Agroecological Growing Pilot Set to Test Commercial Viability
Farmers have started work on three new plots near Newtown to test whether Powys land can be used to grow fruit and vegetables agroecologically on a commercial scale.
Between them they are working 36 acres of Powys County Council-owned land in Sarn. It will be used to supply produce to local markets, schools in Wales and possibly in future nearby cities such as Birmingham.
The successful applicants, who all come from Powys or the nearby border areas, were selected based on their business plans and former growing experience.
The farmers will work collaboratively to provide a local veg box scheme, as well as developing individual enterprises. Plans include selling organic vegetables to wholesalers and salad crops to local cafés and restaurants, supplying seeds to the Wales Seed Hub, selling vegetable, herb and tree seedlings, along with fruit and eggs, offering beehive building and food preparation courses, and selling kimchis, chutneys and other prepared foods at local markets. Councillor Jeremy Brignell-Thorp (third right), Powys County Council's Cabinet Assistant for the Climate Emergency, visits the shared tool store and packing shed at Sarn.
The farmers also plan to incorporate agroforestry and a small number of livestock, along with woodchip and biochar production, to increase soil health and fertility, manage pests and create a more closed-loop system, with little or no need for external inputs such as compost and fertilisers.
The project is being delivered by the Future Farms Partnership which includes Powys and Carmarthenshire County Councils, Our Food 1200 and Social Farms & Gardens.
The site includes three temporary homes, which received planning permission under new guidance issued last year by Powys County Council. The guidance supports the installation of temporary dwellings as part of small-scale horticultural enterprises.
'The work at Sarn is a pilot, that we hope can be replicated across the county on land owned by the council and by private individuals, as part of a much bigger programme,' said Councillor Jake Berriman, Leader of Powys County Council. 'We want to see more of the fruit and vegetables we eat grown here in Powys, so we can cut our food miles, improve our food security and with it create more resilient farming communities and more jobs.
'We are already great at livestock and dairy farming in Powys, but we could also become great at growing vegetables and grains here too.' The new farmers who are working the land at Sarn, over three plots, as part of the project.
Funding has been provided by the Welsh Government (£270,000) through its Asset Collaboration Programme, the UK Government (£341,000) through its Shared Prosperity Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund (£20,000) through its Local Places for Nature Capital Fund.
Our Food 1200 director Duncan Fisher said:
'Agroecological horticulture produces a substantial amount of food on a relatively small amount of land. But until now, the big barrier has been the lack of housing for the farmers, who need to be onsite full time. With the council's new planning guidance in place, the next stage in Powys is to scale this up, with more land and more housing, to open up many more opportunities for talented new entrants to farming.'
Social Farms & Gardens Joint Wales Manager, Alison Sheffield added:
'As an organisation that's been supporting communities to farm, garden and grow together for over 40 years, it's been exciting for us to take a lead role in this pilot. We know we need more veg grown in our country to meet our nutritional needs and opening up more land for opportunities for local people is essential to help us on this journey.'
The new farmers are being supported by Cultivate, Pathways to Farming, Mentera, Lantra and Farming Connect.
The members of the Future Farms Partnership are Social Farms & Gardens, Our Food 1200, Shared Assets, Landworkers' Alliance, Cultivate, Nature Friendly Farming Network, Lantra, Black Mountains College, Ecological Land Cooperative, Eco Dyfi and Gwlad Consortium.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
Jaguar Land Rover boss behind ‘woke' pink rebrand to QUIT after campaign saw carmaker universally panned
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE JAGUAR Land Rover boss behind the iconic car brand's "woke" rebrand is set to quit. Adrian Mardell, 64, who faced heavy backlash over the "Barbie" pink marketing campaign, will stand down from his post at the end of the year. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 6 Adrian Mardell has announced he will step down later this year Credit: Getty 6 Jaguar unveiled the bizarre Type 00 concept car - a large, pink grand tourer Credit: PA 6 It also rebranded the badge and logo - ditching the iconic big cat for the word Jaguar Abandoning Jaguar's traditional look, the glossy ad centred around bright colours and catwalk models and failed to feature any cars. It flashed up with a number of slogans, including "live vivid", "delete ordinary" and "copy nothing". And soon after, Jaguar unveiled the bizarre Type 00 concept car - a large, pink grand tourer - as well as a much-maligned new logo and badge. It ditched the iconic big cat badge in favour of the word Jaguar, with each golden letter in lower case - apart from G and U. Now, it has been confirmed that Mardell will leave in December after 35 years at the firm. A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman told The Times: "Adrian Mardell has expressed his desire to retire from JLR after three years as CEO and 35 years with the company. "His successor will be announced in due course.' Mardell predominantly worked in financial roles at JLR and was eventually promoted to CEO after Thierry Bolloré resigned in 2022. Months after the controversial ad, the British manufacturer announced it was axing up to 500 jobs, including managerial positions. As well as slashing 1.5 per cent of its workforce, the Tata-owned brand also reportedly launched a review of its advertising teams. Mardell faced severe criticism from famous names and fans alike following the rebrand. The likes of Nigel Farage and even Elon Musk led critics, with Farage describing it as "woke". Jaguar shares 'intriguing' image as they tease motor fans to 'stay tuned to find out' about re-brand, Jaguar The Reform UK leader warned the automaker risked "going bust" due to its new design choice. Musk turned the knife on X, simply asking Jaguar 'Do you sell cars?' Writing for The Sun last year, Julia Hartley-Brewer slammed it as another example of 'a bid to shove 'progressive' and 'woke' ideology down our throats'. She said the ad itself looked like a 'miserable box of Quality Street who've accidentally wandered on to the set of the Hunger Games'. