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Features

Sustainable Living with Zac – How to use water wisely

Riverford's Head of Sustainability, Zac, looks at simple ways to conserve water at home

Water Sustainability Sustainable Living with Zac
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Features

Sardines are having a moment but could this humble fish turn the tide for the UK’s local fisheries?

Can the UK learn from Iberian traditions and turn its booming love for tinned sardines into a lasting win for coastal communities?

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News

Are Wildfarmed KitKats the future of regen farming… or its breaking point?

1.5 billion KitKats are made every year in the UK. A new partnership with British brand, Wildfarmed, changes the landscape, but to what end, asks David Burrows?

Regenerative farming UPF
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Features

Is hospital food the key to unlocking better outcomes for patients, planet, and producers?

The NHS serves 195 million patient meals every year, which presents an enormous challenge – and opportunity – for those pushing for positive change

Health Sustainability UK Gov
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How Big Ag tied “regen” to synthetic chemical inputs and shaped European farming policy

The same multi-billion-dollar companies producing synthetic agrochemicals are also lobbying for "regen agriculture". David Burrows smells a rat.

Farming Pesticides Politics
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Mackerel is no longer sustainable. So, what fish can we eat?

As Waitrose removes all fresh, chilled and frozen mackerel from its shelves, Lizzie Rivera asks whether fish can ever be a sustainable choice?

Environment and ethics Fish
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Poison for profit – EU exports 122,000 tonnes of banned pesticides

44 Highly Hazardous Pesticides, banned for EU use, are still being shipped to the African continent

Environment and ethics Pesticides
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46% of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every year, according to latest research

Pesticides Environment and ethics Health
Features

Sardines are having a moment but could this humble fish turn the tide for the UK’s local fisheries?

Pesticides Environment and ethics Health
The AGtivist

Animal Rising activist to spend 21 days in farrowing crate to highlight plight of intensively farmed pigs

Activism Animal welfare Meat
STORY OF THE WEEK

Behind these staggering numbers are farmers, workers, and families paying a terrible human price for pesticide exposure. This research puts a human face on a crisis too often overlooked. Jayakumar Chelaton, executive director of PAN India

Features

News from the farm: Easy Evenings await with Riverford’s brand new cookbook

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News from the Farm: Waiting, watching & learning as summer slips away

Climate change Farming Guy Singh-Watson
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PFAS special: how can we avoid the forever chemicals found everywhere?

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Sustainable Living with Zac – How to use water wisely

Water Sustainability Sustainable Living with Zac
The AGtivist

The AGtivist: UK Gov urged to follow EU’s lead and ban imports of Brazilian meat over antibiotic usage

UK Gov Meat
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Worming our way to better soil with vermiculture

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Is this the UK’s most feasible & sustainable alternative to rice?

Sustainability Environment and ethics Eating and drinking Health
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News from the farm: Peat, EVs, capitalism and governance

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FOOD, FARMING, FAIRNESS. Wicked Leeks is a digital news channel joining the dots between food, farming & people, published by @riverford ⬇️SUBSCRIBE

Nearly one in every two (46%) of the world’s farme Nearly one in every two (46%) of the world’s farmers are being poisoned by pesticides every year, with the highest numbers of cases in southern Asia, south-eastern Asia, and east Africa. These are countries the UK relies on for crops like coffee, vegetables, fruit, rice, and spices. 

The figures are from “shocking” research published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health by experts from the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) in Germany, Malaysia, and the US.

Using data on pesticide poisoning from 139 countries, the researchers found that over 400 million of the world’s farmers and farmworkers suffer from acute pesticide poisoning annually. And this total excludes the 84 million children working in global agriculture who “are even more vulnerable” to toxic chemicals than adults, as well as rural families exposed through spray drift and environmental exposure. 

“Some of these farmers are reporting not just one case, but six, eight, or even 10 in a single season,” Sheila Willis, head of international programmes for PAN UK, told Wicked Weeks. It’s all the more “shocking” she added, because national authorities and the UN are “turning a blind eye” to this issue.

Read the full story on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.
Testing of 30 foods and beverages bought from Tesc Testing of 30 foods and beverages bought from Tesco stores have revealed toxic chemicals called PFAS in every single sample. The samples included both Tesco and branded goods. The results have alarmed experts and will add pressure on politicians to act. 

