Matt Smee
Head of Agricology
I joined the team at the Organic Research Centre and Agricology after a long stint working as an organic grower based in the northwest, where over 12 years I’d been building and running market gardens. During this time I also co-founded the organic food company 9 Meals from Anarchy. Prior to this I worked in Burma running community development projects with hill tribe groups in the east of the country, and worked with exiled pro-democracy groups in Thailand. I have joined the team to help grow the reach of Agricology’s work, to bring more farmers in to the conversation around regenerative and sustainable farming practices, and connect up with individuals and organisations who are doing pioneering work in these areas.
Author contributions
Living Mulches – Technical Guide
This Agricology technical guide is designed to support farmers in making informed decisions about adopting living mulches in arable systems.
Tree Fodder – What, Why and How
This is the audio recording of a session run by Agricology at the Oxford Real Farming Conference featuring Matt Smee with Organic Research Centre’s Dr Lindsay Whistance.
Living Mulches Take Centre Stage at the Annual BASE-UK Conference
On 12 February I attended the annual BASE-UK conference in Newcastle. The day was filled with a range of inspiring and informative talks that covered topics including living mulches, on-farm research, strip till in horticulture and building on-farm resilience.
Living With Living Mulches
Mark Lea talks with Matt Smee at Oxford Real Farming Conference about the learnings from 5 years of trialling living mulches in an organic arable system.
Optimal Carrying Capacity – Agricology Podcast
This new Agricology podcast series sets out to explore the concept of optimal carrying capacity for livestock, relating to the health of the animal, the farm, and the environment.
Roll up, roll up! Join Agricology and AUC at Groundswell 2024
Come along to ‘The Study’ at Groundswell, where a varied and stimulating range of talks combining science, education and farming await...
Bale Grazing at Treflach Farm
After a couple of days let up from the seemingly never-ending rain, we visited Treflach farm on the Welsh / Shropshire border on 8th March 2024, for a Pasture for Life (PfL) field day about bale grazing and overwintering strategies.
Alternative weed control solutions – an EU project
Oper8 is a three year EU horizon project bringing together farmers, researchers and academics to share alternative weed control solutions.
Carbon Calling – Shared stories and lessons learnt
On Saturday 9th of September we were lucky enough to attend the Carbon Calling conference in Cumbria.
An interview with Stuart Johnson
With Carbon Calling Conference just around the corner, organiser and regenerative farmer Nic Renison took some time out to catch up with Stuart Johnson.
Soil Time
With the sun shining and a fantastic range of speakers lined up, the Agricology team and a mix of farmers, growers and industry professionals gathered on Tuesday 23rd May at the Dairy, Waddesdon Estate, for some 'soil time' discussing ‘Getting Started with Regenerative Agriculture.’ Matt Smee gives us the lowdown...
Farm of the Future? Net Zero in Practice
Matt Smee reports back from attending an event intended to help make steps towards a practical incarnation of RASE’s 2022 report 'Farm of the Future: Journey to Net Zero.'