The concept of this webinar was to make the connection between farming, the production of food, its distribution, waste and impact on health. Alongside efforts to reduce carbon emissions, and the impact we humans have on our planet, has come increased anxiety about food. There is a growing understanding of the importance of the soil and the human microbiome and how modern farming methods and diet can improve both.
Our panel members were:
- Poul Hovesen, known in the UK farming industry for his innovative practices in managing a large mostly arable-cropping Norfolk estate of 2,000ha. He has received prestigious awards for improving yields whilst reducing environmental impact, He has also been recognised for his work promoting the understanding of food, farming and the countryside in Norfolk. Poul is currently Director of Farming at a different estate, Holkham Estate, and is Chairman of Catalyst Farming, a data management company set up in 2019 to share knowledge across four progressive farming companies in Norfolk. He is an Honorary Fellow of the National Institute for Agricultural Botany, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farmers, and will be Vice President of the Royal Norfolk Show in 2024 and President in 2025.
- Sarah Calcutt, CEO of City Harvest, London’s leading food charity. Sarah is a 5thgeneration fruit farmer and has previously grown and marketed fruit. A Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, she is also a Non-Exec Director of The Covent Garden Market Authority, a founding Non-Exec Director of Outfield Technologies and serves as a Commissioner on the new government Commission into the future of food banks.
- Jane Anderson CBE, consultant physician and researcher, who initially studied human nutrition, gaining her PhD and qualifying as a dietician prior to retraining in medicine. During her year as Master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries she successfully introduced plant-led menus to Society functions. Jane is also a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners and is an advocate for the “One Health” concept, recognising the health of people, animals and plants is inextricably connected to the health of our shared environment. Jane is Chair of the charity Paintings in Hospitals and of the National AIDS Trust.
In the chair was
- Heather Barrett-Mold, Past Master of the Gardeners Livery Company and founder member of the Livery Climate Action Group. She was Principal/CEO of Pershore Group of Colleges and responsible for a 600-acre mixed farm with fruit production and a cider unit. She is Vice Chair of Pollinating London Together, and Vice Chair of Governors at Capel Manor College. She was a member of the Government Advisory Panel on Sustainable Development Education for its lifetime of 5 years, and then Advisor on the Secretary of State Sounding Board. Heather was an expert with the Commission for Sustainable London 2012, and Secretary of State Board member for the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. She is a Fellow of the Linnaean Society, Vice President of the Institution of Environmental Science, Past President of the Institute of Horticulture, and previous Chair of the Science Council.
Each of the speakers had less than 10 minutes to set out their view of the food chain, with Poul kicking off the presentations.
Poul explained that he started his career in the late 70’s. He pointed out that it took us less than 30 years to do so much damage, and that this continues. There was a huge increase in output due to the introduction of chemical and fertiliser strategies. Agricultural policies supported overgrazing, resulting in defuse pollution. Overproduction of combinable crops in some areas changed our landscape, with a damaging impact on habitats. Intensive vegetable production took place on fragile soils, such as the Fens that were valuable for their carbon storage and the Brecks noted for their landscape value. Poul stressed that we must work with ecologists to be more intelligent in managing our landscape. We need more creative government policies which are not simply generic. That means creating habitats relevant to individual landscapes, in the same way that we should optimise food production in areas that have soil types and climates relevant to specific crops. All this will help us to secure our food production. He talked about the need for research to create more sustainable farming systems. In Norfolk, where Poul farms, there are several leading science and research centres: the School of Environmental Science at UEA, the John Innes Institute, a world leader in plant breeding, the Quadram Centre for Food and Health and NIAB for applied research. These are just a few of the incredible research facilities within Norfolk and we should be making more use of their work in our food production systems. Farming should only be using the newest, safest and best technology, and supermarkets need to be a part of this journey too, accepting only food produced in a sustainable way. Poul emphasised that we must educate the general public and farmers to use and benefit from evidence-based science and research. We can produce good and healthy food and look after the countryside and its habitats. In conclusion, he argued that we can protect our water and we can feed our people with healthy food. But we need to join up and work together for the benefit of all.
Sarah followed, talking to some slides, although she also shared some reports from City Harvest, the links for which follow.
