Nature friendly farmers across the UK are urging the public to buy local when they can, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond. A sustainable food supply chain in the UK has never been more crucial, particularly to help farmers provide healthy and sustainable food, and to protect wildlife and the environment.
To highlight the importance of sustainable food during a pandemic, the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) is launching a new report, showcasing the extraordinary things that farmers are doing to help their local communities.
From providing veg boxes direct to vulnerable people in the community, to donating their land for community growing and picking, NFFN farmers from all over the country have been sharing their stories of how they’re supporting local communities:
David Walston, an arable farmer in Cambridgeshire, England, has set up CoVeg to provide space on his farm for the local community to grow and source vegetables which otherwise may not be available.
Jock Gibson, a livestock farmer in Scotland, has partnered up with local businesses to launch a new national delivery service so that vulnerable people don’t need to wait weeks to receive their supermarket orders.
Polly Davies, a mixed farmer in Glamorgan, Wales, has nearly doubled her delivery service for nearby villages, prioritising NHS staff and picking up medicines and other essentials for customers self-isolating.
Charlie Cole, a goat kid farmer in Northern Ireland, has completely shifted his business model, which used to depend on food markets and a café, to provide a click and collect service for the local community.
Many farm businesses have been forced to adapt overnight to deal with sudden disruptions and increasing demand from local communities. On top of those challenges, farmers are concerned that future trade deals could soon undercut the high standards set up UK farmers.
The farmer-led Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) supports over 1,000 farmers across the UK that are working around the clock to produce nutritious food while delivering benefits for the environment and reversing wildlife decline.
Martin Lines, Chair, Nature Friendly Farming Network commented: “The sight of empty supermarket shelves and fears of labour shortages show how much farmers need consumer support. The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates how intrinsically connected farmers are to local economies and the environment. When people buy produce straight from a local and sustainable farmer, they’re also protecting their community and wildlife.”
The network is committed to demonstrating to the wider public what farmers can do for wildlife whilst still delivering plentiful produce. To help protect the sustainable food supply chain for the rest of COVID-19 crisis, farmers from the NFFN have shared the five things the public can do to support them.
TOP 5 WAYS TO SUPPORT BRITISH FARMERS DURING COVID-19
- Shop local and sustainable. Buy fresh, seasonal and sustainable produce from your local online farm shop or market. Find farmers across the UK delivering locally here.
- Work or volunteer on a farm. The UK is facing a potential shortage of 80,000 workers due to COVID-19. If you have the time, find your local farms to help harvest the food for the nation. Here’s a list of organisations that can direct you to the right place.
- Join the nature-friendly farming movement for free. We are stronger together. Join the NFFN for free as a public member to stay up to date with how you can support nature-friendly farmers producing food for the nation.
- Try not to waste. Over 1/3 of food around the world is thrown away. It’s important not to stockpile food that will go to waste. Make sure you plan your shopping trips carefully, buy only what you need, and use up leftovers. Here’s some top tips from Love Food, Hate Waste.
- Celebrate the local farmers doing extraordinary things to produce the food on your plates while protecting nature. When you receive food from a local producer, share your food stories and celebrate it on social media with #NatureFriendlyFood.
Charlie Cole, from Broughgammon Farm, Northern Ireland commented: “Localised supply chains are far more robust and resilient than those of the supermarket that involve importing food from abroad. We should use this opportunity to seek out small, local independent businesses and give them the support they need to survive. A localised economy benefits all, not just the retailer.”
The NFFN welcomes the public money for public goods approach in the Agriculture Bill, with a more sustainable balance between nature and food production. The shift towards a nature friendly approach is not just good for wildlife but is key to the long-term survival of farming, delivering broader benefits to the public.
Martin Lines, Chair, Nature Friendly Farming Network, added: “Productivity and environmental goals are not mutually exclusive but go hand in hand. We need more support from the marketplace and from government to create resilient and local supply chains that guarantee long-term food availability.”
Sulky Burel has re-started production of its fertiliser spreaders and seed drills at its French factories, after a three-week shutdown due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The restart will ensure current and new orders can be fulfilled. Modifications have been made throughout the sites to factory workstations, personnel movements, catering areas, changing rooms, plus the provision of personal protective equipment and cleaning products to enable staff to go back to work safely.
