The future of British farming
Nicky Lowe • January 4, 2021
An interview with Lord Newborough
When Lord Newborough arrived back home from overseas to help run the North Wales family estate, Rhug he knew that he wanted to turn it into a truly organic enterprise. His passionate commitment and verve to become fully organic initially baffled the home farm team. But for Rhug it has worked. Since he took over in 1998 the estate has grown from 2,500 acres to 12,500 and expanded under his tenure to produce organic salt-marsh lamb, turkey and chickens, geese, sika deer and bison as well as having a shop, café, takeaway and drive-through, the first on a UK farm. Rhug’s award-winning meat has also now become a firm favourite with well-known chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Marcus Waring and restaurants such as The River Café, all serving it to their customers.
‘Demand for our produce is growing faster year on year at a rate of 4 to 5% and particularly in vegetables and salads. It’s a case of adding value where you can.’ he observes. Building up his wild bison herd currently numbering 20 fits neatly into this perspective. ‘With our bison rearing we are adhering to a drive towards the production of leaner, healthier meat. It’s arguably better for health than both chicken and fish as it is higher in omega 3 and low in fat. As farmers we must listen to in-store demand.’ He says adding that three years ago the farm introduced a herd of deer producing venison in an initial response to the rising consumer demand for leaner meat.
Acknowledging the struggle small farmers face in the race to become increasingly more competitive, ‘the smaller you are the harder it is’ he acquiesces, Lord Newborough believes that vertical farming methods will become much more common in the future as the Earth’s arable land declines. The main premise behind vertical farming is that the practice of producing food on vertically inclined surfaces maximises the amount of crops grown in a limited space with this process being further aided by the use of intense, undercover, controlled environment methods. ‘At the same time climate change is also happening which will lead farmers to grow more unusual crops including vines.’ He adds. Alongside some of these changes in farming practices he anticipates a growing move by consumers towards buying better quality food produce as well as continuing to purchase more of the food they eat online.
As British food producers progress towards competing openly in world markets how will they cope? Although the Rhug estate already sells its produce to Hong Kong, Macau, Dubai and Singapore Lord Newborough believes that this will involve a steep learning curve for the UK but he is adamant that by pulling together British food producers and farmers can succeed. ‘There is already much discussion underway and a panel has been set up looking at how we can achieve the same level of food standards as some of our competitors. I think we could get to the same standards as some of these other countries but we do need to learn how to do it successfully. The Southern Hemisphere are light years ahead of us when it comes to presenting their stock in a clean state to the abattoirs, this combined with exceptionally clean abattoirs and immaculate packaging means they are able to give their customers a much extended shelf life on chilled meat products. To compete on a level playing field we must collectively meet these high standards’ He concludes.
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