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Features

Complete lightweight: Slimmer wine bottles have saved 440k tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions since 2024

2.5bn wine bottles have been slimmed by over 100g in weight – you may not even have noticed, but as David Burrows finds, the move has been an unprecedented success

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Features

Still in the bag? Supermarkets stall on UK Plastics Pact target to reduce packaging for fresh produce by 2030

A target of just 30% of supermarket fresh produce to be sold loose may not seem overly ambitious, but David Burrows is surprised to learn that only one UK retailer has hit the mark

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Features

Worming our way to better soil with vermiculture

The role of the humble earthworm is often overlooked – to our increasing detriment, writes Nick Easen

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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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“Once-in-a-generation changes” to UK school food rules signal hope for child health, farmers & environment

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Features

Complete lightweight: Slimmer wine bottles have saved 440k tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions since 2024

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Features

Still in the bag? Supermarkets stall on UK Plastics Pact target to reduce packaging for fresh produce by 2030

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STORY OF THE WEEK

The benefits extend to children, British farmers and farmed animals, as well as the environment. It was a no-brainer but still took a decade of lobbying to get the revision over the line. Rob Percival, Head of Food Policy at the Soil Association

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Sustainable Living with Zac – How to save energy

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News from the farm: Nothing mellow in autumn’s fruitfulness

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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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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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Healthier, tastier school dinners are on the way a Healthier, tastier school dinners are on the way as UK ministers this week made a promise to offer meals with more vegetables, fruit and fibre to millions of children, writes David Burrows.

The Department for Education published new rules governing the food served in the nation’s schools. This is the first update to England’s School Food Standards in over a decade.

The new standards mean no more deep-fried food, as well as limits to the number of days when cakes, sweet treats and processed meats, like bacon and sausages, are available. Cheese can only be served as a main ingredient up to twice per week.
From next year, all main meals must contain one or more portions of vegetables or salad, and some fruit and vegetables must be available at all mealtimes. Snacks must be fruit, vegetables, savoury crackers and breadsticks only.

“After 25 years of campaigning, today is a brilliant day,” said chef and child health campaigner Jamie Oliver, who first put the poor quality of school dinners in the spotlight 20 years ago.

With one in three children leaving primary school overweight or obese, and tooth decay linked to high-sugar diets remaining the leading cause of hospital admissions among children aged five to nine, the case for change is clear, the government said. “These are once-in-a-generation changes that will transform school food for children across the country,” added Education Secretary, Lucy Powell.

In the new rules, a portion of pulses (which doesn’t include baked beans) will also be served within or alongside all menu options on at least one day a week. There are also changes to the availability of meat. The existing standards required that on three or more days per week the protein source needed to be meat. Under the new school standards, pulses like lentils and beans count towards this, giving schools the choice to serve more sustainable sources of protein. In fact, schools will have the option to move to 100% vegetarian meals under the new rules.

Read the full article on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.
The real workhorses of a thriving soil are worms. The real workhorses of a thriving soil are worms. As they turn over the earth, digesting organic matter, they not only provide water soluble nutrients and beneficial micro-organisms through their worm casts (small mounds, coils, or pellets of soil and organic matter pushed up to the ground surface after passing through an earthworm’s digestive tract), they also influence carbon cycling, water infiltration, greenhouse gas emissions and plant productivity. Yet they are hugely undervalued. 

This comes at a time when modern farming has decimated earthworms. According to the Earthworm Society of Britain, populations have plummeted by up to 41 per cent over the last 25 years. Worms are now rare or absent in two out of five farm fields, according to Rothamsted Research. In the same study, 42 per cent of fields had poor worm biodiversity. 

“Tillage is a primary driver of earthworm population changes,” explains Dr Jackie Stroud, Assistant Professor of Soil Science at the University of Warwick. Another significant cause of the earthworm’s demise is the persistent use of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers, which can accumulate in farm soils. 

“Applying various salts, which is how a lot of these chemicals are applied, decimates worms since they have porous and permeable skins. There are healthier populations of earthworms in many urban gardens, especially where people encourage them as they compost, than there are in many conventional farms in the UK,” states Anna de la Vega, founder of @the_urban_worm a social enterprise focused on worm farming.

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

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Wicked Leeks is published by Riverford Organic Farmers.

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