Rob Thurkettle, Managing Director of Sulky UK says: “Most of the orders for new machines were delivered before the factory shutdown and we anticipate the lead-time for delivery of new machines to return to normal in the near future.”
There has been no interruption to parts supply to UK farmers during the busy spring season, and the UK team continue to be able to fulfil parts requests. Since the factory shutdown on 17th March Sulky’s parts department in France has processed 1,200 orders globally, with 95% of parts sent the same day since couriers continued to be operational.
“Due to the UK Government’s advice to restrict unnecessary travel and work from home where possible, we are unable to provide face-to-face assistance to customers as we normally would, but we have found that most issues can be handled remotely over the phone or by email,” says Rob.
“We would like to thank our dealers for their support during this time and our colleagues in France who have worked hard to modify operations to enable us to get back to production.”
A new industry checklist has been produced to ensure that shearers, wool handlers and farmers in the UK work in partnership to keep everyone operating at safe distances, with practical measures being put in place to allow shearing to continue whilst protecting everyone’s safety.
It will not be business as usual this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and everyone must be extra vigilant to keep safe, whilst ensuring that animal welfare is protected.
‘It will inevitably be a slower, more difficult shearing season this year,’ commented Jill Hewitt, NAAC Chief Executive, ‘but risks must not be taken, and co-operation, collaboration and patience will be vital. We are likely to have a shortage of shearers and careful planning will be essential to make certain that, when shearers are on-farm, the process of handling sheep and shearing is efficient and that everyone works together to make the process run as smoothly as possible, keeping everyone protected, whilst maintaining high standards of animal welfare.’
Numbers of overseas shearers are expected to be very low and the industry is asking UK shearers to get involved in this national effort to get the UK flock shorn and protect animal welfare. Industry organisations, in partnership, are encouraging farmers to get in touch with their usual contractor to organise their shearing but to be prepared that the season may be longer than in a ‘normal’ year.
The new Checklist can be viewed here.
Appeals for urgent government action to save the dairy industry have been backed by the entire supply chain, including UK farming unions, RABDF, Dairy UK and the Provision Trade Federation.
The group has written to the Defra Secretary of State George Eustice to reiterate its support for the proposals put forward by the NFU to protect dairy farm businesses from irreversible damage:
- A targeted grant scheme for affected farmers that is similar to the Retail and Hospitality Grant Scheme;
- A fully funded, government run voluntary national production reduction scheme; which effectively furloughs dairy cows;
- Engagement with the EU Commission to introduce market support measures, such as Private Storage Aid.
In the letter, they write: “The situation is continuing to escalate rapidly with serious financial consequences for many individual businesses. There are farmers unable to pay their feed companies and having to sell cows. There are dairy companies that, having lost all of their key markets, still have to deal with the milk and find a home for it in an oversupplied marketplace.
“These may have been isolated impacts to start with, but we know that already around a quarter of the dairy industry has been affected within just a matter of weeks.
“It is important to reiterate that only a matter of weeks ago, all of this milk had a good home, and hopefully in a few months’ time, those markets will return. The British dairy sector wants to be there to meet that demand, so it is crucial that the industry is not irreversibly damaged by this crisis.
“We need action now, as well as a more considered response for the medium and longer-term measures. We cannot over-emphasise the urgency of the current situation. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures, as government is already demonstrating elsewhere. We believe now is the time to do all we can to ensure the long-term sustainability of the UK dairy sector.”
Scotland’s Rural College has been donating supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS, care homes and charities across the country.
PPE has been collected from the SRUC teams based at the Oatridge, Barony and Edinburgh campuses, Easter Howgate farm, the Roslin Institute at the Bush Estate and Inverness. The donations include thousands of pairs of latex gloves and hundreds of pairs of surgical gloves and shoe covers, as well as aprons, face masks and hand sanitiser.
Scott Mitchell, a technician from the engineering team at Oatridge, co-ordinated a campus-wide collection with colleagues from the Animal Care and Horticulture and Landscaping departments. The supplies were dropped off at three local care homes in Broxburn, Uphall and Linlithgow.
Scott said: “As we’ve all seen, care homes are being hit particularly hard by this awful virus. We had all this PPE sitting around and we have no use for it just now, so I felt we could donate it and try to make a difference.”
