27 March, 2026

As Good Business celebrates 30 years, the Eden Project celebrates 25, and inside its iconic biomes this week, an inspirational event is taking place for the fourth time.

Anthropy 2026 has brought together over 600 speakers across almost 200 sessions. John O’Brien and his team at Anthropy have done a remarkable job assembling a diverse and thoughtful group, united by a shared vision: to spark imagination and foster fresh thinking about how to build a united and prosperous Britain.

With such an array of speakers and panels, it can be hard to know where to focus. For me, the answer came before the event had even started. A chance encounter with Martin Peck, an organic hill farmer who has worked the same upland acres for over 30 years, flagged one of the roots of the challenges we face. He described a food system that has spent decades optimising for price and speed, while quietly eroding the ecological foundations it depends on.

That erosion is nowhere starker than in the rapidly degrading soil health found across the UK and beyond (40% of UK soil is degraded, a figure that expands to 60% in Europe).  And who was making exactly this point in the first session? The Edge from U2. Turns out life after rock stardom is all about soil regeneration (see also Andy Cato of Groove Armada and now Wildfarmed). Last year The Edge co-founded a new soil regeneration company called Oath, which uses artificial intelligence to find innovative methods to address the growing global problem of soil degradation.

What made these conversations so powerful was the backdrop. The Eden Project is itself an extraordinary example of regeneration, a worked-out clay pit transformed into a living ecosystem. Broken land can be healed, but it takes patience, investment, collaboration, and a willingness to measure success more holistically.

Anthropy is built on the idea that the future is a shared responsibility. As Martin knows (like us, he’s been doing this work for 30 years), the transition to a resilient food system won’t be driven by farmers alone. It needs procurement leads, investors, innovators and policymakers in the same room, speaking the same language. This week at Anthropy, for a few days at least, they were. And that really does give some hope.

By David Lourie