Recently, I've visited a very large farming business in Hampshire and a horticultural technology event at Stoneleigh. Two very different places, but both were remarkably positive, both in their outlook for the industry and in their ability to plan and make new investments.
The farming business operates a gas-to-grid AD plant and feeds this monster with a varied mix of forage crops from a sizeable fleet of foragers and an equally impressive fleet of walking-floor HGVs to bring the feedstock in and take the soil-conditioning compost out. The business is highly professional, with numerous members of staff and plenty of investment in machinery, but also in local community projects.
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The horticultural event, although very different, was equally positive, with some interesting technology, including several autonomous machines for product production and nursery logistics, alongside some innovations with UV lighting to improve growth and reduce viral and bacterial diseases in plants and composts.
The takeaway from both is that these are two industries which are making money and have an outlook to invest. The value is in growing crops, but not growing calories. Grow energy, grow ornamental plants, grow trees and shrubs, but grow food for humans and animals, and the margins don't really stack up.
The farming minsters of the G7 met this week to discuss food security and recognised that fertiliser use and supply, plus the ability to protect soils, are key to ensuring we can feed ourselves amid climatic and political volatility. Encouragingly, they perhaps also recognised that growing food needs to actually pay the producer if land use is to be focused on producing food, not energy and visually appealing plants.