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) chief creative officer Gerry McGovern hailed the re-branding as "imaginative, bold and artistic". However the new logo raised some eyebrows and garnered mixed opinions online. "The brand won't last past 2030. The logo looks like it was designed by kids," penned one user.. Another doubter who was "mortally offended" said it was "really weird", while a third dubbed it "horrific". "Did the work experience kid make this? It's horrific. Please tear it up and start again," they said. Earlier this month it was revealed that Jaguar sales in Europe have plunged 97.5 per cent. The luxury British automaker registered just 49 vehicles in Europe in April, compared with 1,961 vehicles in the same month last year. Meanwhile, Jaguar sales between January and April plummeted 75.1 per cent, with just 2,665 cars sold across the continent. Globally, Jaguar sold just 26,862 vehicles for the 2024/25 financial year - an 85 per cent drop compared to 2018. Jaguar has insisted the rebrand has "nothing to do" with its mammoth fall in sales. The Coventry-based car manufacturer, which also has sites in Solihull and Wolverhampton, paused shipments to the US in April after President Trump's administration introduced new tariff plans. Last year, executives made the call to discontinue their flagship petrol motors, including the XE, XF and F-Type, as well as E-Pace and I-Pace EVs. Indeed, only the F-Pace will continue into 2026 - although it's been pulled from the UK market along with the rest of the aforementioned models. It then plans to fully relaunch next year as an all-electric brand, selling high-end, zero-emissions cars complete with its redesigned logo. 6 Mardell is set to step down in December Credit: JLR 6 The British luxury manufacturer's advert didn't feature any cars
Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
Software startup Observe raises $156 million in Sutter Hill-led fundraise
July 30 (Reuters) - Observe, whose tools help detect and resolve issues in app systems, said it has raised $156 million in a funding round led by private equity firm Sutter Hill Ventures as demand rises for software that helps businesses manage a growing deluge of data. The San Mateo, California-based startup has pitched itself as a one-stop alternative to data monitoring and analytics tools from Datadog (DDOG.O), opens new tab and Cisco-owned Splunk, aiming to simplify how businesses detect failures in complex systems. The Series C round was joined by existing investors Madrona Ventures, Alumni Ventures as well as the venture capital arms of cloud company Snowflake and U.S. bank Capital One, Observe said on Wednesday, declining to share its valuation Observe said it plans to use the funds to accelerate product development and expand its North American presence, including hiring more sales staff to grow its nearly 200-strong team. It stores all customer data in a single, central "lake" built on Snowflake and offers a lower-cost alternative to larger rivals, a strategy that has helped it attract about 100 clients, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia ( opens new tab. "We've deliberately, I'd say over the last 18 months, moved our go-to-market away from the smaller organizations. So, we've been focused on companies operating at scale," CEO Jeremy Burton said in an interview. "Capital One is our biggest customer. But Commonwealth Bank actually is very close." Observe has tripled its revenue over the past year and has a 93% gross retention and 180% net revenue retention, the company said, in signs of customer loyalty in a market where clients are chasing lower costs. The startup, which raised $115 million in a Series B round, opens new tab last year, is using artificial intelligence to power an assistant that helps users query data in plain English and diagnose issues without writing complex code.
Times
3 days ago
- Times
Starbucks sales decline but revenue beats expectations
Starbucks has reported its sixth straight quarter of same-store sales declines as the company implements a turnaround strategy but cheered investors with better than expected quarterly revenue. The world's largest coffee chain, which was founded as a single store in 1971 in Seattle's historical Pike Place Market, said that group net revenues in the three months to June 29 rose by 4 per cent to $9.5 billion against forecasts of $9.31 billion. The shares rose $4.30, or 4.6 per cent, to $97.25 in after-hours trading in New York after the earnings report, up almost 24 per cent in the past year but just 1.9 per cent since the start of the year. Starbucks also reported that overall same-store sales declined by 2 per cent for the quarter against expectations of a 1.2 per cent dip. Net income fell 47 per cent to $558 million in the period. However, in China, the company's second-largest market, same-store sales grew by 2 per cent for the three months. Brian Niccol, chief executive, has pushed for a simplified menu, freshly baked food items, cups with handwritten messages and quicker service as he tries to drive a brand reset since taking charge last August. • New Starbucks boss: We are inconsistent and customers wait too long He has also pledged to increase investments in staffing in all 10,000-plus Starbucks-owned US stores by the end of the summer. The company has a stock market value of $106 billion with 32,000 stores in 80 countries. 'We've fixed a lot and done the hard work on the hard things to build a strong operating foundation, and based on my experience of turnarounds, we are ahead of schedule,' Niccol said. 'We are making tangible progress in our 'Back to Starbucks' strategy.' Customer visits to the coffee chain operator were down by an average 0.1 per cent between April to June, according to the research firm. That was better than a 0.9 per cent drop in the previous three months, suggesting that Niccol's 'Back to Starbucks' initiative was starting to have an effect. Starbucks said it was confident that new products coming next year, including a cold foam protein drink, coconut water-based beverages and improved baked goods, would help turn around lagging US sales.