City Harvest has published 3 reports around food, people & planet. All have a degree of focus on the work with farmers – City Harvest is now delivering 40%+ fresh produce to the 116,000 people it cares for. There is an emergency rescue service for food Take 1 minute to watch …if it inspires you, please donate to end hunger and waste
The planet report – https://cityharvest.org.uk/planet-value-report/
People – https://cityharvest.org.uk/people-value-report/
Food – https://cityharvest.org.uk/food-value-report/
City Harvest is 10 years old this year, founded essentially on good environmental principles and practice. Good food going to waste creates an enormous environmental disaster. Of all the food produced in the world, 1/3rd of it goes to waste. If it was a nation, it would be the 3rd largest contributor to greenhouse gases. So, over the past decade City Harvest has rescued £110 million worth of food at retail value, and 90% of that is surplus coming from farms. This is produce that has failed to find its retail sale; there is no a commercial outlet for it. City Harvest does not charge for any food that it shares and does not pay for any food it collects. Free food is the bedrock of City Harvest. If you run a community organization, your funding is extremely limited. By providing this free food, City Harvest frees up £110 million-worth of value for street-level intervention and real change. That helps pay for legal support, training for work and childcare, and just about everything that will help affect change.
City Harvest has delivered 61.5 million meals-worth of food in its first decade and has reduced greenhouse gases from waste going into landfill. Nationally, 20% of households with children experience food insecurity, meaning not always enough food on the table from Monday to Sunday. This means children going to school without breakfast, and little or nothing in a lunch box. In London that figure is 25% of households, and for single-parent families the figure rises rapidly to more than 50%. Many illnesses are directly relatable to such poor nutrition.
City Harvest is spread across 30 boroughs in London, feeding 120 000. But it also has a huge waiting list of 76,000 people in approved organizations that it looks after. We know that we could reach them, if we have the volume of food to feed them. City Harvest does an enormous amount with farmers, using 2 small lorries, visiting farms 5 days a week, for example gathering up that bin of really ugly looking pears of the wrong shape that can’t go for commercial processing, or picking up 6 bins of radish which are surplus to order. No good food should go to waste.
Then finally Jane Anderson began by supporting the need for education mentioned by the two previous speakers and recognising the contribution that Michael Mosely had made in showing how even small changes in diet can make such a difference. He did more to educate us about healthy eating and healthy diet than many. Jane referred to the Lancet Commission on diet and food, which showed that poor diet poses a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than does unsafe sex, alcohol, tobacco and drug use combined. But, right now, the food systems we have in the world are a threat to both. The interrelationship between environment, farming, food and health is incredibly important. An example is that of antibiotic resistance, a result in part of how antibiotics are used in the food chain.
So what is healthy eating in 2024? Dietary science has moved on hugely in the past decade. It is increasingly clear that plant-based and plant-led menus are the way to ensure optimum health for human beings in general and for the planet, if done in the right way. Jane recognises that this is not always easy. We need to think in particular of cost, how people can afford to eat and what it is they are able to buy, and whether they can afford to buy food that is perhaps better for them in general, for their health. Where budgets are tight, highly processed food is often cheaper and more available.
And healthy eating for whom? Not only are we feeding what we think of as ourselves but also our microbiome. It is increasingly clear that the biodiversity of our own interrelationships with our microbes, coupled with the biodiversity of the ecosystem, are coming together in what we need to eat to be in the best possible health, as individuals, as communities, as societies, and as an ecosystem. Our guts contain thousands of millions of microbes. In fact, the number of cells in your gut that are of non-human origin, that are of microbial origin, is much greater than the number of cells in your own body, and they are not there as passive passengers. They are active in health, and they are mediating between the food we eat and our metabolism. It is the metabolic pathways of those microbes that are going to make a difference to how we feel, how we metabolise our food, to our weight, mental health and to all sorts of things. Microbes need fibre and this is where the 30-plants-a-week piece comes in. Prebiotics are a bit like fertilizer. Probiotics are actually foods that contain microbes that can top up our own microbes. Jane’s response when she was Master was to plan meals for members’ events that were seasonal with the most delicious plants and with a fabulous chef who could make them into meals that people would really enjoy eating. Alongside this might be small amounts of local, ideally seasonal and sustainably farmed fish or chicken. It was a popular and successful approach.
All panellists agreed that we need to join up and work together for the benefit of all, and we need to educate people well. The green/blue environment, farming, food and wellbeing are all so clearly interdependent. Among the questions that followed was one asking what do we need from policy. The answer given was to start from the other end, rather than top down, and break down the silos between experts and practitioners.
Heather Barrett-Mold
View the full presentations here in the Livery Climate Action Group YouTube Channel.