Emergent Generation 

Daryne Bouadi (pictured left with goat!) reports on a day spent with Bristol’s community food pioneers, connecting young people across the food system to share knowledge, skills, and opportunities. The day included listening to a live recording of soil and meeting street goats! Find out how you can get involved. 

Last month around twenty of us gathered at Bridge Farm Community, a thriving urban farm in Bristol, for an event organised by Emergent Generation, a network of 18-to-35-year-olds working to build a food system that nourishes people and planet. The day was billed as a walk, talk, taste, and connect kind of event, and that is exactly what it delivered. 

The morning began with introductions and networking before the Emergent Generation team shared their mission: connecting young people across the food system to share knowledge, skills, and opportunities. From there, the day moved quickly into its first activity: a walk led by Street Goat, a volunteering organisation that uses goats to manage urban landscapes through conservation grazing. 

We walked from Bridge Farm through to Stoke Park, where Street Goat’s goats graze around the Purdown Gun Battery: a Second World War anti-aircraft site that had become overgrown and underused over the decades. The goats have become something of a local celebrity, drawing visitors back to the park and helping to rebuild a sense of community around a space that had been neglected for years.

Along the way, the Street Goat team explained how the goats live and what they eat, including their preference for reaching up to browse high branches rather than grazing close to the ground. They told us how the presence of the goats brings people together, passers-by stop to watch them, children drag their parents over to see them, and strangers end up in conversation. They also talked us through how they milk the goats and produce fresh milk for the local community. The goats followed us as we walked, and I had the chance to get up close and interact with them. It was a genuinely enjoyable and memorable part of the day. 

After the walk, we returned to Bridge Farm for lunch provided by Coexist Community Kitchen. It was a welcome break after a morning on our feet, and a chance to sit down together, share a meal, and talk about what we had seen and heard so far. 

The afternoon brought a series of talks. Before introducing his work, Alex Montgomery, founder of Generation Soil, handed out headphones and invited us all to listen to a live recording of soil. The sound was something like rain, a constant, gentle movement but it was actually the activity of insects and microorganisms beneath the surface. It was a fascinating way to open the session, a reminder that soil is not just dirt but a living, breathing ecosystem. Alex then explained how Generation Soil collects food waste from households across Bristol and transforms it into living compost, which is returned to them or to the city’s soils to support growing and biodiversity. It was a clear and practical example of a circular food system in action. 

I also heard from Ped Asgarian, who has spent over a decade driving meaningful change in Bristol’s food landscape, including as Director of Feeding Bristol and Trustee of Bristol Food Producers. His contribution brought the conversation to the broader questions of food justice: who has access to good food, who grows it, and how local networks can work to make the system fairer for everyone. 

What made the day so effective was how naturally everything connected. The goats clearing land for growing. The food waste becoming compost. The compost feeding the soil. The soil growing food for the community. Each organisation represented a different part of that cycle, and hearing from all of them in one day made the bigger picture feel tangible and achievable. 

For anyone interested in getting involved, Emergent Generation welcomes new members aged 18 to 35 for free. Street Goat runs volunteering and conservation grazing projects across the city. Generation Soil offers a food waste collection and composting service. And events at Bridge Farm Community, along with many other growing spaces, can be explored through bristolgoodfood.org. 

Read Daryne Bouadi’s previous Bristol Good Food story about how growing up on a family farm in Algeria shaped a lifelong passion for sustainable food. 

To stay updated on future events, job opportunities and news, don’t forget to sign up for the Bristol Good Food Update at bristolgoodfood.org/newsletter.