Guy Singh-Watson discusses Farming for the Future, Founder of Riverford Organics & Lifelong Champion for Organic Agriculture
Safia meets up with Guy Singh-Watson in Devon to talk about Organic Farming and a better deal for prducers, and chat about Indilisi.
"I think you've been tremendously brave and persistent and proved that something is possible that I think most people, probably including me, would say was impossible in such an incredibly complex supply chain as you have in textiles."
- Guy Singh-Watson, Founder of Riverford Organics
Safia – Why do you support Indilisi? How does that align with your values?
Guy - I think you've been tremendously brave and persistent and proved that something is possible that I think most people, probably including me, would say was impossible in such an incredibly complex supply chain as you have in textiles.
It's not just how you grow the cotton or produce the wool etc but then there are so many steps to go through before it ends up in a garment or home textiles. And to try and make sure that you are happy that everything in that supply chain has been done in the way that it should be in terms of protecting the environment and protecting workers' rights is really very difficult. I take my hat off to you because you managed it with People Tree and you seem to be managing it again with Indilisi.
Our supply chains are much simpler than that. Produce tends to go straight from the farmer to us. Occasionally, there might be a pack house or a store.
I am a supporter of certification, be it fair trade or organic.
There are problems with fair trade. It's not perfect, and neither is the organic certification, but it's a hell of a lot better than not having any form of certification.
And the proof of the pudding, for me, is that when I've been around the world, mostly in Africa, and I've asked farmers about it, almost all of them are supporters of fair trade.
Shop the Artists' Jacket In Navy Dot or Natural
Safia -How do you feel wearing the Hand-woven, Organic Cotton Artists Jacket?
Guy - I love it! I like that it’s cropped when I wear it, too! It makes me feel better putting it on, knowing that it’s been made with love and care for the environment and for the people who are making them. That definitely makes me feel better, so I enjoy it more!
Safia - Most people know you as the Founder of Riverford Organics. How are you spending your time these days?
Guy - Riverford became employee-owned in 2018. I still work there - maybe a day or two a week - but I have gone back to being a farmer growing organic vegetables at least some of the time which I enjoy doing. A lot of the work I do at Riverford is now around campaigning.
We've done a lot of work trying to get a better deal for farmers from supermarkets, which we called “Get Fair About Farming,” and then around stopping ‘Farm Washing’.
In the last year, we've been working hard to raise awareness that so much of their wheat, which might end up in bread, barley, beer, whiskey and breakfast cereals, is sprayed with glyphosate just before harvest. As a result, it is contaminated with a carcinogenic pesticide and an endocrine disruptor (and there's lots of evidence for that), and it is also tremendously disruptive to the environment.
It's just massively overused, certainly by a factor of ten. It is used only to make harvesting very marginally easier, but in doing so it almost intentionally contaminates our food.
Safia – Why is Glyphosate so over used?
Guy - Any wheat or barley that's not ripe, it will kill or artificially ripen and it will kill any weeds in the understory.
So that means the combine harvester can go faster and I’m told for farmers in the north of England - who may struggle to get their grain dry and fully ripe - that it is of some value. But it's a very minimal benefit relative to the human health and environmental costs that glyphosate imposes.
So it's just madness that the costs to the consumer and the environment are externalised and not borne by the farmer. So they carry on doing something which, if we took a step back and took a collective view, I think very few people would argue was sensible. We've been campaigning on that. I get quite involved in writing the newsletters.
Safia - How are farmers responding to the extreme heat & climate change?
Guy - This summer, amid extreme weather, we’ve been making sure people are in no doubt that this is the result of climate change. It is our own doing, and people elsewhere in the world are already suffering far worse than we are. But we are going to suffer a lot more. We really have to act on this and not keep kicking the can down the road. That’s the sort of realism. Many other people are saying the same, but I think that when it's actually connected to the practicalities of where their food is coming from, people find that quite powerful.
Many farmers, possibly still a minority, realise things are changing faster than expected, requiring them to adapt farming practices. They may think about it sometimes or discuss it, but mostly, they make decisions to get by today.
Most farms are financially backed up against the wall, and it's very hard for them to think in long-term ways about preparing their farms for a very different future.But there are encouraging signs; farmers are becoming more aware of the importance of maintaining healthy soils with higher organic matter levels, more biomass, and greater variety of biomass. Bacteria, fungi, invertebrates and so on; all the things that go to make a healthy, resilient soil. One in which crops can root deeper, one that will retain more moisture.
"We have built the organic matter from somewhere between 2-5% up to about 12%. As a result, this summer the soil is holding a lot more water, possibly as much as the equivalent of five or even seven inches of rain."
Those are the sort of things that are going to help us. I see that in my own crops. We have maintained healthy soils and boosted the organic matter by years of applying what, cumulatively, amounts to hundreds of tons of compost per acre. It’s very expensive and time-consuming, but we have built the organic matter from somewhere between 2-5% up to about 12%. As a result, this summer the soil is holding a lot more water, possibly as much as the equivalent of five or even seven inches of rain. Even after the most extreme weather, most of those crops are still looking pretty good.
