What does SFT CEO Patrick get up to? It’s been a busy month…

The last month has involved several countries, a multitude of events and some incredibly interesting conversations.

It all started a few weeks ago with a boat across the Irish Sea to Ballymaloe. Darina Allen asked me to come and speak to the 18 students who’d taken part in the school’s inaugural six-week Food and Farming course. The students were young people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, all motivated by a desire to become directly involved in food production. There is already a lengthy waiting list for this course, perhaps a sign of the degree to which young people are becoming increasingly interested in getting back to the land.

Next stop Scotland where The King’s Foundation had invited the SFT and Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA) to co-host an event on Harmony in Food and Farming. Many influential people were there, including Angela Eagle, the Defra Secretary of State, and Chris van Tulleken, whose book Ultra-Processed People has transformed public attitudes towards processed food.

Crucially, there was also senior representation from various food companies and retailers of note. From them, I gleaned that such organisations are increasingly aware of a need, or demand, that they switch to more nature-friendly production. They are even waking up to regenerative farming, although what ‘regenerative’ actually means, remains hazy. It’s perhaps not surprising: many UK farms now claim to be regenerative, but are still using fertilisers and pesticides, including an annual spray of glyphosate (or Round Up). Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is beside the point; what matters, is that the people who buy their products have a right to know exactly what they’re paying for.

“Partnering with organisations who believe as passionately as we do about re-connecting people with the food they eat and the land it comes from, we are now working on extending this initiative into the US.”

From Scotland, I headed across the Atlantic to upstate New York and the Real Organic conference. Joining a panel alongside Eliot Coleman, one of the elders of the US organic horticultural movement, the discussion came back to the same issues: whether regenerative farming should be seen as a threat or a complement to the organic movement, and crucially, how to ensure that it doesn’t descend into greenwash. The answer for me comes back to measurement: if all regenerative initiatives could agree to measure their outcomes on climate, nature and people using a common framework, then not only could we in the industry all communicate on this matter in the same language, but we could pass that transparency onto the public. This is the very foundation of the work the SFT has done in the Global Farm Metric (GFM).

From Hudson, I took the train to The Big Apple for New York Climate Week. A particular highlight was a convening hosted by the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), where I spoke about our powerful Beacon Farms project. Together with the SMI, we also launched an exciting new initiative for next year. We already have around 50 Beacon Farms in the UK, and launched in Ireland last July. Partnering with organisations who believe as passionately as we do about re-connecting people with the food they eat and the land it comes from, we are now working on extending this initiative into the US.

From here, I headed back to Europe for this year’s Terra Madre in Turin, a gathering of farmers from across the world focused on Slow Food. Carlo Petrini, the inspirational founder of Slow Food, died earlier this year and King Charles sent a moving message of condolence.

I don’t know exactly how many people attended Terra Madre, but it looked to me as if there could have been several hundred thousand people in the streets of Turin, a potent reminder of the incredible power of the sustainable agricultural movement globally.

The scale and passion of the participants at all these events was truly inspiring. It has strengthened my conviction that a global transition towards truly sustainable, regenerative and organic food and farming systems is not only possible but a realisable ambition.

Find out what Patrick gets up to on and off the farm in next month’s newsletter – sign up here if you haven’t already.