A car full of PPE collected by colleagues at SRUC’s Edinburgh campus was picked up by Ann Charles, a healthcare assistant from Marie Curie, which supports families living with a terminal illness.
She said: “Marie Curie is experiencing the same issues with PPE as our partners in the NHS and community care. We can only relieve pressure on the NHS by caring for dying people, with and without coronavirus, at home and in our hospices if we have the right PPE equipment available. We’d like to say a huge thank you to SRUC for this generous donation.”
Meanwhile colleagues at the Barony campus have donated oxygen, sterile gowns and gloves, face masks, caps, shoe covers, aprons and examination gloves to the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway, and Laura Nicoll, a senior research technician at SRUC’s Easter Howgate beef and sheep research centre, donated face masks to a nursing home in Peebles.
She said: “We had two boxes of face masks that we couldn’t use as they weren’t ones staff had been fitted for, so they were obsolete. I have a friend who is a paramedic who had been accepting offers of face masks, but they had just received their official PPE, so asked if we could send them to the care home.”
In the north of Scotland, the team from the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) has returned sealed, sterile medical-grade PPE sourced from medical suppliers, including disposable gowns and boxes of gloves, to the NHS. Team leader Andrew Brownlow said: “We had full arm cover, neck-to-knee disposable gowns which offer a higher level of protection than your standard apron. We decided to pass these on to people who seemed to need them a lot more than we did in the current circumstances.”
At the request of a large number of exhibitors and organisations from the agricultural machinery industry whose production and distribution activities have been hit hard by today’s public health and economic crisis, the organisers of SIMA have decided to hold the next edition of the show during its historical dates in February 2021 (from Sunday 21st to Thursday 25th February 2021).
This exceptional postponement does not call into question the new long-term ambitions of the show, and more specifically its date positioning in the autumn of even number years. Therefore, in 2022, SIMA will be held as initially planned in November (from Sunday 6th to Thursday 10th November 2022).
MAINTAINING THE HISTORICAL DATES TO SUPPORT THE SECTOR’S STAKEHOLDERS
In view of the current environment and despite the healthy state of stand space sales recorded to date for the new SIMA, many of SIMA’s exhibitors and partners have requested that the show maintain its historical dates for the next event. This decision comes in response to the expectations voiced and in support of all the actors of the farming world who are today having to deal with an upheaval in their production and distribution cycles. In February 2021, SIMA will provide a major opportunity for the sector to regroup and gather together all of its members so as to rekindle the economic activity of the industry.
UNCHANGED POSITIONING AND AMBITIONS
SIMA nevertheless continues to display the same ambitions. Its watchword is still that of ‘expertise’, with enhanced content and an even sharper focus on innovation from across the farming world in its widest international dimension.
This new edition will have ‘Tech’ at its very core, with a hub christened ‘SIMA TECH’ comprising:
– A shared zone including a central area devoted to talks, workshops and networking, a start-up village and an agricultural robot village by FIRA,
– An exhibition zone curating the exhibition’s comprehensive New Technology offering: firms dealing in decision support software, measurement and data collection devices, telematics, farm drones, electronic weather stations and everything to do with onboard electronics.
A programme of talks, workshops and meetings will address four major subjects faced by farmers today: Reducing plant protection products: the health of plants and people; The carbon footprint of crop and livestock farming; More comfortable working conditions, task simplification and workplace safety; Assessment and control of economic and environmental performance.
Moreover, training and employment will be more than ever under the spotlight to help and support fresh talent. A new area, ‘SIMA TALENT’, will be set up in the middle of the show to supply information on the training and education opportunities offered by the sector. Several special features will be laid on aimed at young people with the common theme of ‘Meet our talent’: visitor trails, a job dating forum, etc. Finally, ten video interviews with students or graduates who have since become professionals or training consultants, published before the show, will also aim to strike a chord with young people in search of education opportunities.
REDESIGNED SIMA INNOVATION AWARDS
As an internationally acclaimed competition, the SIMA Innovation Awards have, since 1931, paid tribute to the most innovative products, technologies and services presented by SIMA’s exhibitors. Each successive roll of honour reveals underlying trends in how farming machinery is developing, the concerns of users and the responses offered to them by manufacturers and solution suppliers. As a logical consequence of the new positioning of the show, the SIMA Innovation Awards also feature several new developments (the announcement of nominees at the Preview, winners announced at the show, a new judging chairman, a new judging panel and new technology advisers, etc.).
