Growers Conference 2025: Rooted in Responsibility
Last week we held our Annual Growers Conference ‘Rooted in Responsibility’ at Sandburn Hall, which was focused on sustainability and health and safety on farm.
Polly Megginson, our processing supply chain manager, kicked off the morning with an update on this year’s research and development projects. We have a wide range of research projects this year and while they are predominantly driven by PepsiCo, they are across our total processing customer base. Within our trials site we have several exciting trials on the go, these include PepsiCo’s Local Variety Area trials, TRV variety trial and our own ongoing variety trials programme. As well as this we are monitoring a number of carbon reduction initiatives such as cover cropping, various fertilisers and HVO fuel trials. Additionally, we are excited to have one of the Potato-LITE growers within the processing grower group, which can be seen in action at the Potato-LITE open day on 7th July.
It was great to have Becky Willson from Farm Carbon Toolkit to chat with growers about the importance of measuring the carbon footprint of our processing supply chain. As we continue to monitor this, understanding the how, what and why we are doing so helps us towards our goal of long-term sustainability.
With Aldi committing to the Leaf Marque certification scheme, Dan Stevenson joined us to discuss the principles behind the Leaf scheme and the work they are doing on promoting environmental and commercially sustainable farming practices, which is an increasing priority in discussions around the future of farming.
Chair of The Farm Safety Foundation, James Chapman delivered a powerful reminder of the importance of Health & Safety on farm. After suffering a life-changing accident at the beginning of his career, since then he has been a strong advocate for farm safety. Farm safety can easily be overlooked, particularly during busy points in the season, but it’s critical we raise awareness and do what we can to make farming a much safer industry.
Thanks to all who attended and spoke, plenty to think about as the season progresses!