Welcome to July
Hello, friends!
As July begins, I want to take a moment to say thank you, truly, for being here. The last couple of months have been a little quieter from me, partly because of some big changes connected to the farm, and partly because I have been travelling for work. This space and the work I do would not exist without your support, and knowing you are along for the ride makes every step feel less daunting and a lot more meaningful.
I want this paid subscriber update to be more than just a list of what is coming up. I want it to feel like a conversation, and a place where you are not just funding my work, but shaping it and building something with me.
Coming Up In July:
Cheap food is not cheap - Early this month I am publishing post that follows on from my recent supermarket branding piece, The store feels British, the supply chain is global. The core argument is simple, the shelf price is not the true cost of food. I want to make the hidden costs legible without turning it into a slogan, and connect it back to UK food security and what a fairer system would actually require.
AgStacker community newsletter - I have had a month off the community newsletter, but I am really looking forward to getting back to it and sharing more fantastic stories from across food, farming, agriculture, growing, homesteading, and everything in between. The next AgStacker Community Newsletter will go out on the 11th of July. If you want to be included in this month’s edition, please send me a link to your post, or to something you have read and loved, and I will add it to my running list.
AgStacker Roundtable - The day after the newsletter, on the 12th of July, I will be hosting our live AgStacker Roundtable for paid subscribers. The theme is still to be confirmed, but the purpose stays the same, a friendly, low pressure space to talk through what is happening in farming and food, share what you are seeing where you are, and help shape what this community becomes.
Only paid subscribers will have access to the Roundtable. If you are thinking of joining, please let me know, and I will send out the Zoom invite in the week before. If you want a sense of the kind of conversation we have, here is a recap of the last Roundtable.
Roundtable recap - A few days later I will post a full recap of the Roundtable, pulling out the key themes, the best reader comments, and any practical next steps we agree on.
Later in the month I will publish a paywalled deep dive into the new Farming Roadmap. The free section will cover what it is, what it claims, and the headline changes readers should understand.
The paid section will be my deeper analysis, what it risks missing, who benefits and who is exposed, what good implementation would look like for smaller and agroecological farms, and what to watch next. If you want to help shape this one, send me your questions, your worries, or the bits you are already hearing people misunderstand.
Planning red tape and why it blocks real farming change - To close the month I will publish a second public anchor post on planning red tape, explicitly including and responding to the Landworkers’ Alliance article. The aim is to translate planning friction into a clear, non ranty systems explanation, and offer practical proposals for what would actually fix it.
As always, this space is yours too!
If you want your work included in AgStacker, send me a link.
If you want to come to the Roundtable and you are not sure what to say, come anyway! If there is something you want me to cover, reply and tell me. This monthly menu is meant to be shaped by you as much as by me.
Thank you for being here and for supporting independent agricultural writing. Your encouragement and engagement keep this community going.
With gratitude,
H x