JCB and a team of volunteer employees have set up mini production lines to come to the aid of the nation’s NHS heroes in need of personal protective equipment.
Principal Electronics Engineer and father-of-two James Morley – who is normally based at JCB’s World HQ in Rocester – has converted the garage at his Derbyshire home to produce vital supplies. And inspired by his efforts, JCB has re-opened its Innovation Centre at the World HQ so colleagues and Tooling and Moulding Engineers Joe Mumby, 22, and Joe Bagley, 25, of Ashby de-la-Zouch can also volunteer and have free use of the company’s 3D rapid prototype machines to help produce medical grade visors for NHS staff.
The World HQ and JCB’s other UK manufacturing plants fell silent last month as a result of the disruption caused by the Coronavirus and the vast majority of employees furloughed. For Joe Mumby, of Hilton, Derbyshire, volunteering to produce the vital NHS kit has also taken on a poignant significance as he and his family come to terms with the death of his father’s cousin from Coronavirus in the past few days.
Joe said: “Helping with the production of visors is the least I could do as this is a very testing time for everyone, including my own family. It’s fantastic that JCB has given us the opportunity to give something back to those who are the front line of the virus in what must be a very scary time for them.”
So far, the volunteer production line set up at JCB has produced 50 visors for distribution to surgeries in the Rocester and Uttoxeter area with the help of material donated by the JCB Academy.
With the visor material now exhausted, Joe and Joe are concentrating their efforts on producing hundreds of head bands required for the visors before despatching them to a Warwickshire company for final assembly.
Meanwhile James Morley, 43, who was the original inspiration for the project, has transformed his rapid prototyping machine in the garage of his home in Belper, near Derby from making toys for children Alice, eight and Joshua, five, to producing NHS kit.
Having made 20 visors, he is now diversifying his domestic production line to make components, which convert snorkelling masks for use with hospital ventilators. He is also rapid prototyping so-called ‘superhero nurse’ headbands which make face masks more comfortable for medical staff to wear as they fit on the back of the head rather than on to the back of ears.
James says he has been touched by the generosity of people during his voluntary work – including the donation of half a kilometre of plastic for his project from one well-wisher.
He said: “While browsing social media on the state of the Covid-19 situation, I was aware that there was a huge shortage of medical grade personal protective equipment for our NHS and other healthcare communities around the UK. It made me dust off my 3D printer and help contribute to the fight against Covid-19 and support our heroic NHS.
“I am glad I can help out and make use of my printer during this national crisis and keep myself active with volunteers during the furlough period. It is amazing what support there is out there and how much people would like to help.”
JCB Chief Innovation Officer Tim Burnhope said: “JCB is delighted to be able to play a role in helping provide the fantastic NHS with protective equipment. The volunteer employees who are part of this amazing effort are also to be commended for stepping up at this time of national crisis.”
3D printers take Computer Aided Design data and build it into a 3D object using very fine layers of melted plastic. The plastic is heated up to around 210°C and then extruded on to a flat metal plate, that is also heated up to around 60°C. Over the next few hours, the printer will finish the object before it is simply peeled off the flat plate and used.
Agco brand Massey Ferguson is using 3D printing technology at its facility in Beauvais, France, to produce and donate full face shields to its local medical staff, who are working hard to save lives in the Covid-19 pandemic.
After learning that Caen’s Hospital in Normandy was very short on protective equipment, the non-profit Les Visières de l’Espoir, or ‘Hope’s Face Shields’, called on a network of French companies to create 13,000 face shields for 94 hospitals and medical centres across the country.
Agco Beauvais’s vice-president of manufacturing, Boussad Bouaouli, said: “The Massey Ferguson team is humbled by the opportunity to help.”
The company had been due to start its additive manufacturing activities, to produce small series parts for its tractors’ production, as well as its new tractors’ personalisation workshop. However, with manufacturing activities temporarily on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, Boussad said: “We see additive manufacturing as a modest contribution, yet full of meaning, from us to help stop the pandemic.”
