Field Exchange is a space and opportunity for farmers, artists, food producers, experts and the interested public to gather and work out how to face the current challenges for agriculture, climate and creativity together. The Exchanges will generate energy, community visions and solutions. Everyone participating is welcome to contribute and exchange.

The full Exchange programme includes 12 topics - from designing a low input farm for the future, with natural fertility; to supporting creative agriculture in changing the food system, helping consumers and food producers reach each other. Each Exchange will feature 30 participants, facilitated by NOTS (National Organic Training Skillnet), who are highly skilled in running energetic, insightful and impactful events with a network of experts.

Food is integral to Field Exchange. Participants eat a carefully designed meal together as part of every gathering. The food provenance is local food from Tipperary and nearby, grown with care using natural practices and avoiding chemicals. The chef, Johanna from the Night Orchard, with a background in foraging, is committed to nutrition and valuing food, using wild found and organic food where possible. Eating together builds trust and community. Exchange participants eating together will have an opportunity to relate to each other across the table, and make new communities.

Two art works – Model Plot - a sculpture in crops by Deirdre O’Mahony and the new iteration of Corn Work by John Gerrard, where four simulated straw clad figures walk a solar wheel, are integral to the presentation and concept behind Field Exchange. The artworks, unfamiliar in a farm setting are considered key participants in the Exchanges - allowing new connections and associations to unfold and develop between agriculture, art + society. 

All twelve topics in the Field Exchanges are carefully designed to showcase climate research and innovation in agriculture which has been carried out in organic and regenerative agriculture. Participants will be equipped to design practices on their own farms and communities – providing society with healthy soil, crops, and animals leading to healthy food in a fairer system. There are alternatives to productivism, and the Exchanges aim to illustrate some of the options farmers could consider to improve their farming lives, profit and reduce impact on the natural world.

Integrating creativity has been traditionally part of Irish agriculture. Creativity is seen in all aspects of farming through the ages, in farm design, crop choice, carefully interwoven practices with animals and plants. This creativity and vision are what Field Exchange aims to reinvigorate in agriculture, welcoming aesthetics and an appreciation of beauty to farming activities. This approach to agriculture, community and climate are new for Ireland. Where culture, information and technical exchange, located on an award-winning, working farm. The aim is to reach climate-friendly, biodiversity-rich agriculture, through the medium of creativity, art and mutual respect.