to produce many more in-depth series, but we were continually bowled over by the ripple effects Cereal had, both in terms of industry recognition (including two Guild of Food Writers Awards in 2020) and, most importantly, the people it reached. Over the last six years we have heard anecdotes from people around the world about how Cereal profoundly changed the way they thought about bread and also their individual role in the food system. Instead of being bystanders beholden to a commodity food system, we heard over and over again how it had prompted people to join a movement to build regional grain economies. 

We had been so inspired by this listener feedback that in spring 2026, we produced a follow-up podcast, Cereal Revisited. It is accompanied by a report and interactive sound map, enabling listeners to share what it was that resonated with them about the stories of the Real Bread movement that we told. Through voice notes, in-depth interviews and speaking again with contributors to the original series, Cereal Revisited shows the extraordinary action people took after listening. It also allowed us to gather and share important updates about milestones and challenges facing the new grains movement today. 

Taking the leap

New contributors include Tom and Mary Edmondson of Cranley Barn Farms in Milton Keynes, who were ‘conventional’ pig farmers in crisis due to steep financial and mental health challenges. Cereal came to them at a time when they were considering their options and helped them realise the harmful impacts of a commodity system that was no longer serving them. It also gave them examples of other people taking the leap out of familiar, high-input farming and into the unknowns of regenerative agriculture. Today, they have their own farm shop where they sell Real Bread and pastries, made using long fermentation methods from grain grown and milled on their mixed regenerative farm. 

We also hear from people who took the leap into completely new careers. Emma Shires was an engineer, who began trying her hand as a miller after listening to The Miller is Missing episode of Cereal. Working alongside Kimberley Bell of Small Food Bakery, she became a co-founder of Nottingham Mill Co-op.

Diverse and hopeful bread future

Re-connecting with the original Cereal contributors, we asked: what has changed and what still feels stuck? What kinds of structures, relationships and resources are needed to take this work further? How can grassroots storytelling help more of us to recognise our own role within the system that sustains us? At its heart Cereal Revisited explores how such storytelling can become an engine of change and celebrates the people working to reimagine and build a more diverse and hopeful bread future, from the ground up.

@farmerama_radio

Share your story
This is an ongoing project. If Cereal sparked a shift in how you think about or work with grain, or resonated with you in any way, Farmerama Radio warmly invites you to add to the Cereal Soundmap. 

You can leave a voice note via the Farmerama WhatsApp +447466301300, saying who you are, how you came across the series and how it inspired any change or action, big or small.

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Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 67, July 2026. Be the first to read new articles by joining the Campaign.

Want people to see YOUR article here?
See: YOUR words in print, My baker’s dozen, My favourite bakery, Who are your Real Bread Heroes? and Sharing your recipes.

See also

• Regional grain gatherings
• First RISE
• New magazine: Baking A Better Tomorrow
• Jazz improv in the South West Grain Network
• Let's make Britain great again!
• Wholemeal bread
• Grassroots grain Britain
• Rebel alliance
• Cultivating a new local grain economy
• A gathering of grainiacs 
• Why queue for YQ?
• Landrace for life
• An adaptive approach to wheat breeding, growing, processing and baking
• Capital grains
• A new Welsh grain economy
• Local grain guide
• Weaving new bread webs