Tuesday 6 October 2015

Marianne Overton MBE

October Newsletter

From: CllrM Overton 
Sent: 06 October 2015 10:04
To: Friends and Colleagues,
Subject: News from Marianne to Heath Villages

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Please find your October newsletter attached (with pictures). I hope you find it interesting and useful.
Also following below is an interesting idea from Peter Lundgren who farms at Branston Booths, called “A Field of Wheat”. Would you like to get involved in a local agricultural art project?

Kind Regards,
Marianne

Councillor Marianne Overton MBE
Independent Councillor for Branston and Navenby on Lincolnshire County Council
and for the Cliff Villages on North Kesteven District Council
Leader of the Lincolnshire Independents
Vice Chairman of the Local Government Association
www.independentvoice.org.uk
[mailto: CllrM.Overton@lincolnshire.gov.uk]




A Field of Wheat is an innovative project that will explore wider opportunities and conversations around arable farming in the UK.

We would like to give you the chance to mix with other industry professionals, academics, farmers, researchers and members of the public to add your voice and knowledge to a new collective.

A Field of Wheat aims to challenge the stereotypical disconnect between farming and society.
We invite you to join a collective, becoming a stakeholder in a 22-acre field of wheat in Branston Booth, Lincolnshire, seven miles from Lincoln and be part of the year long vibrant exchange of knowledge and ideas about cereals farming in the UK.

A brief overview

By joining the collective you will have the opportunity to play an active role by contributing to a number of key decisions including what to do with the eventual harvest. Our dedicated website will provide opportunities for you to ask questions and share thoughts. You will join a wide range of experts to share reflections on wider issues around wheat farming (technology, culture, history, economics, ecology). You will be invited to live events on the farm throughout the year.

A Field of Wheat provides a platform for informed dialogue and exchange around the complexity of contemporary farming.


Who will be involved

We are inviting a mix of experts and professionals from the food and farming industry, including agri-tech, agri-food, agri-chemicals, supermarkets, traders and more, alongside researchers and academics, curators and museum professionals and general public to be part of the collective in order to create a rich and diverse dialogue.

How does the money part work?

To become part of the collective you need to pay a total of £260.

£200 of this is an investment in the wheat field and £60 is a contribution towards the farmer’s fee/the collective’s costs. The profit or loss on your investment depends on a number of factors including yield, where and how the collective decide to sell it and the market price for wheat at the time of sale.

Any return made on your initial investment will be made by BACS transfer to you after the wheat has been sold. The date set for this is provisionally 31 October 2016. This may be subject to change if the collective decides to sell the wheat at a later date. Financial calculations regarding the collective will be posted on the website and sent to each collective member at the end of the project.

Our collective structure has been designed with support from the Community Land Advisory Service.


The whole year at a glance.

A Field of Wheat website will go live at the beginning of October 2015. This coincides with drilling the seed.

The website will be the hub of the project along with the farm. It will house the Farmer’s Almanac, a regular diary written by the farmer about his day-to-day experiences on the farm that you can contribute to via the Ask the Farmer section.

You will also find a page called The Meeting House. This is where the collective discussions and decision-making will happen. You will be invited to input into three decisions the farmer needs to make during the growing year including where and when to sell the wheat. We will also design three online ‘provocations’ over the year exploring wider issues around contemporary farming and food systems. We have created guidelines for our discussion space inspired by Quaker methods of facilitating dialogue and sharing different perspectives.

You can also find images, further thoughts and wider perspectives on the Artists’ Reflections page on the website and there will be daily updates on local weather and global price of wheat.

You will be invited to be a guest at the farm for three events hosted by the farmer, ourselves and a range of different experts. These will involve eating together, discussions and talks. At the climax of the project, in Autumn 2016 there will be a two-day event marking the harvest.

In Autumn 2016 the project will be presented to a wider public and industry professionals at The University of Lincoln and The Collection Museum.


When and how do I sign up?

To sign up visit the registration page at http://fieldofwheat.co.uk. The collective needs to be completed by 20th September 2015. As places are limited we would urge you to take your place as soon as possible.

Who are we?

A Field of Wheat has been created by Anne-Marie Culhane and Ruth Levene and has emerged from two years of research with support from University of Lincoln and Arts Council of England exploring the culture and economics of wheat growing on a local and global scale and building relationships with farmers in Lincolnshire and with representatives of the farming industry, local historians and academics.

Anne-Marie’s previous project was as artist in residence in the department of Earth System Science, University of Exeter & Ruth was recently artist in residence with the Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield.

They previously worked together to deliver a cultural olympiad commission for The National Media Museum, Bradford and both have a long standing interest in food, rural landscapes and food systems.


What happens next?

You will receive an email confirming your registration and payment. Once you've signed up we will give you two dates for your diary one on the farm and one online. The website will go live at the beginning of October. We will post out your membership certificate by the end of October (a little later for international collective members).

We will send you regular email updates, letting you know of up and coming events either online or on the farm. Most of the time you will get plenty of warning and time to prepare, although there may be the rare occasion of an emergency vote or discussion if the farmer needs to make a decision quickly (for example a pest management issue).

If you have any further questions email: mail@fieldofwheat.co.uk

A Field of Wheat provides a space for constructive dialogue, ideas, celebration, innovation and inspiration in order to deepen our understanding of the value of the relationship between food, land and people. We hope you can join us.

A Field of Wheat - Sign me up to the collective please.

All images © A Field of Wheat except the Painting: The Ploughing Match by George F Carline Courtesy of The Collection Museum (Usher Gallery),  Lincoln
Peter Lundgrenwww.peterlundgren.co.uk
07751 112303

Sent from my iPhone

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