Self-confessed veg nerd, Guy Singh-Watson has over the last 30 years taken Riverford from one man and a wheelbarrow delivering homegrown organic veg to friends, to a national veg box scheme delivering to around 55,000 customers a week.
Guy is an opinionated and admired figure in the world of organic farming, who still spends more time in the fields than in the boardroom. Twice awarded BBC Radio 4 Farmer of the Year, Guy is passionate about sharing with others the organic farming and business knowledge he has accumulated over the last three decades.
His weekly veg box newsletters connect customers to the farm with refreshingly honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of producing organic food, and the occasional rant about farming, ethical and business issues he feels strongly about.
In June 2018, Guy handed over the reins of Riverford to its staff, choosing employee ownership as the model that will protect Riverford's ethical values forever and ensure the security of its employees.
I cannot promise when Riverford will be carbon neutral, but I do promise that those solutions will be transparent, well researched and only marginally influenced by the desire to be seen to be doing…
By Guy Singh-Watson - 18th November 2020
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Perhaps belatedly, we have completed an expansive update to our environmental assessment. This time, the mood among our co-owners is almost universally 'so, what are we going to do about it?'
By Guy Singh-Watson - 11th November 2020
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Devon farmers describe our mild, slow descent into winter as a 'long back end': the soil is still warm, wet and active, releasing nutrients, and there is just enough light for our crops to keep…
By Guy Singh-Watson - 4th November 2020
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Twenty years ago, frustrated by the assertion that 'organic is all very well for the rich, but it will never feed the world', I took a two-month sabbatical to Sub-Saharan Africa to see for myself.
By Guy Singh-Watson - 22nd October 2020
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My point is this: farm gate prices in the UK are so low already that reducing them further, such as through a raft of new trade deals, would give no significant benefit to society.
By Guy Singh-Watson - 15th October 2020
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I am immensely grateful to our crop programming team; with extraordinary prescience, they calmly set about increasing the volumes we had planned with existing growers.
By Guy Singh-Watson - 8th October 2020
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Applying lessons from the renewable energy sector where feed-in tariff subsidies helped increase production could help provide sustainable healthy food for all.
By Kate Carfrae - 24th November 2020
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The Oxford Real Farming Conference is open to citizens, campaigners and farmers from across the world for talks from leading voices in organic and regenerative farming.
By Jack Thompson - 24th November 2020
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Rumours abound that high welfare hens produce orange egg yolks, but that’s not necessarily true.
By Nina Pullman - 23rd November 2020
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The government’s 10-point green plan includes major investment in wind and electric vehicles but is weak on tree planting and omits food and farming altogether.
By Nina Pullman - 19th November 2020
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All the tax these smaller businesses would normally generate is being siphoned away from the economy and our communities – but we can still choose to buy local online.
By Becky Blench - 19th November 2020
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When you focus less on what you think a salad should be made of and expand your veg horizons, some very exciting things can happen on your plate.
By Becky Blench - 18th November 2020
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