Time to Reimagine: Our First Imaginal Studio in Kent, UK

On June 16th, on a regenerative farm estate in Kent, UK, a group of 25 thought leaders and changemakers from across different countries and organizations answered the call to come together to reimagine food value chains from the ground up.

What drew them was a shared unease with the status quo, a desire to break free from polarized debates and a willingness to explore what might be possible if we slowed down with a community of peers, listened deeply to each other, and started to envision pathways towards greater equity, biodiversity and resilience.

Our journey started with a tour of Bore Place, legacy of the visionary founders, Neil and Jenifer Wates who in the 1970s strove to build an experimental model of how to live and work sustainably. From the market garden to the raised beds full of flowers and vegetables that welcome school children every day, we were inspired by their holistic approach and entrepreneurial spirit.

Against this backdrop, we set to work to unpack the cracks in the global food system that are keeping us stuck in a pattern of incremental change. Be it the commodification of food, the lack of incentives to drive real change, the extractive nature of finance or the disconnection within supply chains, participants all shared experiences and learnings from grappling with these common challenges.

Does everything need to change? What aspects of the current system need to be let go of, and what aspects need to stay? In today’s world, to what extent can we count on governments to effectively drive deep transformation? How can we reconcile different time horizons, when corporate priorities are set to the next quarter, while nature follows much longer cycles?

Numerous tensions and paradoxes surfaced as the heat rose in the barn, and break-out groups slowly migrated to work in the shade of the grounds’ magnificent trees.

But we did not stop at reframing the problem.

We used the Berkana Institute’s Two Loops model as a framework of how change happens in living systems, recognizing that for a new system to emerge, pioneering ideas need to connect and form communities of practice that will eventually grow strong enough, while parts of the dominant system are hospiced and other parts transitioned.

There was a collective recognition that after decades of relentless effort to shift policy and practice, we have arrived at a pivotal moment of transition where more resilience needs to be built into the food system. Each participant reflected on their specific role in driving that transition and shared the “seed of renewal” they are each holding: ideas, perspectives, prototypes or already mature initiatives that have the potential to drive the food system towards greater equity, biodiversity and resilience.

At the start and close of each day, we drew inspiration from nature’s intelligence on the farm. From the bats’ reminder that there is more than one way to sense the world, to the oak tree’s invitation to step into a deeper sense of time beyond human lifespans, we acknowledged how our decisions and actions have consequences for all generations to come.

As the days passed with ever increasing temperatures, we all settled into the gentle yet fertile rhythms of the farm. Drawing on a deep sense of trust and shared community, individual ideas started to crystalize into emerging pathways and new opportunities. We hereby share some of the threads that were discussed.

Conversations explored mechanisms to ensure long-term commitments to landscape transformation, including the associated financial strategies and governance for equitable value sharing. Participants discussed how supply chains could drive sustainable landscapes, by explicitly coupling agricultural production with ecosystem restoration. This would allow corporations to associate carbon reductions and sustainable landscape narratives directly with their farming system investments.

Finance as a lever of transformation was discussed across the breakout groups, with ideas ranging from nature-backed currencies to capital in service to life. Risk and insurance mechanisms were highlighted as interesting drivers for investment, whereby a better quantification of value and risk could enable corporations to make informed investment decisions and help landscape-level actors build the business case for collective long-term investments.

Another topic was how to overcome market and user barriers to scale innovations, in areas where technology has the capacity to make a real difference in reducing land use change and emissions in agriculture, but is being held back by how the market currently works.

Consensus emerged that a key imperative and opportunity for the food system transition is the building of shared stories together with stakeholders across the system, through listening, and fostering ownership. It was felt that this would address the current failure in empathy and storytelling within the sustainability community and offer a narrative that is much more inclusive and imaginative, anchored in resilience, that everyone can rally around.

The ideas and potential pathways that emerged in our three days together will need to be nurtured and developed further, yet they each hold a seed of potential and are anchored in the beginnings of a community of inspired changemakers which will continue to grow as we host additional Imaginal Studios in Indonesia and Brazil over the next few months.

We all left feeling restored and resourced, part of a community built on trust and authenticity, with a sense that through our collective intelligence, we can unlock more creativity in the system, have the confidence and courage to pause, reimagine the system, and pursue bold ideas to drive the food systems transition.