Regen chicken, plucky producers & fresh ideas
We Brits love chicken. I mean really love it: 95 per cent of us have it twice a week (at least) and in the UK, over a billion birds are slaughtered every year (74 billion globally). But more than nine...
View ArticleNews from the farm: Taxing the land
Should James Dyson (who owns 36,000 acres of land) or Jeremy Clarkson (1000 acres) be the beneficiaries of a tax break designed to help working family farms? In her budget, Rachel Reeves announced that...
View ArticleIs cider the ultimate, eco-friendly tipple?
The frantic hammering of a woodpecker. Insects buzzing. There’s grass below the trees, but wildflowers, too. Sheep graze between the trunks, with fat apples hanging overhead. It’s a bucolic scene that...
View ArticleThe precision-breeding act – what’s the deal?
From barley designed to make methane-free cow burps to wheat with less carcinogenic acrylamide when toasted, researchers have been busily editing plant genetics behind-the-scenes for years. Only in...
View ArticleThe mucky business of intensive farming
Earlier this year, Wicked Leeks brought you the story of poo, pollution and profits: how the UK’s intensive poultry industry has become a runaway train that was killing our rivers. Since then, the...
View ArticleNews from the farm: Soil nerdery & compost evangelism
Before the recent rain, it was just dry enough to tidy and spread compost on our weed-infested artichoke, cardoon, and rhubarb fields. We have a range of machines that work between the rows, weakening...
View ArticleWL Sustainable Food Series: The deal with dairy
Milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt and cream all form a central part of many shopping baskets, but how much do we know about where it all comes from? Dairy is a complicated industry where there is huge...
View ArticleRipple Effect: Observations from a visiting organic farmer
Ripple Effect (RE) has been delivering training in agroecological farming combined with social change, food security and income improvement in East Africa since 1988. I first visited in 1999, prompted...
View ArticleHope for a peat-free future
Riverford Organic Farmers use approximately 228 cubic metres of peat each year to grow seedlings in peat blocks. This equates to 38 tonnes of carbon (tCO2e) being released into our atmosphere. The...
View ArticleWL Sustainable Food Series: The truth about eggs
Whether you’re eating them scrambled, boiled or fried, or cooking with them in cakes or savoury food, eggs are a common kitchen staple. Given their ubiquity, it can also be hard to discern which eggs...
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