In this final episode recorded at GROUNDED Festival 2025, we share an unedited session captured at the close of two full days of talks, workshops and on-farm learning in Bridgetown, Western Australia.

As the festival drew to a close, we wanted to do what GROUNDED does best: throw a few big ideas into the air and see where they landed. The brief was simple — how do we fix farmland? — but the answers, as always, were complex, layered and deeply human.

To explore that question, we brought together two people working at the sharp end of land repair from different angles.

Michelle McManus, co-founder of Southampton Homestead, also works with Voyager Estate, helping guide landscape repair and regenerative practices across vineyard systems. Her work bridges practical farming, processing and land stewardship.

She’s joined by Terry McCosker, one of Australia’s pioneers of regenerative agriculture, widely respected for his work on grazing systems, carbon, soil health and landscape function.

Together, they reflect on what repairing farmland really means — beyond techniques and terminology — touching on responsibility, resilience, systems thinking and the long view required to care for land in a changing climate.

It’s an open, thoughtful and fitting way to close two remarkable days on the farm.

Settle in and enjoy this closing session with Michelle McManus and Terry McCosker on GROUNDED Live.

GROUNDED Festival is a cross between a food festival, a farming conference and a field day. It combines science and technology with ancient wisdom, provides a respectful place for lively discussion, an audience as interesting as the speakers and an excellent menu of local food, drinks and music, all on a beautiful, regeneratively-managed farm.

GROUNDED is also Australia's only annual, roaming food and farming festival, held in a different farm location every year, so each festival is a unique, unmissable event celebrating local expertise and culture with an inspiring line up of speakers.

In 2026, with the support of the local Upper Barwon and Central Otway Landcare Networks, following successful festivals in Tasmania and Western Australia, GROUNDED FESTIVAL will be held at leading regenerative farm, Yan Yan Gurt West, in the Victorian Otway Ranges, two hours from Melbourne in an area renowned for regenerative agroforestry, tourism, local hospitality and great food and wine.

Tickets are on sale now - head to the GROUNDED website for information on speakers, the location, and to secure your spot today.

In this episode of GROUNDED Live, we share another unedited session recorded at GROUNDED Festival 2025, on farm in Bridgetown, Western Australia.

When we talk about waste, it’s often framed as inefficiency — a waste of time or resources. But food waste carries a deeper cost. It represents lost farmer effort, squandered natural resources, and a profound disrespect for the land and labour that produced it. Globally, it’s estimated that more than 40% of food grown for human consumption is never eaten — a staggering figure that demands better solutions.

In this session, we explore why food waste happens — and, more importantly, how people are actively doing something about it.

Will Grothum, a chef by trade, works closely with local farmers and businesses to intercept surplus and by-products, transforming them into new, high-quality foods. Through ventures like his bakery, he turns what might otherwise be discarded into products people genuinely want to eat.

He’s joined by Mitchell East, a passionfruit farmer who faced a familiar challenge: produce rejected by markets for cosmetic reasons despite being perfectly edible. Rather than accept waste as inevitable, Mitchell found ways to turn this surplus into value-added products that honour both the fruit and the work behind it.

Together, they share practical, hopeful examples of how rethinking waste can strengthen food systems, support farmers and respect the full journey of food from paddock to plate.

Settle in and enjoy this session with Will Grothum and Mitchell East on GROUNDED Live.

GROUNDED Festival is a cross between a food festival, a farming conference and a field day. It combines science and technology with ancient wisdom, provides a respectful place for lively discussion, an audience as interesting as the speakers and an excellent menu of local food, drinks and music, all on a beautiful, regeneratively-managed farm.

GROUNDED is also Australia's only annual, roaming food and farming festival, held in a different farm location every year, so each festival is a unique, unmissable event celebrating local expertise and culture with an inspiring line up of speakers.

In 2026, with the support of the local Upper Barwon and Central Otway Landcare Networks, following successful festivals in Tasmania and Western Australia, GROUNDED FESTIVAL will be held at leading regenerative farm, Yan Yan Gurt West, in the Victorian Otway Ranges, two hours from Melbourne in an area renowned for regenerative agroforestry, tourism, local hospitality and great food and wine.

Tickets are on sale now - head to the GROUNDED website for information on speakers, the location, and to secure your spot today.

In this episode of GROUNDED Live, we share another unedited session recorded at GROUNDED Festival 2025, on farm in Bridgetown, Western Australia.

One of the things we love most at GROUNDED is storytelling — especially when farmers are given space to share the real, lived journeys behind their farms. This session features Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus, who joined us fresh from a rare holiday and straight into the speaker tent.

Jeff and Michelle run Southampton Homestead, a vertically integrated, pasture-raised chicken farm. On their farm, they raise the birds, process them on site using a micro-abattoir, and sell directly to families, restaurants and retailers. Over the years, they’ve processed around 80,000 chickens — building a business rooted in transparency, animal welfare and local food systems.

Their story is honest and unpolished. It’s not all smooth sailing or easy wins — there have been significant challenges along the way. But it’s also a story of persistence, ingenuity and hope: what’s possible when farmers commit to doing things differently, even when the path isn’t straightforward.

It’s a generous, grounded conversation about resilience, small-scale processing, and the courage it takes to build something meaningful from the ground up.

Settle in and enjoy this session with Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus on GROUNDED Live.

GROUNDED Festival is a cross between a food festival, a farming conference and a field day. It combines science and technology with ancient wisdom, provides a respectful place for lively discussion, an audience as interesting as the speakers and an excellent menu of local food, drinks and music, all on a beautiful, regeneratively-managed farm.

GROUNDED is also Australia's only annual, roaming food and farming festival, held in a different farm location every year, so each festival is a unique, unmissable event celebrating local expertise and culture with an inspiring line up of speakers.

In 2026, with the support of the local Upper Barwon and Central Otway Landcare Networks, following successful festivals in Tasmania and Western Australia, GROUNDED FESTIVAL will be held at leading regenerative farm, Yan Yan Gurt West, in the Victorian Otway Ranges, two hours from Melbourne in an area renowned for regenerative agroforestry, tourism, local hospitality and great food and wine.

Tickets are on sale now - head to the GROUNDED website for information on speakers, the location, and to secure your spot today.