Green pork and solar farming

When I first started working on the Farming Futures project back in July of last year, agriculture was in the middle of what may in years to come be seen as a revolution.

The Low Carbon Transition Plan, the Renewable Energy Strategy, and Food 2030 now roll off the tongue and amongst other developments have catalysed the industry into thinking big about how we’re going to carry on feeding everyone whilst simultaneously protecting them from diminishing resources and climate change.

And there doesn’t seem to be any let up. This week I’ve spotted a few bits of news that show how fast farming continues to move on this issue. Sainsbury’s are rolling out their carbon footprinting work into new sectors. The initiative they’ve been developing in the dairy world over the last few years is now being offered to poultry and pig farmers – and other sectors are in their headlights.

They’re not alone – Waitrose announced cutting the carbon footprint of its pork this week too. In partnership with producers and grain merchants, its East Anglian producers are now feeding their pigs wheat and barley sourced within 50 miles of the feed mill.

We discovered in our annual survey last month that the number of farmers producing their own energy has doubled over the last year. And with a new government looking to make our target for renewable energy generation more ambitious, it looks like the UK’s chickens and pigs could increasingly be chomping on their dinner whilst surrounded by whirring wind turbines or sparkling solar panels.

A farmer in Wadebridge, North Cornwall, has just raised £4.5 million in private investment for a 15-acre solar array, which would generate enough power for 600 homes. The grass on the site will be kept in check by a gaggle of geese, no less. 

We’d love to hear from you if you’re working on a renewable energy project or reducing your environmental impact in other ways. Your views, opinions and experiences are important to us – write a blog for us, put your farm on our interactive map, or tell us what you’d like to see at one of our events.

Madeleine Lewis co-manages the Farming Futures project.