NEWS / REGENERATIVE FARMING SPECIAL
Tweeted @loubgray 12 July I expected debate about #renewableenergy & #pesticides but not #veganism in my latest column @wickedleeksmag about #tomatoes #bumblebees but that is what I like about being part of this informed vegetable community.
Retailers need to support regenerative farming By Nina Pullman
@keating_joseph 24 June A lot of talk about the potential revenue farmers can generate from selling carbon at #groundswell. Makes me worry a little. How can the industry be net zero if we sell our carbon savings? Are we overstating the potential/value of the carbon market? Time will tell I suppose.
STAR LETTER
I have recently finished reading Jason Hickel’s book, Less is More: How Degrowth will Save the World; and this ties in so much with his ideas - how to aim at greater democracy and returning ‘capital’ to the ‘commons’. There’s too much to unpack here, but I do recommend anyone who hasn’t read it yet to read it. Manduco Bene, via wickedleeks.com.
4 WICKED LEEKS | ISSUE 7
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ore ethical retailers are needed to match the shift in sustainable farming and create an ‘ecosystem’ of fairer prices to farmers to allow them to continue farming in a better way. Speaking on a lively panel at Groundswell, an annual gathering and conference for regenerative farmers held in June, co-founder of pulse supplier Hodmedod, Josiah Meldrum, said: “We need a network, an ecosystem, of supply and retailers. We need ‘regenerative’ retailers to match the farming side.” Asked whether supermarkets fit into this vision for sustainable food, Meldrum said: “There’s a lot they need to do to get their house in order before small producers want to engage with them. They have a bad reputation for a good reason. There is a will to talk about relocalisation [among supermarkets] and we have to be open to having those conversations. But it’s a slightly intractable position.” Natasha Soares, project leader of Better Food Traders, a network of ethical retailers across the UK, said farmers need more of the customer pound in order to farm sustainably. “To us, sustainable means organic or better. We believe ethical retailers and wholesalers need to play a part in farmer-focused food systems. Our farmers receive over 50 per cent of the customer pound via local veg boxes,” she said.
We need ‘regenerative’ retailers to match the farming side. “Research by the Sustainable Food Trust found that every £1 spent on food in the mainstream results in another £1 in hidden costs to the environment.” Small farmer and member of The Landworkers’ Alliance, Jyoti Fernandes, said farmers could consider cheese making or meat curing to make low intensive farming profitable, while aesthetically damaged fruit could go for juicing or cider making. “With four cows, if you milk them and turn it into cheese, combine it with veg in a market stall, and you can make £4k profit on one cow. “We also have a meat cutting room on the farm which means you can add value to the whole carcass, turning it into back bacon and cured meat like salami. It shows how you can make extra profit while de-intensifying.” Selling direct, through networks such as the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), farm shops, or veg boxes all provide profitable routes to market for small sustainable farmers, Fernandes added.