The Frontline Farmers

British farmers always play a key and pivotal role in keeping the nation fed, however they have now found their “normal” work under huge amounts of stress and uncertainty during the Coronavirus pandemic. Some have found themselves unable to keep up with demand whilst others are having to look at different routes to market for their produce. Concerns around workforce and the uncertainty of what the future will hold is quite rightly adding to the strain of running their businesses. But with all these situations there is an opportunity for change, and that power lies within the hands of us, the consumer.

Farms to Feed Us Initiative

Many of us in the last month have found ourselves unable to get the produce we need. Stockpiling wiped the supermarket shelves, leaving consumers searching for alternatives to gather supplies. Simultaneously as lockdown measures were put into place, restaurants, cafes, and catering companies closed over-night, with those supplying them left with an overwhelming amount of surplus stock. Cathy St Germans noticed that the public were shifting to sourcing product directly and many farmers were facing crisis with no hospitality industry to supply. She therefore decided to connect the two and created Farms to Feed Us, allowing farmers to supply the current demand. It is a non-profit organisation run by volunteers and supplies the public with a database of farmers, butchers, fishmongers and small farm shops. Individuals can then tap into this database and find suppliers local to them and have clarity on the services they are offering and how they can utilise them. It is currently set up as an online spreadsheet with a website soon to follow.

How can I get my business onto the database?

To get your business onto the database simply go to the Farms to Feed Us website and click on “submit farm”. You will then run through a series of short, easy questions and submit. They are currently updating the spreadsheet every 48 hours. For more information you can email them directly at farmstofeedus@gmail.com and follow their Instagram account @farmstofeedus.

How can I access the list of businesses to see what I can be supplied with and by whom?

You can access the database using the button below. The spreadsheet currently consists of 3 pages an introduction, local and national database and a national one. The database can be downloaded in different formats including pdf, you can also share the database directly to your email contacts using the “share” button.

Search the Database

Top Tip: If you know of someone who would benefit from the database but has limited or no internet access, why not print it off and send it to them in the post or look into individual suppliers you know they would like and help them place an order to be delivered to their homes.

You can also search for businesses in your local area using this map which features all of the businesses listed on the database and this can also be shared.

 

Although initially seen as a temporary fix for both consumer and supplier a database like this could see its worth even in our post-pandemic world. We have the chance to mend a broken food system and strengthen the relationship between local, short-chain and sustainable food supplies and the end consumer.

First-hand Experience of Farming During Lock Down

Taking the good with the bad

James Logan an arable farmer from The Veg Shed in East Lothian grow and add value to potatoes through three routes to market and has so far had different experiences “depending on what hat he wears”. His peeling factory that provides fresh chips to wholesalers, restaurants, chip shops and schools has been severely impacted with all these outlets closing their doors overnight. He has however witnessed a huge increase in direct sales to the consumer, internet sales for his seed, previously supplied to garden centres has gone up exponentially and his ingenious vending machine supplying potatoes, eggs and seasonal vegetables via 40 lockers, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year has also seen an increase. Fortunately, the Logan family were already set up online and feel that the ability to sell directly has been a saviour for them during this time. Sally Brown from Easter Grangemuir Farm in Fife, where they grow various crops including strawberries, potatoes and cereals has concerns over where they will find future employment. With most of their staff joining them for the peak picking season in June and July, they are facing the likely scenario that their skilled, loyal, returning workforce will not be able to enter the UK due to the lockdown restrictions in the UK and abroad. She has however been extremely impressed by the community spirit shown when looking for local recruits to help them through their picking season and has received a lot of emails from airline pilots to fishermen, across the UK looking to work and support them through this time. Sally mentioned that concerns around supply and demand also weigh heavily on them, with lack of events across the nation such as Wimbledon (I couldn’t quite believe when Sally remarked that the UK consumes the most strawberries during the Wimbledon fortnight and Wimbledon itself takes in 35 tonnes of fruit, it is the knock on effect of things like this that many of us won’t even appreciate), it has never been more important that as consumers we rally round our British producers. As Sally passionately and quite rightly said “The UK can feed the nation, we have so much good produce on our doorstep and we must get that across to the people, buy local, buy British. You cannot beat British produce”.

Hope for the future

Given all the uncertainty, James is very hopeful for the future and views the current challenges as an opportunity, hoping that people start to realise where their food has come from and support local, small businesses and diminishing the goal of globalisation and the impacts of that. If we can get the right people promoting and endorsing this route to market and more people buying British which is not only healthier but has better food miles, then both the consumer and British agriculture would be better for it. Similarly, Sally also feels hopeful that as everyone across the UK is affected by the pandemic in some form, we can learn from it and adapt to another normal that is mutually beneficial to both consumer and supplier.

Change is in Our Hands

Some actions have already taken place with the Government offering to allow furloughed workers to help in the picking and harvesting and supermarkets like M&S and Morrisons both committing to support the supply chain and acknowledge British farmers via social campaigns and bigger investments in British produce that would have otherwise been destined for the no longer existing catering trade. It is up to us, the consumer, as a nation to change our habits. We can change our behaviour and act in a more mindful way, eating seasonal produce and taking care over where our produce has been sourced, taking into consideration the environmental impacts involved in transporting it to our plates. We can live comfortably from our own land and our own supplies. By supporting farmers and British food suppliers we can ease their concerns over future uncertainty. The farming community is working painstakingly hard and as James pointed out often in a lonely environment to keep Britain fed. So together, we can support Britain’s food and farm network not only during this uncertain time but indefinitely.

Huge thanks to James Logan of The Veg Shed and Sally Brown of Easter Grangemuir Farm for their time and contribution to this post.

If you know of anyone who would benefit from the Farms to Feed Us database please use the social buttons to 'like' and 'share' this post. Thank you.