Environmental campaigning group Foodrise, commissioned the University of Birmingham to analyse a wide range of meat, dairy and fish products from the UK’s largest supermarket for the presence of PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are a group of 10,000 industrial chemicals used in everyday items such as cookware, grease-resistant food packaging, and waterproof clothing.

The Birmingham-based researchers said the most significant finding was not the concentration detected in any individual product, but the presence of PFAS in every sample analysed.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have reviewed the claims from Foodrise and the products they tested are below EU legal limits for PFAS. Own brand products tested for PFAS as part of our own testing programme comply with relevant EU legal limits. We are also working closely with our own brand suppliers to meet the incoming EU legislation for food packaging.”

Mohamed Abdallah, Chair in Environmental Chemistry at the University of Birmingham said the findings were “alarming”. “While PFAS concentrations and profiles varied among samples, this pilot study highlights the urgent need to monitor PFAS in UK food items and the wider environmental context – soil, water and fertilisers – to understand the sources and risks of PFAS in our food,” he added.

PFAS do not naturally degrade and can accumulate in the body, and there is mounting evidence that links the substances to developing cancers, immune suppression, infertility, and developmental problems.

Head to Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio, to read the special report.
The UK crisps, snacks, and nuts market is worth a The UK crisps, snacks, and nuts market is worth a staggering £5.3 billion but almost every nut on the supermarket shelves across Britain is imported; a large proportion come from Turkey, the rest from Italy, Spain, and the US, writes Nick Easen. 

The UK once had a thriving and viable domestic market, mainly for hazelnuts and cobnuts (the latter is a type of cultivated British hazelnut). But many trees were grubbed out in the 1970s, catalysed by our accession to the European Economic Community, which promoted large scale, annual cereal cropping. With today’s falling grain prices, there’s renewed interest in these perennial proteins, which also include walnuts and sweet chestnuts.

“There is definitely growing interest from farmers. Attitudes are changing. The fact that dried nuts are nutritious, valuable and non-perishable are all helping people see the potential. Let’s not forget native hazelnuts are one of Britain’s oldest sources of plant-based protein,” explains Elsa Kent, who along with her brother and father run @glastonburynutfarm one of the UK’s largest hazelnut orchards. 

“I think there’s a real appetite for nuts. Lots of people love them even more so than beans in my view, so I’m excited about their potential. If we look at all the work done to boost pulses with the @banginsomebeans campaign from the Food Foundation and Veg Power, and what the Bold Bean Co are doing, why can’t we do the same for British nuts?”

With several high-profile growers and farmers now endorsing nuts within mixed farming systems – from Guy Singh-Watson and @riverford who have planted over 1,500 nut trees across four farms, to Roger Saul (founder of Mulberry and the organic spelt brand, @sharphampark ) who has planted hundreds of walnut trees in Somerset, is it time for a nut renaissance? 

Read the full feature on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.
When Andy Burnham last sat in a cabinet meeting in When Andy Burnham last sat in a cabinet meeting in 2010 there were 35 food banks – today there are 2,700. It is not just Amnesty International that is calling for a right to food bill, the head of the current UK government has also said he wants change: 
“As a country, we should be able to deliver a right to food… It’s not discretionary, is it? It’s essential and therefore everybody should have it,” Andy Burnham told Henry Dimbleby in an interview a few years ago. 
The numbers are stark: over 14 million people are food insecure, this amounts to one in six households and 6.5 million people who have turned to charitable food providers to feed themselves, according to the Trussell Trust. While healthy food such as fruit and veg, is more than twice as expensive as unhealthy options – it’s why things need to change.
“Food security by definition means access to nutritious food, not just any calories. Nourishment matters and it must support a healthy life, which ultra-processed food and intensively produced food is increasingly found not to do,” explains Dolly van Tulleken, visiting researcher at Cambridge University’s MRC Epidemiology Unit. 
It is why the Right To Food Commission, led by Labour MP Ian Byrne, is pushing for a law that legally enshrines peoples’ access to adequate, healthy food making the government accountable for its delivery. A rights base approach would mean that those in Westminster would not be able to leave food and farming to the vagaries of the open market. 

Read the full feature on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.

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Wicked Leeks is published by Riverford Organic Farmers.

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Riverford grows and sells organic food through its award-winning veg boxes, delivering across the country to a loyal band of customers who share a passion for good food, good farming and good business.

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