food & farming

A collection of 45 posts

food & farming

Becoming a Vegan

Mick Lorkins, CA-WN Steering Group member and founder of Northamptonshire Woodland Community Volunteers, shares his account of going vegan.  I thought I would document my journey on becoming vegan as it is not quite like switching on and off a lightbulb, it is more of an exploration. The starting point

business

Greener Pastures: How ‘Mechanical Cows’ Are Redefining Rural Energy

VIDA Bioenergy is a wholly owned subsidiary of VTTI, a global leader in energy infrastructure, based in the Netherlands. VIDA bioenergy was launched in January 2025, with the aim of it becoming one of Europe’s leading biomethane producers, dedicated to transforming biomass into renewable energy.   As a new developer,

food & farming

Lieutenancy Climate and Sustainability Walk; Saturday 17 May, 2025

After a chilly start, it turned into a glorious day with hedges and ditches a froth of white, hawthorn and cow parsley, meadows with jewels, buttercups and campion, and dark woods carpeted in sinister garlic mustard.  Although we did not count, some thirty people set off shepherded by guides from

business

Flour Power: How The Good Loaf Changes Lives Daily

The Good Loaf CIC (Community Interest Company) is a Northampton-based social enterprise that is ‘as passionate about giving people a chance as we are about producing delicious artisan bread’. The Good Loaf has been transforming lives since it opened in 2015. Located in the historic Boot and Shoe Quarter, this

food & farming

Solar panels trial on polytunnels

CA-WN's Farming Correspondent, Rupert Knowles, shared this article about flexible solar panels on polytunnels being used to power farm equipment, and added some comments of his own on the possibilities of technology for fruit harvesting. Hugh Lowe Farms trials polytunnel solar panelsElectric Berry project powers farm tools and

food & farming

The Problem with Methane (CH4)

Addressing methane is important because it accounts for about one third of all the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. In more detail, methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with over 80 times the 20-year warming power of carbon dioxide. However, in the atmosphere it breaks down to

meeting reports

Report of 16 January 2025 Public Meeting

Our first guest speaker of 2025 is Milly Fyfe, a farmer, social entrepreneur and award-winning communicator based in Yelvertoft. Milly gave us a very insightful overview of food sustainability and security. Milly’s slides can be seen here1, and a recording of the meeting is on YouTube2. There are two

food & farming

Transforming Food, Transforming Lives: Join West Northamptonshire’s Sustainable Food Network

This introduction to the work of WNSFN comes from the network's Project Manager, Matt Passchier. Matt has a varied background including working in catering, and currently at the Hope Centre in Northampton. Addressing the climate impacts of our food systems is a key component of climate action -

food & farming

Plastic Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables

Recently the organisation WRAP (The Waste and Resources Action Programme) has been calling for the removal of all plastic packaging from fresh fruit and vegetables1.  This is not as simple as they make it sound. A short article in the Fresh Produce Journal today (22nd October) by Jack Ward, director

food & farming

Six Inches of Soil film report

Six Inches of Soil was co-hosted at the Arc Cinema, Daventry on Thursday 19 September by CA-WN and ActNow Consulting Ltd. This thought-provoking film about three young farmers putting regenerative principles into practice has received wide attention round the country.  But there have been no public showings in West Northamptonshire.

podcastshelf

The Countryside Kitchen meets...

One of the joys of podcasts is that they really are egalitarian – lots of podcasters are big names backed by well-established production companies, but just as many aren’t, and it is great to be able to recommend a podcast made locally. Milly Fyfe is a businesswoman and food blogger,

food & farming

Syan Farm visit

What is a Vertical Farm? As the vertical farmers at Syan Farm themselves say: "With space and time running out for open field farming, we’re looking up. We grow beautifully nutritious crops on multiple levels – vertical farming. It saves on space, reduces carbon and gives us total control

food & farming

Food (In)Security Index

A little bit of a rant but mainly questions, questions, questions.  Prompted by an article in Private Eye1 about food security, I took a bit of a delve into the Government’s pages on the new Food Security Index (FSI)2.  One of the things to note is that the

local matters

Cobblers Tackle Food Waste

Damon Fox, Business Development Manager and sustainability lead at the Northampton Town Community Trust, shares the club's latest green initiative. He was also guest speaker at our May public meeting (https://exchange.ca-wn.org/ca-wn-30-may-2024-meeting-report). We are very excited to be launching the second instalment of our Sustainability

food & farming

Baldrick’s Cunning Plan for Food Self-sufficiency in the face of Climate Change

A recent article in the Fruit Trades Journal explains the effect of the weather on UK food supplies.  Whether you try to support local production or are happy to patronise a supermarket, the problems facing growers are the same.  Consumers will experience high prices and shortages unless Baldrick’s Cunning

food & farming

Join Northampton Town's Food Waste Project

By Damon Fox from Northampton Town Community Trust We are very excited to be launching a new project at the Community Trust with Schools, Businesses and families called Cobblers Tackle Food Waste. This is part of a funded project running until the end of 2024 looking at how we can

food & farming

Hedgerows

Hedgerow Survey At the end of January 2024, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) released data from its map of hedgerows in the UK1.   The survey was conducted over five years using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) – the same type of laser/radar that can scan through forest

food & farming

Land Share or Land Spare?

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have land use strategies. There is no land use strategy for England1. This makes it difficult to take consistent decisions on how much land should be devoted to crop production, forestry, bio-diversity/ nature, recreation, transport, housing, industry, water and so on. The decision is doubly

local matters

The 10th Northampton Seedy Saturday

by Shena Cooper Fruitful Abundance is organising the 10th Northampton Seed Swap on 10 February 2024. Their mission is to alert people to the reasons why FOOD is so important in helping slow Climate Change and to help them make alterations in their lives which will improve life for them

food & farming

Cover Crops

What are ‘cover crops’ and what are they for? Winter, 20241 Many years ago, a farming friend told me that villagers backing onto his field had been complaining of pesticides being sprayed onto wheat from the air and drifting into their gardens.  In fact he was not spraying at all:

podcastshelf

Fed with Chris van Tulleken

This is a podcast series from BBC Sounds which explores the story of chicken, its progression from scrawny jungle fowl to the most widely consumed animal protein on the planet, and what that says about us. It is almost an urban myth that modern humans think food comes from supermarkets,

food & farming

Are Supermarkets Paying Fair Prices to Growers?

This morning (13/11/23) on BBC Farming Today1, a grower of cauliflowers pointed out that in 1976 when he left school the price was 75p each; today he is selling caulis at £1.20.  In ’76 his first new tractor was £9,500; today a new tractor is £150,

food & farming

The Food We Eat: West Northamptonshire Sustainable Food Network

As residents of West Northamptonshire we at CA-WN have two key missions: o   to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions because they are contributing to global overheating o   to prepare ourselves for living with the weather extremes that are the consequence of a critically altered climate - winter days of sub-zero

food & farming

Eat More Veg Month

World Vegan Day on 1 November spotlights the vegan movement with World Vegan Month** continuing the worldwide celebration throughout November. At our October monthly meeting award-winning vegan chef Natasha Caton spoke enthusiastically about ‘we are what we eat’. While many of us would find it impractical for our daily menu

meeting reports

CA-WN AGM and Monthly Meeting notes - October 2023

Our October meeting started with the AGM including Election of Officers, followed by a presentation from Natasha Caton of Sol Haven on Sustainable Food, and finally a short update on CA-WN activities and events.  The meeting was recorded with the consent of those present. Separate recordings of the AGM and