Roots & Rhythms x Lopemede Farm
Published February 2025
Roots & Rhythms was a 6-month life-centred project exploring a future for Lopemede Farm through nature recovery and nature connection.
The aim was to create a regenerative vision and business model for Lopemede Farm that enables the health of all life (nature including people) to flourish for generations into the future — and guide other farms to do the same.
Team
I was part of a small multi-disciplinary team, including project manager George Simons (Ruleo), design strategist Julian Ellerby (Get Lost Labs), ecologist Dr. Emma Gardner (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology), alongside project advisors Becky Miller (DEFRA), Camilla Burrow (Wild Oxfordshire), Charles Bundy (Thame Green Living), and the Lopemede farm collaborators and community. My role as a graphic designer was to visually communicate the process and learnings, serving as a resource for those on similar paths.
Project Background
Eddie Rixon is a fourth generation farmer and manages Lopemede Farm which spans 81 hectares of permanent pasture. Following a series of challenges including a TB breakdown that resulted in the sale of the entire herd of breeding Simmental, and the uncertainty of future grant funding with Basic Payment Scheme being phased out, Eddie recognised a new direction for the farm was required.
In 2020 Eddie formed a 30-year ambition to restore the farmland through nature recovery — leaving it in better condition, and with improved financial security and sustainability, for future generations. Eddie had begun creating the ‘natural capital’, but was asking, ‘How can the farm become an effective ‘hub’ for people to connect with nature?’
Our process: Life-Centred Design
A systems-aware design approach that listens to varied perspectives and explores different solutions, whilst considering impacts across systems. Collaborating with expertise, with a focus on making and testing, and sharing through storytelling. The project was designed following the Systemic Design Framework by the Design Council.
Our core team started by connecting with each other and the land at Lopemede. We set our course by aligning around shared aims, vision, roles and principles for working together. The team then conducted desk research, expert interviews and stakeholder interviews to discover and map the interconnected systems.
Read more about the beginning phases of our project in our Substack blog here.
Visioning a future
Building on our research we collectively imagined possibilities beyond business-as-usual for the farm and shaped a vision for the farm in 2050. Working back we defined a path, identifying critical events and planned outsteps to reach the vision.
Story of Change - Lopemede Farm 2050
We created a Story of Change that brings to life the key issues and changes as a visual story. Making it accessible and understandable for external audiences and stakeholders enabled us to gather input, feedback and ideas in a collaborative way.
Multi-Species Imagination Workshop
We invited farmers, councillors, DEFRA staff, ecologists, farm partners and local residents to a co-creation workshop. I designed 15 persona booklets, challenging participants to consider and emphasise with the needs and perspectives of other living beings at Lopemede. Speaking for these beings helped us prioritise non-human needs and revealed new opportunities and ideas for Lopemede and the wider landscape.
Governance for life prototype
We ran a prototype meeting with Lopemede partners and members of the community to test new forms of governance, collective decision making process and principles. One participant acted as the ‘Voice of Nature’ as we discussed questions, in a circle with a ‘talking stick’, listening and considering the needs of human and non-human stakeholders.
Impact measurement prototype
To test and learn about how we might best measure and communicate impact to enable growth of influence, catalyse change & attract funding we created a fictional Impact report for Lopemede in 2030. This speculative artefact enabled us to conduct interviews with experts to understand how this resonated with their priorities and experience.
Journey of Change model
A draft framework was designed setting out the steps for Lopemede to help people grow their relationships with nature. Inviting people onto the land, engaging them through experiences to deliver multiple benefits. The desired outcome is for Nature Guardians to emerge, with awareness, knowledge, wisdom and love of nature.
Growing relationships with nature prototype
We invited participants to Lopemede to test a variety of prototype activities designed using the framework. They related to seasonal food, mindfulness, growing food for the community and citizen science. Materials were created to capture the audience’s feelings and responses to the activities and the concept of community guardianship was explored.
Recommendations & Celebrations
Prototype learnings were incorporated into the Story of Change alongside plans, recommendations and guides for Lopemede, allowing people to contribute to the vision and support it into the future. We also created a pocket guide to share our ways of working with others. Tree planting on the farm celebrated the closing of the project.
From Surviving to Thriving
Through the project we discovered that to create change we need to support farmers and land managers to navigate a mindset shift towards farming in relationship with nature and their community. The science and processes are widely documented to support regenerative farming and improving biodiversity. However, what this pocket guide presents are life-centred practices to help reconnect farming, people, and the rest of nature. An invitation to embrace awareness, empathy, and care in farming and community activities.
Printed using non-toxic vegetable-oil riso inks on 100% recycled paper by Oxford GreenPrint.
Available to buy here.
Lopemede’s Story
We created a presentation to communicate where Lopemede is heading, reveal its impact, gather support and attract funding.
Subscribe to our project Substack to hear more about the project learnings, developments and future opportunities.
We are grateful to the wider Lopemede Farm community and collaborators as well as all the experts that offered their wisdom and our friends and family for supporting us. Lastly and most importantly we give thanks to the living beings and systems of the farm and the wider landscape.