Safia – What can be done on the farmland to support climate adaptation? And how can these initiatives be supported?
Guy – We need to build more water storage to capture rainfall that falls in winter. In our area of south Devon, we receive 1.3 metres of rain annually, with about a metre falling probably between November and April. 99.9% of it runs off into the river and down into the sea because the land is generally at capacity.
There are no environmental downsides to building a reservoir, particularly if it's built in an environmentally sensitive way, boosting biodiversity. They become real magnets for all sorts of insects, birds, invertebrates and amphibians.
We should be encouraged to build reservoirs, possibly with grant funding, but permits are needed first. We've spent about £50,000 over four years just to get permits, which is unnecessary if you're not actually going to build.
The system is crazy - why do we need extensive hydrological studies for run-off water? Reservoirs could reduce downstream flooding. In Devon, have to go through all this bureaucratic nonsense? I'm sure it would be completely relevant if you're in Suffolk or Kent, where rainfall is less. Our dealings with the Environment Agency are frustrating; I support local legislation tailored to our circumstances over uniform rules that don't fit South Devon's geology, unlike the east of England.
Safia –Are supermarkets starting to treat farmers better given the stress that they face?
Guy - Not really. The government has taken steps to remove some of the worst abuses of supermarket power through the grocery supply chain code of conduct, which does have a legal framework.
These include de-listing people. If you were to raise your head above the parapet and talk about how you'd been treated by a supermarket, you’d just be de-listed. And probably your relatives would be de-listed as well. There's a complete climate of fear so that no one will speak out. Even people who are retired, but still have relatives in the industry, will not speak out.
People have actually been threatened that, if you say any more, maybe your cousin will lose their livelihood. That is how it works. It's completely brutal. We’ve heard stories from anonymous sources, but no one will go to the press about it.
At Riverford we can speak out because we don't supply supermarkets, but for most farms supermarkets represent 90% of their marketplace, so they don't have that luxury. So, there’s a climate of fear. Their trading practices are utterly hideous.
Safia – What are the other issues that farmers face selling to supermarkets?
Guy - Driving you down to a price which gives you no possibility of investing in the long-term future of your business. You've just got enough to survive - in a good year. They also ask farmers for a contribution towards marketing costs and sometimes transport costs. They might request 100,000 little gem lettuces a week, drive the price down per lettuce to 14 pence, with no obligation to buy them and charge you penalties on what you supply, perhas with some spurious reason to reject them based on quality.
So the farmer has all the risk and the supermarket takes most of the profit. Tesco made £3 billion last year which is equivalent to more than all the subsidies paid to British farmers by the taxpayer which is about half their income.
Safia - What would you like to see civil society do to support farmers?
Guy - I would like to see at least 20% of the market made up of independent shops or marketplaces, and this still exists in some places in Europe. Then we’d see a vibrant high street where you could buy from a butcher or a greengrocer. These would be independent businesses buying goods.
Buying independently from farmers would create a more equal balance of power. And I think most of the British public would prefer that to just supermarkets. Supermarkets are very convenient, but it's reached the point where they represent over 90% of retail, and anything else is on a much smaller scale and therefore has higher costs. And it's almost all become a self-perpetuating system in which independent retailers, other than in a few niche businesses, will fail.
Safia - How can we make rapid change happen?
Guy- I believe planning and rates are key factors. Allowing supermarkets outside towns could require providing parking for farmers' markets, attracting more visitors and supporting local businesses. There's no quick fix, but better regulation of buying practices, planning reforms, and lower business rates for small producers could help. The government is already taking some steps.
When I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago, I was told that local departments must provide market spaces for independent producers, possibly weekly. Usually, a large hall-30,000 to 20,000 square feet- hosts 10 to 50 traders under one roof with nearby parking, allowing people to buy directly from independent traders, many of whom are farm producers or buy directly from farmers. This approach is socio-economically richer and better for communities than buying anonymous food from supermarkets, which may come from anywhere in the world. It's unlikely to be as cheap or cheap. While supermarkets may remain common, it's vital to have alternatives to this model.
About 20% of local traders could supply enough volume for another supply chain, but wholesale markets have disappeared. In Devon's south, only Riverford farmers remain, with little horticulture until west Cornwall 80 miles away. Many local farmers who supplied supermarkets have gone out of business, causing significant social costs. So the farmers and farm workers aren't in the pub, the church, the village hall, or the local school. Looking to the future, but not that far into it, I don't think we can assume that we're going to be able to buy our food on a global market.
There is a trend to source vegetables from West Africa, as it's cheaper than production in Spain and the UK. However, relying on this amid climate change and global instability is unwise for the next decade or more. We should focus on local food production. Currently, about 55% of vegetables are UK-grown, less than 20% for fruit, and higher for meat and dairy. Relying on global supply makes us vulnerable. Historically, we faced near starvation during the two world wars, but this time, we won't have help from the U.S. as before.
Riverford Website
More about Guy Singh-Watson
Get Fair about Farming
Cut the Chemicals - Soil Association