food & farming

A collection of 49 posts

food & farming

Farming in crisis: Farming Policy 2026

2025 was a dismal year for many farmers: the summer drought reduced yields for cereals and many other crops, the government cut off the Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) without warning, and budget changes to Inheritance Tax threatened many farm businesses.  However the weather improved in the autumn.  Doing my rounds

local matters

Seedy Saturday 2026

Sienna Mahoney, journalism student at the University of Northampton, attended the annual Seedy Saturday event and sent us this report. Seedy Saturday hosted their twelfth annual seed swap at the Doddridge Centre on 21st February 2026. The event aims to promote community between local gardeners based in Northamptonshire. Shena Cooper,

food & farming

50 Families project

CA-WN is proud to be a member of the West Northamptonshire Sustainable Food Network. We recently received this update from the Network about the 50 Families project, a great example of agencies working together. Building a sustainable future for our communities is about connecting and building better public health, as

food & farming

How a Plant-Based Diet can help the climate

In the first of two articles Martin Coombs, a member of the CA-WN Steering Group sets out his case for following a plant-based diet. There are many reasons to adopt a plant-based diet (PBD): the avoidance of animal exploitation, a reduction in greenhouse gases (GHG), improvement in the environment and

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,