“The strengths of additive manufacturing and 3D printing – print anything, adapt on the fly – make it an opportunity to help address shortages of parts related to face shields among other things. The face shield has a 3D printed frame and a transparent plastic shield to provide protection for workers.”
Massey Ferguson will be producing and donating the face shields to medical workers for three weeks, starting on 6th April.
Cambridge based Cheffins auctioneers is hosting a timed online auction in aid of the COVID-19 Fast Response Fund. This new fund has been set up by Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) to support Addenbrooke’s Hospital with whatever they need during the coronavirus emergency crisis.
Scheduled to start today (Friday 17th April), the timed online auction will include the chance to take a ride in ‘Nero’ – a 1915 Burrell Showman’s Traction Engine with a pub lunch at the end of the trip courtesy of owner and Cheffins steam consultant, Willem Middlemiss.
Other lots include a tour of the Aircraft Restoration Company’s headquarters at Duxford Airfield plus the chance to sit in a spitfire. The hangars are home to an incredible collection of historic aircraft that are restored, maintained and operated by the Aircraft Restoration Company. Duxford is a live airfield and the hangars are full of engineers working. The Aircraft Restoration Company has provided planes and pilots for films such as the forthcoming James Bond move No Time to Die and academy-award winning film Dunkirk.
Other lots include a state-of-the-art John Deere power mower courtesy of Ben Burgess and a flying lesson from Marshalls of Cambridge. For the less machinery-minded there is the chance to have your name used as a character in the next Jeffrey Archer novel and the opportunity to bid for a tickets for England v India plus a tour of The Pavilion at Lord’s and breakfast with racehorse trainer Michael Bell in Newmarket.
Martin Millard, Director at Cheffins, says: “Cheffins wants to do something positive to support our local hospital and NHS staff here in Cambridge. The coronavirus does not discriminate and we want to thank all the doctors, nurses, administrative staff and key workers who are working with this pandemic on a daily basis with such incredible fortitude. ACT has produced a list of items and associated costs of what is required to help fight the coronavirus pandemic (copy attached). Frankly it makes terrifying reading but this is what our local NHS staff are facing right now and the stark reality of the cost of saving lives. We hope this online auction will go some way to raising these much needed funds for our local front-line heroes.
“We would also like to thank everyone who has donated lots for this online auction, we could not have done this without their help, generosity and expediency which has enabled us to pull this together in a very short space of time.”
The auction is live online from today (Friday 17th April) and will be online for one week, closing on Friday 24th April at 7pm. Winners will be notified of their successful bids on Monday 27th April. Details will be available on Cheffins’ website – www.cheffins.co.uk/fine-art, and if you are interested in bidding for any of the lots, you will be able to register and bid online from next Friday.
The usual Buyer’s Premium fee of 22.5% plus VAT (27%) will be waived for this online auction as will the standard 3% surcharge that is usually applied to online bids. All proceeds will go directly to the COVID-19 Fast Response Fund.
Looking for ways to diversify? We spoke to one company that provides sustainable cabins, making use of existing farmland to generate extra revenue, while a rural specialist provides top tips on planning permission.
Sustainable cabin company Endeavour Journeys Ltd supplies portable, high-end holiday lets to farmers who are looking for ways to get the most out of their land. Cabins are created from repurposed shipping containers, with cladding to the exterior and live roofs in order to help blend them into their surroundings. They are typically 20 x 8ft, or 40 x 8ft and need to be placed into fields where they can sit harmoniously with the existing use of land – whether that be arable or animal farming – to give customers a unique experience.
Endeavour Journeys says it works with farmers to ensure the cabins do not intrude into the operation, but provide an alternative income stream as part of the farm’s diversification plans. The company does not charge upfront for the cabin, but instead seeks a share of revenue model based on cabin occupancy with the farmer.
Rural planning specialist Lindsey Wright, of Arcadia Planning and Development, says diversification can be a very positive transition, when approached with the right research and planning, providing a multifaceted business to weather the storms. Making use of existing land to supply high-end holiday lets is an exciting new opportunity for landowners and farmers who want to broaden their business portfolio and support farm income, but there are some restrictions on where cabins can be placed.
Planning guidance and attitudes can vary across the country, with policy open to interpretation and decisions influenced by local issues.
