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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

Sustainability Sustainable Living with Zac Water
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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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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?

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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

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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.

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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?

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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

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

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

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

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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

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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

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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

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

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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?

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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

"Oh,” they say, “I thought it was bird food.”’ At "Oh,” they say, “I thought it was bird food.”’ At Dev Biswal’s Canterbury restaurant The Cook’s Tale, the introduction of a certain ingredient has had diners either confused or pleasantly surprised, writes @hughlt 

Typically grown in tropical climates and poor quality soils, millet is a small-seed grass not unlike couscous in appearance by the time it reaches your plate. Biswal is slowly, tentatively bringing it onto his menus and, while his guests aren’t wrong (millet is currently almost exclusively grown in the UK as bird seed), the grain is more flavoursome, and arguably just as versatile, than the rice Biswal is hoping it’ll eventually replace.

“I come from Odisha in the eastern part of India,” he says, referencing where millet was the grain du jour long before wheat or rice. “There, rice fields are being switched for millet fields because of the health benefits people are seeing.” Millet being much lower on the glycemic index than rice and harbouring higher levels of protein and fibre is one thing, but interventions from the Government of India (such as rebranding millet as a ‘wealth grain’) might say more about why millet is taking off.

Back in Canterbury, and with help from Innovate UK and Defra, Biswal and local regenerative farmer, Emma Loder-Symonds, are part of the two-year ‘Millit Project’, which is trialing millet as a sustainable carbohydrate to rival rice – the high-emission and notoriously thirsty (5,000 litres of water per one kilo of rice) crop that it is. “We’ve always grown millet here,” says Loder-Symonds, who co-owns Nonington Farms. “but we’ve never harvested it before.” That’s because millet’s principally employed in a farmer’s rotation as a nature-friendly break crop, allowing the land to recover nutrients and suppress weeds before another crop (usually wheat) is due for sowing. “That’s actually where some farmers I’ve spoken to are excited about millet, because break crops generally tend to lose money,” Emma says. “And you haven’t got much other choice, beyond rape – which is a pain to grow.”

Head to Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio to read the full feature.
Sardines were the unofficial flavour of the summer Sardines were the unofficial flavour of the summer, writes @joelhart 

We’ve gone from TikTok-generated sardine-maxxing to sardine fasts said to lower blood sugar, promote rapid fat loss, and help your skin glow. We’ve even seen the arrival of the Dirty Sartini, a partnership between premium spirit brand Mermaid Gin with TV chef, Gizzi Erskine, and cocktail specialist, Joe Brayford.

In the UK, the humble pilchard has been successfully rebranded as the PGI-protected ‘Cornish Sardine,’ helping to revitalise local fleets. As Charlotte Dawe, co-founder of Dorset cannery Sea Sisters, points out, pilchards on toast were not always an appetising prospect. “My mum used to give them to me a lot,” she says, “but they weren’t cool. You wouldn’t go into school with a stinky, fishy sandwich.” Today, conversely: “I think you would be quite cool if you went to school with a can of fish.”

The shift in perception shows up in the numbers. “We’ve never, ever been able to keep up with the demand of our product,” Dawe says, with sardines accounting for 70% of Sea Sisters’ range and sales. Sustainable tinned seafood brand Fish4Ever has also seen sales skyrocket by 140% to 250% this year across multiple lines.

Carlos Gutiérrez, Senior Buyer at Brindisa, echoes the momentum: “The tinned fish category is showing a positive uplift, with sardines and anchovies leading the way with a 14% growth year-to-date as consumers look for high-quality, premium products that offer convenience.”

Is the sardine the powerhouse that could lead to a lasting win for coastal communities? Head to Wicked Leeks (via the link in our bio) to read the full feature.
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.

About us

Wicked Leeks is published by Riverford Organic Farmers.

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