learning Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Sitting with our contradictions – Learning to reconnect with nature and find peace as humans

May 7, 2026 Louise Kelleher

A farm can be a place for the kind of learning that’s hard to find in educational institutions. Combining her work in both farming and networking with Education for Sustainable Development, Ann Marie Weber explores how collaboration among regional actors and transformative learning processes can drive structural change toward sustainable food systems. She runs a small farm near Marburg (Hesse, Germany), where she grows vegetables to make hot sauce, chutneys and other preserves – not for market, but to help create a space for people to connect with their own agency, food and nature. In conversation with Louise Kelleher. […]

How to Cultivate Knowledge for Seed Autonomy? Part 2 – From Niche Knowledge to Collective Capacity

April 24, 2026 Adèle Pautrat

The loss of knowledge around seed diversity has become so pervasive that its very absence seems to go unnoticed. Yet seed stewardship has always been inherent to working with agriculture and food; reintroducing this concept is crucial in building capacity for agroecological seed systems at regional levels. In this second of a two-part series, we examine the tools and approaches that could strengthen the transmission of alternative seed knowledge and know-how, as well as the pitfalls to avoid in order to ensure their social and economic relevance. By Adèle Pautrat. […]

How to Cultivate Knowledge for Seed Autonomy? Part 1 – Who Teaches the Seeds?

March 27, 2026 Adèle Pautrat

Seeds are rarely seen for what they truly are: the building blocks of agricultural systems that determine how our food is produced. This is no accident. It is the result of industry taking control, progressively turning seeds into just another input in service of a growth model built on privatisation, standardisation, and homogenisation—with seeds at the hub. Reintroducing this concept is crucial in building capacity for agroecological seed systems at regional levels. But how to challenge the dominant approach to seed practices, and bring alternative knowledge to a wider audience? First of a two-part series by Adèle Pautrat. […]

Italy | The Fruits of Unseen Labour

March 6, 2026 Lana Chaduneli

What if we acknowledged the labour embedded in every plate of food we eat, in every glass of wine? Forum Synergies trainee Lana Chaduneli spent a rich two weeks in mentorship with pioneering winemaker Charlotte Horton at Castello di Potentino in Tuscany in autumn 2025, where she learned how agriculture, culture and intellectual life need not be separated, but can instead be mutually enriching. By Lana Chaduneli. […]

Rural Resilience Gathering | Knowledge is the Power to Shape our Rural Futures Together

December 19, 2025 Louise Kelleher

We congregated on the last weekend in November, together with participants from 12 European countries and beyond, for our Rural Resilience Gathering 2025. We took home new perspectives, tools and best practices, a richer vision of the mosaic of rural Europe – and a full tank of hope: that we can shape our agroecological future in our communities. Report by Louise Kelleher and Pauline Petit. […]

France | Not Perfect, But Possible – Seeing is Believing at Institut de Tramayes

October 1, 2025 Ashley Parsons

In the run-up to this November’s Rural Resilience Gathering, we took a trip to the Institut de Tramayes: a centre for learning by doing, that seeks to counteract the fragmentation of intellectual knowledge and manual know-how and cultivate “whole human beings”. More than a study trip, it was a moment to reflect on what it means to build a learning space that is rooted in rural realities and ambitions. What could we learn from Tramayes that could help build a University Paysanne in Plessé, and beyond? Report by Ashley Parsons. […]