I had my first morning of filming on my farm earlier this week for a new video project. Follow the @susfoodtrust account to see more - we will be sharing a series of short clips and films about key sustainable food topics, beginning on Friday with an introduction video. #sustainablefood #farming #agriculture #filming #dairy
It's been a long gap since I last posted but this view, taken from the top of our hill as I left the farm at around 7 AM yesterday, has provoked me into breaking my photo fast. We get quite a few of these mornings in the autumn, sometimes with a completely inverted cloudscape with our hill surrounded by a tablecloth of misty cloud. I am resolved to continue on a more regular basis from now on, watch this space.
Last night at WastED, the pop-up restaurant at Selfridges with Dan Barber the chef behind this amazing project, and my daughter Barley. Eating there with 150 others- they are completely booked out - was inspiring and delicious, completely reframing one's attitude towards food waste.
Volkert Engelsman CEO of EOSTA speaking at a session on True Cost Accounting at the Biofach Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg today. Convergence on assessment tools for pricing food systems externalities is one of the SFT's key work strands.
Today I am in Cambridge with 35 people from all over the world hosted by TEEBAg Food, aiming to correct dishonest food pricing ensuring that in future the polluter pays and the sustainable producers flourish. We are working on developing a framework for true cost accounting, systems of evaluating the soil, biodiversity, pollution, social aspects and health outcomes of different farming systems. May we succeed!
This weekend we had a visit from Andy Swinscoe and his Courtyard Dairy team. They and we walked the farm, milked the cows, made and graded and ate cheese, also went to the coast. Here they are with Becky at 7.30 on Saturday morning about to leave for Settle.
With Richard Dunne, headteacher at Ashley Church of England primary school, and leader of the Harmony education initiative, in the barn with the milking cows at Bwlchwernen Fawr. Richard's combination of vision, leadership qualities and his track record of transforming the educational program of his school over the last 12 years make him a potent educational change-maker.
I am lucky enough to live in a beautiful and mystical landscape. This photograph was taken just near Tregaron on Saturday, looking east towards the Cambrian mountains.
At the World Food Program dinner in London with two very big men, Tristram Stuart, he of food waste fame and Arthur Potts-Dawson, our chef for the evening.
Hastings Pier over the Christmas break. Photograph, taken by my daughter Barley includes four of my children, two of my grandchildren, my sister Katherine and Craig and Jo Sams.
We slaughtered an Ayrshire steer yesterday for home consumption. This really is the most welfare friendly way for an animal to go - he was eating from a bucket, totally unstressed, when he was shot with a captive bolt.We will hang the two halves for 21 days in this threshing barn before jointing it up and freezing the meat. Our boys are completely fine about eating our animals now, as you can see in the next photograph...
Last night I went to Winfield house to visit my friend Matthew Barzun who is leaving the ambassadors residence in seven days time to go back to Louisville Kentucky. He is a lovely man and a remarkable human being…
