Speciality Food April 2024

specialityfoodmagazine.com 23 to bring farmers with you.” Does he believe there are enough people ‘at the top’ across parties in government to make continued, meaningful changes to farming and the environment? The answer is a strong ‘yes’. “When Truss did the Australia trade deal and was then Prime Minister, you saw how fragile the coalition was, and what a good job Gove and then Eustice had been doing. Then there was quite a big wobble, and now Steve Barclay is getting the balance right, and there’s been a settling down of things. Whoever gets in next, I think fundamentally there is now a consensus on what needs to be done. I’m very optimistic on the environmental side, and pessimistic on the health side.” Henry does believe that we can rebalance the books on food security in Britain, but adds it has to be approached in the right way. While inflated quotas could have a negative impact, aiming for around 60% of food to be produced in the UK seems the most sustainable solution. “If we look back in history, 100% of food was produced here. With the repeal of the Corn Laws this went down as we producedmore cloth and wool, and sold garments, buying our food fromCanada and South America and other places. “After the war it went up again, and then at the beginning of the Common Agricultural Policy it went up too much. We need to have a balance of our own production and import routes, so if we have a bad harvest we can still import stuff from elsewhere. I think it’s important to make sure we do continue to produce food, while keeping a close eye on what’s happening in production. One thing we are more insecure on is fruit and veg, but I think that is something we can lean into a bit more,” Henry says. A regenerative and biodiverse solution is needed to improve the growth of these crops in the UK, and already plenty is underway as more farmers adopt regenerative techniques. Henry sees the future as being the ‘Three Compartment Model’ laid out in the National Food Strategy, saying that getting farming right relies on a simultaneous equation that not only produces enough food, but sequesters carbon and restores nature. This involves freeing up pockets of land for re-wilding, while managing highly productive farming alongside lower-yield farming using regenerative measures. We may still have mono-cropping, Henry says, adding that to mitigate environmental concerns, those farms growing single crops might “have bigger borders, or encourage natural pest suppression. Fundamentally the role of environmental land management schemes is to incentivise farmers so they canmake the right decisions.” It is important, Henry adds, to continue to support and champion British farmers – particularly as ‘buying British’ is something that resonates with the buying public. He recalls a conversation with former Sainsbury’s CEO, Justin King. “He said if you look at consumers and sustainability labelling it really doesn’t work. They’ve got so much going on in their lives that it has marginal impact on their shopping decisions. It’s all about quality and price.” The label that really does ‘stick’, is the British flag. If a product carries a Union Jack, King advised Henry, “people are more likely to buy it.” Henry’s own work with focus groups found that “farmers are among the most trusted people in our society. People really trust farmers, even though over 50% of us have never met a farmer. We still have a sense of ourselves as a food growing nation. I think there is something quite fundamentally rooted in our sense of identity as British people of being a farming nation.” Retailers have a huge role to play in supporting, and promoting British- grown food, ensuring it continues to end up on the nation’s plates. Henry says many retail giants are now plotting out their Scope 3 emissions to 2050, but they need to consider the power of British produce and biodiversity alongside their pursuit of Net Zero. “I think they have quite a lot of freedom of movement, in that they can do plenty to support farmers,” he explains. “And they can source better. I’m fundamentally quite pessimistic about any public-owned company doing anything unilaterally that doesn’t make a dent in profits – that’s why we need policy and regulation.” Change would “take more effort”, he adds, but could be achieved without hugely impacting retailers’ bottom line. On the whole, Henry says he feels good things are happening, and they need to be embraced. “One of the reasons I set up Bramble Partners is because I think there is a lot going on. Yes on health, but particularly on environmental solutions and food security.” There are some “amazing” ideas being trialled that need capital to make themhappen on scale. “Whether that’s regenerative farming, and someone like Wildfarmed thinking about how they can upscale, or whether that is on the food security side, thinking about how to, in countries like Egypt, produce food without the soil to do it, or in the UK how can you have seeds and plants protected against volatility. I’mmost optimistic about the fact there is recognition of the problems we face, and a lot of people are doing quite a lot of creative stuff to prove it.”