We Are Building a Home for Food and Farming Writers on Substack
A recap of our first AgStacker Roundtable, and the next date if you want to join us.
Launching something new always makes me a bit nervous.
You can plan the links and the Zoom room and the words you want to say, but you cannot plan the moment where you click start meeting and wait to see if anyone comes.
So I want to start with a simple thank you.
Our very first AgStacker Roundtable happened on Zoom, it ran for just over an hour, it was informal in the best way, and two people showed up.
Tim Connolly joined from Massachusetts, a food and farming advocate who cares deeply about how we talk about land, labour, and dignity.
Kody M Karr joined from North-East Missouri, a regenerative farmer with the kind of lived experience that makes you listen more carefully.
That is not a crowd.
But it is a beginning, and it felt like the right kind of beginning.
A Few Takeaways From The Conversation
Substack feels different because it is slower, and because it rewards attention rather than performance. You can write a piece that is thoughtful and specific and not designed to win an argument in the comments, and it can still find its people.
Community is not the same thing as an audience. Community is what happens when people feel safe enough to speak honestly, and when there is a bit of continuity so you are not always starting from scratch.
Farming can be a quiet form of rebellion. Not the loud kind that needs an enemy, but the steady kind that keeps choosing care, skill, and responsibility in a world that often pushes the opposite.
Getting people back onto the land is not a slogan, it is a practical question. We talked about pathways that already exist, including WWOOF, and what it takes for those pathways to feel realistic rather than romantic.
The best conversations happen when nobody is trying to sound clever. There was a lot of listening, a lot of curiosity, and a shared sense that food and farming writing does not have to be either polished PR or constant crisis.
Consistency matters. People want a reliable drop in space, something they can plan around, even if the session itself stays informal.
There is appetite for sharing resources and articles, talking through what is in the AgStacker newsletter each month, and experimenting with small features like an AgStacker of the Month, plus the occasional guest expert when it fits.
Tim ’s Recap
Tim has written his own recap of the session, and I am genuinely grateful he took the time.
If you want another perspective on what we covered, and the tone of the conversation, you can read it here:
Keeping It Accessible
I forgot to hit record on this first one, which is very on brand for building something new in public.
From here on I will record each Roundtable and share a recap afterwards, so even if you cannot make it live because of time zones, work, kids, animals, or just life, you can still follow along and take something useful from it.
What We Are Building
AgStacker exists because farming and food systems writing on Substack can feel scattered.
There are brilliant writers here, and I mean that in the most ordinary way, people putting in real hours to make sense of land, weather, markets, policy, animals, labour, and the emotional weight of feeding other people.
Some of us are writing from farms and smallholdings, some from kitchens and classrooms, some from offices where the food system is mostly spreadsheets and meetings, and some from places where we are trying to find our way back to the land after years away.
What we often do not have is a shared place to land, a space where you can show up as you are, talk about what you are working on, and be met with curiosity rather than performance pressure.
That is what the Roundtable is for.
It is a room for people who care about food and farming to think out loud together, to swap notes on what we are reading, to share resources that actually help, and to build enough familiarity that we start recognising each other s work and sending readers across the gaps.
Over time I want this to develop a gentle rhythm that makes it easier to join in.
A predictable time each month.
A light structure that keeps the conversation moving without making it feel formal.
A habit of sharing links and articles, and talking through what is in the AgStacker newsletter each month, so the Roundtable and the newsletter start to support each other.
We also talked about small experiments that could make this feel more like a real home on Substack, things like discussing the featured AgStacker of the Month, and occasional guest experts when it fits, not as a big shiny event, but as a way of widening the circle and learning from people who are doing the work.
My hope is that, slowly, this becomes something you can rely on.
Not because it is perfect, but because it is consistent, and because it is built around real people rather than algorithms.
If you were at the first session, thank you for helping set that tone.
If you were not, you are still very much part of what we are building.
Next Date And How To Join
Let s keep the topic open for now, because I want it to be shaped by what you need.
The next AgStacker Roundtable will be:
Sunday 15 March 2026
1pm London time
8am US Eastern
On Zoom
For paid subscribers
The community newsletter will remain free for everyone to read and enjoy, and to feel part of, and if you missed February s AgStacker, here is the link, please enjoy.
AgStacker Community Newsletter
Welcome back to the AgStackers Community Newsletter, a monthly place to spotlight writers sharing thoughtful work about food, farming, and the wider food system.
If you are a paid subscriber, you will get an email from me with the Zoom link and you are welcome to drop in, listen, speak, or just be in the room.
If you cannot attend live, you can still follow along through the recording and recap.
Paid subscriptions are what keep AgStacker visible and independent, and they are what make it possible for me to keep doing the behind the scenes work of gathering links, reading widely, and making sure this space does not disappear when life gets busy.
If AgStacker has been useful to you, upgrading to paid is the simplest way to support it.
Two Questions For You
What would you most want from the Roundtable over the next few months?
And what would make AgStacker feel more like a real category on Substack, rather than a handful of writers who happen to be in the same place?
Leave a comment with your thoughts, this community is shaped and growing because of you, and I will use what you tell me to shape the next session.
I love that you are doing this! What a lovely idea.
Just wanted to drop in and say Hello! 👋🏼 We’re a small regenerative farm just outside of Vancouver, Canada. What a lovely idea. Would love to check it out!